Can't see the woods for the trees

The news from Maurers Lane...

The big wind storm last week dropped a few trees around our house, one of which ripped the electrical service right off the house. We decided we’ve had enough of trees falling around the house and the next day we had a logger in to remove some trees. Here they are yarded in front of Pam’s place. The cherry picker came on Wednesday and took them away.

Logger’ll be back next winter to log the whole property – lots of pines will go. In the meantime the Great Chicken Project continues. The BIG tree was finally taken down and removed.



GONE!

So, now the chicken house can be moved into place, because the one-day old cheeps arrive on June 17th! We’re getting 3 of each of the following (all hens except for one of the Silver Lace Wyandottes, which will be a rooster)

Meanwhile, the goats are having a great time munching their way through all the pine branches, and the sap’s running like mad out of the maple trees.

Happy Spring!

more weaving - more goats

Oops – It has been pointed out to me by one of my fans (who knew I’d ever have fans) that I haven’t posted anything in over a month. Sorry about that. I neglected to realize when I embarked upon this blogity road that I would actually need to commit some time to writing something and taking photos of other things. So, to an update…
Success! I finished the taxes with plenty of time to spare and I completed my weaving homework by the skin of my teeth. Here are some photos of a couple of the weaving exercises that I completed. The first one shows doubleweave pickup. Two layers are woven at the same time, one above the other, and certain threads from the bottom layer are brought up to the top (I used a knitting needle to do this) and woven. I could have stuffed the two layers to give the design more definition, but in this case I decided not to do so. The second photo shows a doubleweave leno (pronounced lē′-nō). The bottom layer is just woven as usual, but the top layer is interrupted into two sides and part way up the window a weft thread is woven through twisted warp threads. This is a very simple rendition, but this technique can produce some very fancy lacework and the contrasting bottom layer enhances it. Leno can be woven on a single layer as well. Finally – here is the final result of about a yard and a half of various weaving samples – my homework, ready to turn in. It is a little 2” X 2” tube of cloth to illustrate doubleweave, along with a description of the technique.
I’m very glad I took the class; I learned a lot and can see various ways in which I’m looking forward to using doubleweave. I think the pickup technique would be put to interesting use in clergy stoles. I completely my first clergy stole a couple of months ago. It was an overshot threading in which I wove the overshot pattern of crosses in gold thread on the border and then the rest of the stole was green linen plain weave. It was my first attempt at overshot and came out OK, but I can see what I’d change for next time. It led me to think about doing liturgical weaving. There are some, but not a lot of handweavers doing liturgical weaving, so it seems like a niche that I could get into. Liturgical weaving would also lend itself to a lot of experimentation in weaving which is what I really love to do. Production work is just not my thing. Additionally, my husband has been experimenting with liturgical woodworking, having constructed a handcarved communion table and several crosses. Once again, we seem to be moving along the same creative path. Stay tuned for the next weaving adventures in inkle pickup and Moorman inlay technique.
In the continuing saga of goats… Shearing day was April 26th. Jerry Yeager brought his trusty clippers and wrestled their hair off them while his wife Cindy kept me occupied so I wouldn’t gasp at the sight of those clippers near delicate goat parts. Here are some before and after shots of hairy and naked goats. The tee-shirts were to protect them from the sun after, which was strong for a few days – Bill and Peanut got pink ones and Wilbur got school bus yellow. The yellow on Wilbur helped Peanut and Bill to see him soon enough to stay out of his way – Wilbur usually gets a little wild after shearing and this time was no exception. Here he is doing the shove-dance with Peanut and then doing one of his “mountain goat” leaps preparatory to head-butting Peanut. The first night he managed to get a large hole in his shirt and so we gave up and took it off and a naked Wilbur was at the fence in the morning.
My next post will include more weaving thoughts, gardening in reality and in dreams, and the usual collection of goat photos.

Goats & Weaving

Blog – what a clunky word. This is my first experience with blogging; I’ll not bore you with my naiveté about blogging, except to say I’m beginning it makes me feel old. When I was young I was somewhat disdainful of older people who did not “get” my rapture with the computer, even though at that time it was only a mainframe that I had to travel 30 miles to play on. They just didn’t see the point, had only read about them and were not interested in using one, if they had any idea what the use of such a piece of equipment might be. Well, thinking back to those folks, I decided that I would give blogging a try, so that my old gray head didn’t seem to be quite so ossified.

So… the two primary loves in my life at the moment (other than my husband and son) – goats and weaving. Here are photos taken early this morning of my three angora boys (well, they used to be boys anyways – don’t tell them that they’re not anymore). Peanut is wearing a moustache from eating white pine tree needles and bark. He gets covered with pitch and then any dirt that comes along sticks to him. He often looks like Inspector Clouseau. Wilbur is taking a momentary break from trying to taste the camera and Sweet Bill Goat is just coming out of the barn for another big day in Bill Goat Land. Perhaps you can see in the background that snow is still hiding in the woods. We have promises of spring, but reminders of winter.

Next are photos of what just came off my loom and what is being threaded currently. The first is a short three-yard warp of 16/2 Bockens linen that I wove into hand towels. I haven’t cut the towels apart and hemmed them yet, but I’m very happy with the weight, drape, and sheen of the linen. It is a 2-point twill weave in M and W threading, with a natural color warp and a royal blue weft.

Second is my weaving guild homework for a class in double weave. I’ve warped on four yards of 8/2 cotton, one color for the top layer and a darker color for the bottom. Each layer is sett at 18 threads per inch, making for 36 thread per inch crowding into my 12 dent reed. We’ll se how that works! I’ve got instructions to weave a sampler of several double weave techniques. Some of these are as follows. To weave them as two separate layers, and then both layers together open on one selvage and closed on the other, so that when it’s taken off the loom it could open up into a double width. Another section will be the two layers exchanging places, so first the dark will be on top and then the light – it makes little crossway tubes. And then a section that is just closed on both sides so that it makes a lengthwise tube. I suspect that this is the method that was used to weave the seamless robe that Jesus wore and was cast lots for by the soldiers at his execution. After those and a couple of other techniques that I can’t at the moment remember, I’ll be weaving a pickup sample for each of the participants in the class (13 all together). Pickup is when you pick up threads to form a pattern from the bottom layer to the top layer. I’m a little nervous because this homework is due on April 15th which is, of course, tax day as well. You guessed it; I don’t have my taxes done yet. I’ll try and take more photos of this project (the weaving, not the taxes). Please pray that I manage to carve out enough time to get both done in time. Working for a living sure does get in the way of real life, although I’ll not complain too much. I’m fortunate in this economy to have a job. That’s all for today. God bless you.