Happy April everyone and Happy 2021. This is just going to be a short post because I’m trying to get my groove back…so I will try to catch you up!

I haven’t really woven anything since two weeks before Christmas. I have a “dog on the loom!”. A beautiful dog, but a dog nevertheless.

Pretty, aren’t they? They are no fun to weave. I set them at 30 threads to the inch, thinking that would make them nice and cushy. They are extra large…supposed to be gifts for friends….for Christmas…last year. The Christmas that has come and gone. Ugh. The threads are so crammed up that sometimes they don’t lift, so I have these skipped threads…or maybe my tension is to blame…anyway, there are microscopic mistakes, my friends won’t care, but I do. And I’m tired of towels, because even when I finish weaving, I have to wash them, and iron them, and hem them, and iron them again….ugh. It’s work.

Then I got sidetracked because my daughter and son-In-law bought a fixer upper house, and they both have full time jobs, and I like to fixer up stuff….so I got busy with that and took a perfectly fine move-in ready house that could have been fixed up over the next five years and tore the place apart…ripped off all the trim inside, realized I was in too deep and really only capable of painting and had to call in a contractor to fix my mess.

But that’s pretty much taken care of, and they have moved and everyone is happy in their new abode and that nice young couple who got married in our backyard last summer and have been living with us for three years finally have been able to unpack their wedding presents…so everyday is like Christmas for them. They are happy, we are happy, and I miss them like crazy.

Our beautiful 17 year old Ragdoll kitty died this winter, Angel was a lap cat, extremely loud, cartoon Siamese loud, especially the last two years. Honestly, you could hear hear outside the house and down the block. Didn’t help that she was also deaf. Maybe a bit sight impaired. But very cuddly. And we have missed her, a lot.

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So We adopted a two year old calico rescue cat. She’s tiny. Very soft voice. Spent an entire year at a shelter, so she is not used to being picked or or held. She is squirmy and has claws, and does not want to be picked up and growls whenever I try to. And somehow we love her. She comes over for pets, she doesn’t curl up on our lap, but instead she curls up by our feet on the footstool and she plays wildly with all her toys. She has a big personality and she fills up these empty rooms.

Okay, back to weaving….this January I passed along my Grandmother Friedrichs loom to my cousin’s daughter Ally. This is the Cherry Norwood loom that my grandmother would have a project on for me to weave when I would visit as a child. My Aunt Phyllis sent it to me probably 20 years ago and that’s how I started weaving. I loved knowing that that loom had been made in Michigan, traveled somehow to Oregon City Oregon, and then back to Michigan and my house. I loved that that My Grandmother had woven on that loom, and I think my Aunt Gracie had also and that now I was weaving on it. And I love that another generation of our family is going to weave new things on it too. Ally is an artist and a printmaker and I can’t wait to see what she creates!

My weaving studio looked a bit empty after Nori the Norwood left, so I pulled out my Wolf Pup and put on a scarf….so I wouldn’t have to finish those damn towels on the Maccomber… but this scarf is looking pretty pedestrian. Ugh! I have SO lost my Mojo.

The yarn is a knitting yarn…with long variations…so I have this handy bobbin holder that I made and numbered.

The ball had about 400 yards. I wind the entire skein onto my bobbins one after another and place the first bobbin on the nine holder, 8, 7, 6….1. Then I use the 1 bobbin first, then 2, then 3…..9. That keeps the colors changes in order. I have a whole bunch of these handy bobbin holders that various people have made for me.

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Whenever I meet somebody who likes woodworking…usually blindsiding a friends husband, I ask if they could make me one. I have no shame. Someone should make these and market them but until then, I will continue to accost the woodworkers I bump into. Oh! And if anyone does take this idea and run with it, you probably should send me a bobbin holder as payment for the idea. See…no shame!

Anyway. I will finish this scarf, and the towels because I want to do a table runner for my dining room table. And I know exactly what I want to make and it’s so darn cool! I will make an extra to sell!

All right folks, that’s all for now, and I will try to post more often this year!