For several years I’ve been weaving along happily on rigid heddle looms, a 27” 4-shaft loom and a 36” 8-shaft loom. But at some point in early March, a switch in my brain flipped and I absolutely needed a wider loom with more shafts. I will blame Pinterest for serving up 12-shaft patterns and gorgeous images of wide blankets. As if the Universe conspired, this turned up on Facebook Marketplace:
So on the very rainy weekend before Easter, I retrieved this beast from the Hudson Valley, and planned to spend the holiday reassembling her.
A month later, she still looks like this:
They say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. For me, the March/April transition roared in like a cackle of rabid hyenas. On meth.
Instead of putting the beast back together, I spent Easter weekend in the hospital for an unanticipated double surgery, only to contract a vicious post-op infection three days later, which landed me back in the hospital the following weekend. All is well, however, and I have since managed to string together two consecutive weekends of not going to the ER, so things are looking up. But I’m still under strict orders not to lift anything heavier than 10 lbs, which means loom assembly is now a May project.
The aftermath of the infection was curious. The contagious nature of my circumstance got me a private room. Every medical professional who checked on me was gowned and and masked, to protect the next patient they told me. Nonetheless I felt like a biohazard. And then my beyond-magnificent-better-half spent Infection Weekend bleaching every surface and textile in our house that I might have touched. And yes, those textiles included my handwoven towels and washcloths.
I’m not much of a bleach person when it comes to laundry, so I truly had no idea what to expect, but I did have visions of complete white-out destruction. What I did not expect was for some towels to spot, some to fade evenly, and others to appear untouched -- all from the same load. I don’t know if it was the colors or the weave structures or the setts, but my Brassard 8/4 plain weave towels either faded evenly (deep blue) or spotted (greys and blue/greens). My green Mallo plain weave projects spotted but the dark blue Windowpane Spa Set came out of the wash unchanged. And my Beam 8/2 Plaited Twill towel in blue and green held up like a champ.
Perhaps it was just luck of where the towels were in the washer when the bleach dispensed, but this does make me wonder if some colors are more resistant to bleach damage than others. Sad as it was that some of the cloths were discolored, I made them to be used and not ‘saved for special.’ They may not look as wonderful, but they still have lots of life left in them and now there’s a story behind the spots. Besides, as a weaver, I will always be happy to make more.
Speaking of weaving, you can imagine how wonderful it felt to get back to “normal”, and by normal I mean back at my loom. My recovery project was a runner that I had promised a client eons ago. It is a wider, longer version of the Pick-up Stick runner I drafted a few years back for the Beyond the Basics collection. This version is also for rigid heddle and finishes at 12” x 90”, but the pattern includes the required woven lengths for a 60” and 72” runner.
It is a perfect weave for when you want something to engage your brain just enough, but not too much. The pick-up sequence couldn’t be easier and the weft pattern is simple and rhythmic to memorize. And it’s like two projects in one -- the woven side is a beautiful grid of warp floats while the back side is ribbed, showing a completely different pattern. It was such a relaxing way to ease back into weaving I’m thinking about making another, which is fortunate because my client loved hers so much she is considering a second one in a different color.
I hope you all are having a decidedly less eventful spring than I have had thus far, and are shuttling away on some beautiful projects.
As always, thanks for reading and see you next month! With any luck, I’ll have a new project on the new loom. Ot at least have her assembled.
xx,
Christine
Christine, I am so sorry you went through such a difficult experience. And very glad you are back to normal now. Enjoy your beautiful new loom!
Good grief, so sorry you went thru that, but glad you are recovering well. Enjoy your new loom! Best wishes, Patti