Winter Wonderland

Back to winter....

My Buddy

Before leaving hospital, a volunteer from the Pacific Open Heart Assoc. Came by to drop off my new buddy...this very red heart shaped pillow.  

The pillow is used when necessary, like when coughing or sneezing, to help protect the sternum.  

So if you ever see anyone clutching one of these, they might need assistance with opening doors, reaching for stuff, maybe just a kind word.  

The good news is that this shit used to just up and steal people away, sometimes right from under our noses like my brother in 2008 and now it doesn't have to.

Don Wm Holzworth.  RIP.  Dec. 2, 1956-Feb 28, 2008

Room With A View

Checking out tomorrow. Tuesday that is. Hopefully home Wed.

***updated

Currently out of hospital, still no flight home.  Hoping Doug can deal with that soon.  He went back to the hospital to return the wheelchair and still hasn't come back!

The good news is that they encouraged me to have a shower.   That felt great! Ah, returning wanderer has returned, now to bring back some lunch.  Other good news is that I do actually have an appetite.  Again.  Feel almost guilt looking forward to food after getting the usual 'watch your weight, watch your diet' lecture but right now I can't actually bring myself to care very much.

The bad news is that weaving is pretty much going to be non existent for about three months.   That may change, but physio said to give myself at least three months for the bone to heal.

Still looking for the number of the truck that hit me....

Sihpromatum

The journey continues...

I met Savannah Grace at Circle Craft craft fair when her first book came out.  In November last year she was back with part two of what looks like might become quite a long series.  I can only say 'yay'!

Part one begins with their family journey around the world starting in Hong Kong.  Part two continues their travels in remote and far flung parts of the world as they continue to take local transportation, explore different cultures and generally learn a lot about human nature as they backpack hither and thither.

I do like a good turn of phrase nd Savannah Grace knows her way around the English language.

Knowing this surgery was coming up, I 'saved' part two for the trip.  Seemed appropriate to read about exotic travel while travelling myself, even if it was a much more mundane trip. 

Another Kind of Loom, Another Kind of Weaving

Well, I'm not sure I'll have the mental wherewithal to actually work on this any time soon but here it is.

I'm using a design from one of the books by Eeva-Liisa Kortelahti, a Finnish bobbin lace artist.  While I have done very very simple designs of my own, I can't come close to the artistry of Kortelahti.  I simply haven't done lace frequently enough to even think about trying to design something.  Not to mention my eyes aren't great and I'm having more and more difficulty seeing 'fine' threads.  So I enlarged this design and instead of using 50's thread (sewing thread) I'm using 2/20 mercerized cotton.  And still finding it hard to see.

However, I think I've got the kinks worked out - at least enough to be going on with.  Doug helped me set up a small table with a light and an old office chair, which appears to be just about the exact right height.

I've started piling clothes and personal items on the bed, including all of my pills (how did I ever come to need so many?) and a stack of books.  A friend dropped off a little gift bag with things like eye glass 'wipes', a book light, and various other small items that I'm sure will be much appreciated for the hospital stay.

Once the mail comes, hopefully bringing the rest of the bills for the month I will head to town for errands.  Then I suppose all that's left is to finalize the packing and wait for one more sleep.

Carrot #2

So now both looms have shawl warps on them.  This one is just two shawls long (about 9 meters), partly because the yarn is a highly textured silk that is very grabby, partly because I'm using up stash (yay!) and I have limited colours to work with.

The yarn is 10 epi and I'm trying to kiss it into place at 10 ppi.  Just a gentle squeeze is required and I'm hoping that weaving on this warp will be a gentle introduction back into weaving, build strength in the muscles, and encourage flexibility.  Not to mention, mental health!

I am also thinking that, seeing as how the roads hereabouts are going to be snow laden in Jan/Feb, my walking will be done in the studio, round and round and up and down the stairs as I gain strength.  Seeing the pretty warps on the looms will surely lift my spirits during the blah days of the dead of winter and give me incentive to keep going.

Katie asked about reading...yes I have a tall stack (several of them, in fact!) of books and I will list them here as I go through them.  I'm hoping to make a significant dent in my to-be-read pile and clear some of the clutter off the hearth and the guest room.

Carrot

Once again the colour isn't 'true'.  The weft is actually somewhat deeper, a sort of grey blue with purplish hints.  It looks almost silver here.

Since mobility is going to be a bit compromised for the first while, I figured I'd better get this warp actually weaving with the auto cloth advance set and ready to go.  Starting with the 2/10 Tencel at 28 ppi.  Which is very likely a mistake because when I went through my stash of 2/10 Tencel, I really don't have much left.  This blue, some red, some black and a variety of variegated yarns that are more in the earth tones.  I ought to have begun with the Bambu 12, of which I have a plentiful supply.

However, that said, I started with this one.

I thought I'd made a sleying error.  My math tells me I ought to have had an even number of dents with four per dent and I had one dent on the left with just two ends.  So using a contrasting colour I wove the header, but could not find any dent with only 2 or 2 too many.  What's a girl to do?  Keep calm and carry on!

Now that the AVL is all set up ready to go, I am going to get the shawl warp on the Leclerc.  Today I wound that warp and tomorrow I ought to be able to beam it although I do have some errands to run in the afternoon.  Since the warp is only about 240 ends, though, it should not take too long to thread, sley and tie on.

With both looms dressed waiting for me, I'll have lots of incentive to get back to the looms as soon as I can.