Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Already in Service



Well, the blanket was done Sunday afternoon, fulled and after pictures on the master bedroom bed, pressed into quick service. Gene has had a wicked cold, started a couple days before D's surgery, so along with a recuperating Dennett, I've had a sniffling, coughing husband.

Gene usually likes to hide out with his cough and cold in the guest room, so the blanket went into immediate use . He's tucked up under that and a comforter sleeping peacefully I'm assuming, from the lack of snuffling noise. While I would have liked to get some better pictures, I am happy and delighted to have woven an item that is needed and useful.

Now to find out how well some of my small changes worked. The folds where better, not a lot of change there and it may be that having the same color warp and weft at those points made it look better.

The selvages came out much better doubled while also using the fishing line. They have a little more body and drape which is what I wanted.

I could still go a little larger in the loom for a wider blanket with more overhang on the king sized bed, but the blanket is perfect and generous on a queen size. The stripes came out better than I imagined. I like they way they appeared as I opened up the 3 layers. I still love weaving blankets and would like to get enough wool to do another 3 or 4 in the triple weave, although I would also like to do a double width coverlet in traditional overshot. I would have to double the length and sew a center seam to get king sized width. A king sized project to be sure.

In other weaving news, the pillow warp has had little progress, seems that a trip to town and the inevitable Monday house clean took up a fair amount of time. One prayer flag is done and another just getting started on this warp. Now, I need to come clean on the Julia warp. It sat and it sat. It got moved, it got dropped, it got dog noses poking in it, it got the cat sleeping ( and kneading) on top of it in its basket and it got handled badly as I closed up Murphy and made room for Julia. It was not a pretty, neat warp when it finally got beamed. In fact, I discovered that I must have been off with the fairies because I put the colors in the wrong order. Yellow starts the sequence, not green. I needed to fix that and wound a new little yellow warp, beamed it right next to the green and didn't thread the yellow portion I had done out of order. That means there is a 28 thread gap, which all in all hasn't affected the warp too much, but it was in pitiful shape to begin with and there are a lot of twisty bits as it comes over the back beam. I think the next run of prayer flags will be all white with the wefts of perle cotton and silk providing the color order. I plan to cut the two finished flags off, reassess and retie. There is a chance I might scrap it at that point and start with a fresh warp. I'll decide then.

Farm news is really weather news and boy have we had some, spring snow, wet and heavy and lots of it. They are calling for over 20 inches above 5500 feet. We've gotten so far this morning about 4 inches and it's predicted to keep piling up during the day. It's miserable stuff. The ground is still mud underneath, none of that beautiful lightness a powder brings and the resulting mud will be prodigious. While we won't see the same amounts at 4100 feet we'll still be seeing some and it will fall half way down the valley to about 3000. A slick ride for anyone who has to go to town that's for sure. It was a slippery squishy ride up with hay his morning, that's for certain.

13 comments:

Cindie said...

The blanket is wonderful!!!

No snow here, we're right on the line - raining pitchforks & shovels.

bspinner said...

Wow that's one beautiful blanket!!!! Love it!!!

bspinner said...

Forgot to mention how much I like the center and strips.

charlotte said...

The blanket is fantastic! The colors and the stripes are lovely, and the fact that you got such a large blanket by this weaving method still amazes me. Do you full in the dry tumbler?

Lynnette said...

Your blanket is really lovely, I'm so impressed by the results you achieved.

Theresa said...

Thank you, thank you! Charlotte, I wash the blanket in the heavy duty cycle ( what we use for just about everything) in warm wash, warm rinse with a mixture of Kookaburra Wool wash and reg. laundry detergent and just let it air dry. I don't put my woolens in the dryer as I prefer the light fulling to the felting feel the dryer tends to give stuff. Plus I don't have to mess with getting a nap this way.

LA said...

I am in awe of your triple weave blanket. I still haven't tried double weave!!! LOL But, I feel your pain about the prayer flag warp..sometimes things happen.

Anonymous said...

Theresa - I crown you the triple weave blanket wizzard! Great job - the colors and striping is wonderful.

Sharon said...

The blanket is simply beautiful. To think that everything reflects you, from the selection of the yarns, to the skilled weaving and finally the fulled woven cloth. And it's a forever thing. Bravo!!

DEEP END OF THE LOOM said...

The blanket is beautiful and I'm sure it's come in handy since your still getting snow!

Jennifer said...

The blanket is wonderful! I'm so proud to have been able to follow it's progress!

I'm amazed at 20 inches of snow - in April! Oh I can't get my mind around it!

Life Looms Large said...

The blanket is gorgeous! Great job!! I love the colors together and it's cool that you learned more technical tweaks to make it even more to your liking.

Sorry that your DH is sick. Hopefully the blanket will cure what ails him!

Good luck with that warp. The cat kneading part got me.....I'd be so tempted to get out the scissors. (But I've never had to do that, so it might just be big talk on my part!)

Sorry about the snow.....you wanted it in the winter, but I'm not sure this is a case of "better late than never".

Sue

Julie said...

All I can say is WOW! It is just beautiful!