Warped & Throwing

Throwing the shuttle, seeing the weft build row on row, consumes a portion of my thoughts. Early this morning as dawn eased into the room I almost crept out of bed to weave but didn’t want to disturb the soft sleeping breaths of Ed. Tying on with shoestrings, the method of Singing Weaver, Nadine Sanders, makes that portion of warping so much easier than the traditional way I was taught of using surgeons knots.

The strands of the warp that aren’t blue are wool and silk threads that I spun on my Turkish Spindle. I’m pleased how the colors show subtly through the blue chenille.

The double-trouble socks are turning out to be triple-trouble! As the foot took shape the holes of the early joins grew more glaring. I hated the idea of starting over. Then a couple nights ago when I started to knit, it appeared that I’d used the wrong needle on the last row. Whatever went wrong? Pull, rip, unravel. I read the directions, and started over, got to the foot, it looked wrong. Zip and rewind. Directions were carefully read, again. Finally, the toes were the right shape. Last night I went to my neighbor’s Bible Study and by the time I got home I was way to tired to even look at anything but my pillow. Tonight as I knitted the first couple inches of the foot, I encountered the same twisted looking, doesn’t-make-sense circular mess. Doggedly I kept knitting the next haphazardly logical(!) section and hurray, it came out right. :-) I’ve realized that is part of the nature of knitting socks on two circulars: there’s a certain point the circular needles and socks seem hopelessly wrong, spiraling out of control, but keep going and it’s fine. Hmm, I think there may be an analogy in there!

The tax date is hovering and bookwork is a demanding beast riding my shoulders. Meanwhile the slightly warmer weather means the grass needs mowing. It was pleasant to get outside yesterday afternoon and mow the front yard. The back yard will take a lot more time & effort. Wind blew rain inland today so it’ll be a few days before I can tackle that job.

The bimonthly violin lesson went well on Monday, despite the fact that one of the previous weeks I didn’t spend anytime on assigned materials since I had to concentrate on celtic music. The Bach Double Concerto is the current work. The timing is a challenge, but it’s a lot of fun and music I really enjoy. I love playing pieces, even etudes, in the key of D minor.

Ed lined the shower stall with cedar today. The fragrance is wafting through the house even now. He’s so fast and efficient at that kind of thing. He also managed to make a dozen pink ivory spindles. They’re drying in the living room next to the ebony ones he made a couple days ago.