Summer Sorbet Triangle Scarf

Well...I finally finished something...I have most of my looms threaded and stuff started but fatigue has taken a toll this winter.  Mostly I stayed in the kitchen, kept the cookstove going and worked on the fairy houses.  It was too cold in the living room to weave as well.  

Measuring and cutting threads for triangle weaving.

Close-up

3/4 of the way woven!

Finished...now to take it off the loom and

photograph it!  

Happy Weekend Everyone

xo

Continuing Update

Well...the catheter went fine.  I don't remember a thing.  Feeling very groggy for a day and quiet as well.  Not much appetite.  That was Monday.  Tuesday night I got the shakes woke Gary around 10:30 and we decided to go to the ER.  By the time I got there the heater in the car had stopped the shaking but I was nauseous.  So turns out I had a fever.  Also turns out that when two middle aged old people don't have their glasses on reading a thermometer is purely guesswork.  Heart enzymes elevated, white blood count normal.  Eventually (like at 5am) they decided that I did not have a heart attack, did not have an infection (though they are growing cultures still), but instead had a reaction to the invasion.  Makes sense but was something we were not prepared for.  So slept all day yesterday as well as a good night sleep last night.  I feel good.  All my arteries are good.  Just the valve is bad...soooo off to talk to a surgeon next week in Burlington, VT, though I don't think that is where we will go for surgery.  We'll see.

Here is a boring video of Magic and Hannah...Magic keeps her in line because she has very sharp claws that Hannah respects.

Thank you all for your caring.
xo

Health Update and Fairyland

All is well on the pancreatic cancer front.  Just wanted to get that out there.  But I have been having some heart issues.  Like I always feel like I'm slogging through mud.  Tired when I wake up (thought it was old age).  Can't breathe very well when I climb stairs, or walk with Hannah uphill.  So last May had an echo and again in November which showed chamber pressure changes in those 6 months and he said I needed an aortic valve replacement.  I was supposed to have a treadmill thing in November according to a cardiologist over in Burlington but I didn't because I was enjoying living in denial don't like driving over there in the winter.  So I finally called them and asked if I could have it here and they set it up.  So I showed up with my sneakers and they hooked me up and out from behind the curtain came a local cardiologist who wouldn't let me do it.  Said it was ridiculous because I already had symptoms and he didn't want me to drop dead on him (or on the treadmill) and that I needed to have a cardiac catheter to see if there is blockage which they would have to fix at the same time as the aortic valve.  Sooooo that is what is happening on Monday.

OK enough of that...Fairyland is growing!  I have been keeping warm in the kitchen and staying creatively busy!  Look!  Little houses from Walmart re-worked...I got sand and shale from a friend in Boston...acorns for roofing from a friend along with stone from a fishtank...tile from our local tile store...some wooden fairies from a fb friend...All the stone walls are moveable and the houses can be put inside or out.  AND I have the more rustic houses that I actually made and covered in bark put up in the woods but not photographed yet...Can't wait for my granddaughter to visit!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of spring

Happy Easter!

xo

Fairy House

 Didn't feel like weaving though I wound on a towel warp.  Instead I think Spring has gotten to me and I want to make a little fairy village in the woods for when Ava comes up for the first time in July.  She will be almost 4 then and I wanted to make something magical for our walks.  This was the first one and it is a little clunky...I made a simple structure with scrap wood snitched from the burn pile.  Then Sandy (who rides with me and takes care of the barn every morning) and I went up to the woods and collected stuff.  We went back up today and collected even more stuff including moss and twigs which I added to the original.

Drilling and nailing first layer...

Getting a little more interesting...

Moss and twigs added...

More detail...

More twigs and moss...

Tomorrow is rain but Thursday we will take this first one out to the woods and we'll see how long it lasts...and I will see if Hannah eats it...and whether the moss stays alive...and I will make more.  Totally absorbing

xo

Finishing up some projects...

 A wee little sample for the larger baby blanket.  A doll blanket...There are two of these and I think they will go on Etsy.

 Washed, pressed, hemmed

Another triangle scarf finished and photographed...also for Etsy.  This one is called Celtic Mist.  There are so many colors in this and yet it is softly neutral.  And soft.  Woven with a wool/silk blend with some soy silk ribbon and rayon yarn as well.

And a scarf...the warp is silk boucle and rayon.  This one is called Winter Frost.  Mostly woven with tencel and rayon with occasional silk and some of my hand-dyed stash.  Also soft...

My rainbow scarf.  The second one because the first one is sold.  Also going back on Etsy soon...

And finally my Rainbow Baby Blanket...the full size one.  All washed, dried, pressed and hemmed.  There will be three of these.  One is already spoken for and I think the second one is as well.  So the last one will go on Etsy when I finish weaving it.  They are about 39 inches by 37 inches and can also work as a table cloth...or at least a square on the table.  100% cotton and totally washable.

One more scarf on one of my small looms and I am almost ready for my two students who have been patiently waiting.  I'm thinking of threading for a runner of some sort and having them work on that before they design their own piece...

Meanwhile, all the animals are hunkered down for the winter.  Except for Hannah who adores running in the snow.  Hope everyone's mid-week is wonderful!

xo

Rainbow Baby Blankets

Just beginning to wind on the warp for three baby blankets.  My loom is 40" so that determines the width and I am hoping to end up around 37 x 37 when washed and dried.  The darkness of winter demands a rainbow of cotton color!

Beaming the warp...the color looks a little off because of the lighting in that room...

All threaded in Swedish Rosepath...This is the back of the loom.

Reed is sleyed and everything is tied on ready to weave.

View from left, right and center...One blanket woven and sold,

though it is still on the loom..

Two more to go!

Hope every one's weekend is wonderful!!

xo

6 Years Post Whipple Surgery...and Doll Blankets!

Six years...and so much life has happened.  Adam and Alicia got married when I was finishing up chemo.  Faith and I went on a train trip across the US to Whidby Island to see an amazing friend from my high school class.  My sister Meg and her girlfriend, Darlene, Noah and I drove across the country to Colorado to see two of my brothers the following year.  Noah and Alex both graduated from college.  Ava was born and is now 3 1/2.  My Mom died at almost 92.  Both boys have moved out and into their own apartments...one in Mystic, CT and the other in Brooklyn, NY.  Along the way I lost several very, very special friends including my heart horse, Dommie...and my little pancreatic support group, Chris and Cindy...my Braveheart (oncology camp) friends Jude and more recently, Rebecca.

Dommie (photograph by Melanie Kimbler)

Gary and I took a trip to Florence, Italy and another to Maui to see Adam, Alicia and Ava.  I have two new horses.  We had to put down my little 14-year-old Obie and my 19-year-old Lucy kitty this year.  I have a new puppy, Hannah.  We were adopted by an outdoor barn kitty, Sammie.

Sammie

They gave me two years after the Whipple.  That's the average.  3% make it more than 5 years.  I just remember we were so blindsided.  I was so sick.  It took a couple of years to recover.  Though recovered is a relative term.

I am happy with my life.  I am proud of the men my boys have become.  My Alex is getting married this coming summer to a girl he has know his whole life.  I am still weaving and creating and riding and playing.  My Hannah is a wonderful companion during the day and gets me out for a walk every day as well.

So.  Here's to 6 more...or 66 more!  I'll take what I can get!

Meanwhile I did a couple of samples for a baby blanket...My idea is to have big blocks about 5 inches each...9 of them and weave them square with the same colors.  These blocks are 1 1/4 inches but I thought it would give my customer an idea of what it will be like.  And now that I have taken these two off the loom I am thinking these make good doll blankets!

Plus that was fun!  Meanwhile I am finishing up a couple of scarves...maybe tomorrow I can photograph!  I truly love the new year!

xo