3 Dishtowels

Rather "homemade" looking, but David says he loves them and that's what counts.

Ears...

I've always had trouble with my ears. My mother tells me that I couldn't hear at all until I was two--when they put tubes in my ears. At that time, I was so disturbed by all noises that I couldn't ride in a car with the windows even cracked and held my hands to my ears when loud people were around.

Though my hearing hasn't always been perfect, it has been within normal ranges and I can get by in most situations with a little assistance from lip reading. Most people would never know that I had some hearing loss or problems with my ears.

Until this past year, I'd been managing my ear problems with OTC allergy medications and decongestants. I could always feel an allergy attack or cold coming on and was rigorous to make sure that my congestion stayed at a minimum because I did not want an ear infection. But things have changed with the ears this year and while the deoncgesants are staving off infections I'm often dizzy...today is one such day when I'm dizzy. It's difficult to get up, turn around and drive cars...and makes me feel clumsy and worry that I'll fall and end up getting hurt.

So, I went to an ENT yesterday--a good one with a reputation for working with adults. He was shocked that I hadn't lost significant hearing in my right ear (the test confirmed that my hearing is within normal range) because he said my eustacian tube does not function at all. This was determined by a pressure test and him pumping air into my ear rather vigorously (I don't recommend this as a fun thing for most people!). He said, too, that I have a nerve disorder in my ear that is genetic and was very surprised to hear that both of my parents still had their hearing.

So, I called mom last night to get some answers. Turns out that Daddy had ear aches as a child. And that Aunt Betty and my Daddy both have serious issues flying--as do I. So, there is a link to similar issues with our ears. Papa T may have also had ear problems because he did go deaf after a bad cold, but it's not something in my memory to be able to determine if it was a similar type of problem or damage resulting from not getting the cold cleared up.

The solution first off is to get my allergies under control and maintain with rigor a congestion-free sinus cavity. I've been put on two different allergy meds and hopefully that will take care of the congestion and all my ears to clear up. He also recommends I get tubes in my ears. He said that they can be put in permanently that will allow for proper drainage and pressure maintenance--which apparently will make flying pain free. I can't even imagine, but think a minor surgery that could make flying pain free would be absolutely worth it.

Something a little more formal

It's woven out of soysilk made by Southwest Trading Company. Very drapy and soft to the touch. I hemmed this one to give it a more clean and formal look.

3 New Scarves

The scarf on the left is one I made for myself. It's warped with a beautiful yarn from Berroco called Trilogy...it's wool, metallic and something else that's really soft all held together by an invisible nylon thread. So it's shiny and really pretty and gives you these little bits of surprising colors every now and then. I wove it with Berroco's Softy in an olive green. I think it may be my favorite.

The middle scarf is green wool with a mint green mohair. Woven in a herringbone pattern. It turned out much lovelier than I thought. Jeff I hope you love it!

The scarf on the right didn't turn out nearly as nice as I thought it would. I was using up some bobbins I had wound up and wanted to do some wide horizontal stripes (that worked out) using an undulting twill pattern (really fancy name for a twill that gets stretched out)...the middle isn't very stable and kind of bunches up so that you don't see the pattern very well...still it's pleasing to look at.

Civic Duty

I'm back today from my monthly civic duty. While it isn't fun, it isn't all bad. I stayed in a nice hotel with a fabulous bath and spent about 5 hours each yesterday and the day before relaxing and reading. It was QUIET and really really nice to be alone for a while without the daily responsibilities. There's also a great restaurant with yummy food. So, I think it's a decent trade-off.

Tomorrow, I'll have a picture of my newest scarf--finished right before I left on Tuesday...and probably a book review.

A Parade of Scarves

The blue scarf on the left is in a log cabin pattern. It's stiff and not really appropriate for a scarf so I'll make it into two little bags. The middle, red scarf is beautiful, soft, wonderful...and WAY too short. I'll have to give it to a child. The yellow one is in waffle weave and wonderfully soft and drapy.

And a Scarf for Ernie

Snow in Mississippi!

Book Review: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

Another solid contribution to the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive has all the characters in an uproar. It seems that everyone in the book wants to try out a different personality or characater or career, but it all comes right in the end because, after all, we are true to our basic nature.

The mysteries involved in this book focus on an errant husband (solved by Matekoni, only he actually solves a bigger more interesting mystery), a thief in a printing factory (solved by Makutsi via a suggestion from Patokwone) and three mysterious deaths in the Mochudi hospital (solved by Romatswe).

I enjoyed the book--it doesn't drift from the spirit of the series and for that I am thankful. I am also thankful to my Uncle Jackie for sending me the book after he read it. How fun!

Alyssa's Scarf

It's green, white and black. The slightly ligher stripes are dark green. She absolutely loves it!

When I was a little girl...

When I was a little girl I wove potholders. There was this little plastic potholder peg loom that you could buy at Wal Mart (though this was probably before Wal Mart!) that you used looped stretchy fabric to stretch between pegs. You did the "warp" in one direction and then using a long metal pole with a hook on the end you would then weave the loops through the warp and hook onto pegs on either side. After you were finished with that, you would start in one corner and loop the ends around each other to finish off the edges and leave the final hook sticking out so that you could "hang" it in a peg or nail in your kitchen. I probably made 100 of these.

I remember giving a sack full of them to my Aunt Linda Kay and she had the funniest look on her face. As an adult I know that look was "what on earth do I do with all these potholders!" but she didn't SAY anything, just looked funny.

I also enjoyed making the potholders where you wrapped yarn around nails on a shaped "loom" (the ones mom had were octagonal) to get a thickness of about 1 inch. Then you would take another yarn and make knots in the intersections of the yarns to tie the whole thing together. Mine weren't very good because I didn't have the strength to get the knots tight enough, but I did enjoy trying...We had lots of those too. I liked playing with colors on this type. Using one color, then another, and tying with a third for a pleasing effect...

When I look back on it now, I'm so surprised that I never got into weaving before now. I can blame it on simple lack of availability and expense of setting up a studio. Because, my goodness, I really did enjoy weaving just about everything I could!

Elizabeth's Scarf

She'll be stylish in France in this black and white creation...

A Yellow, Green and Orange Scarf

A Purple Scarf

That is just about as soft as a kitten...

Uraina's Scarf

Gaye's Scarf

Book Review: The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett

I loved this book. It was well written, funny, believable, full of adventure and had really great characters who grew and learned over the period of the book. They also have enough mystery about them that the next book in the series is next on my list to buy!

Dunnett was highly recommended on one of my favorite author's web-sites. So, I picked up the book, started reading it and was sucked in even though I didn't really get what was going on. The plot follows a Scot, Francis Culter of Lymond, in 1547-1548 as he eludes the law and his brother in an attempt to clear the accusations of him as a spy for the British. At several points I wondered how on earth there could be a series of books about Lymond since, well, he was surely going to die or be caught or both, but somehow he manages to elude capture and survive.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. It is a forerunner (published in 1961) of the genre so doesn't have a lot of the conventions that historical fiction written more recently--like historical clues, translation of dialect, etc. However, Dunnett is a talented writer who can weave a story "like nobody's business" and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tony's Scarf Finished

Tony's Scarf in Progress

Mom's Scarf is Finished!

And when I'm done admiring it, I'll send it to her. I still need to wash it and cut the fringe, but here it is. I think it came out really nice. The basket weave sections kind of pucker up and the other sections lay really flat. I got to learn how to switch weft colors, which was challenging, but allows for an interesting end product!

I hope she likes it!

I know...

I'm a little (ok a lot) obsessed...but this is so much fun! I have another scarf (for Mom) warped. It's purple and yellow strips. I will weave it with the yellow and a lighter purple and green variegated thread stripes. The yellow stripes will be woven in basket weave. I love it...I want it...but will give it to Mom and make another one for me. And the funny thing is I don't really wear scarves...until now at least :)

And now it's finished!

It's a little short. I didn't account for either stretching or my loom size or something...I'm going to increase the length of the warp on the next one and see if I get it right! I still love it!

I have a scarf warped already!

It's 11:30 and I already have my scarf warped! I'll be a weaving fiend in a little bit.

Snuggling

Finished at 4pm!

8 Harnesses and 10 Treadles

Some Assembly Required :)

10pm...we have the main frame of the loom complete. We still have to put all the treadles and harnesses together, and that looks like it's going to require more coordination than either David or I have right now, so we're calling it quits for today...more updates tomorrow.

Progress

At 11:30 we had the warping reel and the bench oiled and in pieces on the porch.

They were built by 1pm.

Then we went through all the pieces of the loom and have oiled them once at 3:45...there are LOTS of pieces.

It's here!

In boxes and didn't get here until 10pm last night. I'd given it up for lost and was trying to figure out what to do with myself since I'd finished everything I needed to do so that I could spend the weekend putting everything together. At any rate, this is what it looks like at 9:30am. I'll put updates as major progress is made throughout the weekend.

The loom!

The loom is out for delivery! I can hardly wait until it gets here. I'll have pictures of the whole thing in progress as it's built...

Basking in the Sunshine

It may be cold outside, but the sunshine is indeed warm!

Happy Birthday Alyssa and Elizabeth!