Fun Happenings
It's been a fun but busy week. We had both our granddaughters here at the house for Tuesday and Wednesday. These precocious little girls are two and three years old and totally wonderful, if not completely exhausting. Yes, there is a very good reason why young people have children - they have the stamina to make it work. Thursday I spent much of the day with my friend Nancy who is moving up to Maine. The movers had already come and taken away her furniture so taking her to lunch was important. She and the goats, dogs and cats left this morning for what will be a very long drive. Bless her friends who had the appropriate vehicles and trailers as well as time off to make the trip with her. She has wanted to move back to the northeast for all of the over 20 years she has lived here in Texas. It's really hard to argue with the idea of going home.
We have had one of our grandsons here since Thursday evening while his parents are off on a nice anniversary weekend on the coast. He will be three in June and like his cousins is totally wonderful and completely exhausting. He has been out here in the studio yesterday and today helping me keep the store open. He is talking up a storm these days although sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what he's talking about. Other times his words are perfectly clear. He loves dogs in the abstract but not so much in concrete form. Of all the words and phrases we have heard from him, the most frequent is "Puppy outside?" He is not thrilled with our crazy Sadie. It might be different if Sadie was totally calm but she is pretty excitable so mostly when we have little kids here she spends her time in the crate or outside in the back yard. She is happy in either location but will love to be more out and about when small grandson goes home tomorrow. She spent quite a bit of time running loose in the house when the granddaughters were here but they love dogs and just giggle when Sadie licks their faces.
I've finished the first run of rugs. The total is two long runners, two short runners and one smaller rug. I'm pleased with all of them but particularly the natural colors. They still need to be washed but since they will have to dry flat outside, I need to wait for some clear days. We continue to have lots of rain but I'm hoping for next week.
Now that the rugs are finished, I've warped up Peggy's loom with kitchen towels. The pattern was chosen for the Swap Swatch. I've never joined the swap swatch before so this is new and interesting for me. Each person weaves something that goes with the year's theme and makes up enough swatches (4" by 4" up to 6" by 6" in size) so that everyone in the group gets one plus a couple for the notebook that the guild will save. I think the current number is 18 but I'll check again as we get closer to the meeting time. This year's theme is "Literary Threads". I struggled with that theme for quite a while - long enough that I was beginning to think I would never be able to find something to weave. Inspiration happens in it's own time. I never could come up with a great novel or play that spoke to me but I happened across the song "Sailing" by Christopher Cross. The line in the song is "... The canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see..." That line spoke to me. So, I've chosen to do canvas weave as my pattern. The warp is my standard 12 yards long so there is plenty for a nice run of kitchen towels and as many pattern rows as I need for my swatches. The pattern is eight rows of five blocks of canvas with a nice three inch border around the edges. Canvas is one of those patterns that really looks best all in one color and a lighter color at that. If I had had some nice cream color or some nice pastels I would have chosen that but what I have lots of in natural. It's a great off white with enough color in it that it doesn't look dirty as soon as you use it. I love the look of the towels on the loom - I can't wait till they're washed to see the final product.