POOPED OUT!

Wow, I'm tired, I had hubby's family of 20 for dinner on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day we spent it with my family at my mom's (there were 35 of us there). I love everyone, but wow am I spent, lots of talking and catching up, lots to eat and drink, I think I was on a sugar high for 3 hours, tons of sweets (definitely not hip, tummy or butt friendly stuff). There was cooking, cleaning, hosting and mostly headache pill dispensing. But, ahhh time with loved ones to laugh, reminisce, joke, play, dance and share the joy of the season with. I just wish I could have stayed home today instead of working, but the yarn money has to come from somewhere. Oh and you know during this weekend I even squeezed in some weaving time, that baby crib blanket is off the loom and waiting for fringe or edging I haven't decided, and none to soon, my SIL just called and my niece is well "PREGNANT"!! I keep saying it, there is something in the water.

From our family to yours,

May the Lord Bless your holiday with love, joy, laughter and peace.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

Babies, Babies and more Babies

It seems that everyone at work is pregnant, four in one year is definitely a record especially since we are a company of maybe 40 employees. Our friend in South Carolina, we found out on our visit, his wife is also preggos. So needless to say I'm weaving baby blankets, crib blankets and maybe a burp cloth or two, although I don't need to rush, no one is due until early March thru late April, I do want to finish them and have them out of the way. So I have pics of the first of two baby girl crib blankets. This one was "suppose"to be a log cabin pattern, but since I can't read a draft to save my life, which really isn't any different than not being able to to read a knitting pattern LOL. didn't set up my warp correctly, so I have this instead. I like it, although it was a bear to warp. Since I learned how to warp through the Ashford book and don't own a warping board, not that I would know what to do with one if I did, it was difficult doing the one skein thing with one strand of each color. Since I'm not easily deterred by challenges this was no different, I continued warping and started weaving. On the weft I'm doing the same thing two passes of each color without breaking the yarn. It's a slow process with two shuttles but I have managed to get a good amount done.

I have since found a draft that has oodles of explanations and pictures for the log cabin weave structure and as soon as this one is done, bagged and tagged, I will set out to do the next one as intended.

Again I'm using Red Hart in Rose and Dusty Rose, this is still, yarn from the estate I inherited two years ago, and since it's for babies, wash, dry and wear is the easiest on Mommy.

Bath Mats & Recovery

My surgery went well, I feeling as good as can be expected and will be fully recovered in about 4 weeks. I like to thank all of you who prayed for me and sent me well wishes, I appreciate it. During my few days off I finished my bath mats, I can't call them rugs, cause they are so lightweight I'm going to need a boulder to keep them in place (lol). I'm going shopping tonight and plan on getting a plastic bath mat that has the suction cups on them and see if I can figure something out with that, or maybe the non slip rug backing. I tried to find the plastic spray on stuff or the Saf T Back, at the craft and home improvement centers but they don't have any. If my ideas don't work then I'll order online. What I learned from this project is that my spacing the warp threads every other heddle made the beating difficult once the fabric started to take up I used a fork to tighten my weaving, this made the process much slower. I also learned that just because the yarn has a bulky rating of 5 it doesn't mean it will have weight to it. I don't think the pile rug is going to work with my loom from this experience I know that the weaving will not be tight enough to hold the yarn in place, the last thing I want is to have pieces of yarn floating around in the guest bathroom. This project I will save in my files for when I get a floor loom.

I won an ebay auction for Rigid Heddle Weaving, Swanson, which I'm looking forward to getting, and learning from it as I have from my Hands On book, I will be starting a log cabin weave baby blanket for a co-worker that is having a baby girl, this one will be in light pink and dusty rose, I think there will be some nice contrast in the colors. I will try to warp my loom sometime this week and have pics to show.

DISHTOWELS

I washed the dishtowel and they measured 12" x 21" some shrink but not much, and since the pic before was so drab looking I took another one. As Leigh commented this is a great way to use up left over cotton yarn, and it's a useful item. I think my SIL will like her table runner and towels, come to think of it I may just make some for myself (hehe). Thank you all for the well wishes, as the old phrase goes "and this too shall pass".