Thursday, May 6, 2021

Bizzy, bizzy

I've worked steadily the last couple of days to get to the end of the current warp. In fact, I got there last night, and that also included weaving 800 yards or one tube of natural, and so there should be six cream towels going into stock.

This morning I spent straightening up the studio, preparing for a new warp, prepping the towels I took from the beam. I putzed in the kitchen, cleaning surfaces, changing out winter for spring. I love these place mats.

After lunch, with the idea of turning on a new and possibly longer warp in front of my eyes, I wondered if Laura might be available for the weekend. She said she would at least call me to say goodbye, and I haven't heard a word.

So, I called.

"Hello there," her ever chipper voice said, down the line. Tomorrow will not work because she is leaving for a short WWOOF assignment in Cleveland, at an inner city food project. "Darn!", I grumbled. I'll have to do this all by myself!"

"What's wrong with the rest of today?" Laura wanted to know. I left at once to pick her up and by two this afternoon she was on the hardest part of dressing a loom--putting on a warp.


"A member of your fan club is missing the thumbs up," I suggested.


Well, dressing a loom is no more fun to her than it is to me. We kept steadily at it, emptied and changed out 32 tubes of warp, and finished in two hours. 

When Jan helped me by changing out the emptying warp tubes we were done in two hours, too. But Laura put an extra 25 turns of warp on each bout. I believe that will yield an additional twenty towels, but I haven't done the fine math yet.


Every time a tube emptied, I tied on a new one and heaved the empty over the warp threads. That made the kid laugh. "And I always thought of you as super neat!" 

We stopped at the local tavern for a hamburger on the way home. And back in her neighborhood, I took some pictures.


When we had the problem at the old trailer with drainage in the little flower garden, Ellen Abbott suggested we make a drainage route with flat stones. That's what these folks did. Pretty neat.


And I'll always be a sucker for stone retaining walls.


30 comments:

  1. I've got napkins that match your place mats.

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  2. Hooray for Laura - and that beautiful neighbourhood.

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  3. Laura's a good young woman! Glad she was able to help you!

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  4. I love those stones! It sounds like you had a productive day and a yummy meal. Great to have help too!!

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  5. "What's wrong with the rest of today?" Heh, I do like Laura, ever helpful, ever willing.

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  6. I'm glad you tried calling her. What a willing worker she is.

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  7. That loom prep is a gargantuan task. Is there a weaver's guild in your area, with perhaps another young willing worker? I hope so! I love rock walls, too. Almost every house in our city has one. We do, too. Wood doesn't last here, so rock is used.

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  8. I love that place mat too. How nice that Laura could help with the loom. I'm a sucker for stone walls too, there's just something about them.

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  9. Laura is a gem. I like the place mats, too. Is that a design on your tabletop or a tablecloth with a design?

    Love,
    Janie

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  10. Well done Laura! A great help, a good worker and good company xx

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  11. Hari OM
    Hoorah for the quick response to the call for help - and for an outing that yields pretty garden pictures! YAM xx

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  12. You will miss Laura when she leaves.

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  13. Laura always seems to have an aura of peace about her. That may just be the photos you take of her but still- you are catching something about her that is so beautiful.

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  14. I've read the Fuller---how's the tree book?
    I have an extra copy of The Wild Trees by Richard Preston, if that's your sort of thing--would be happy to pass it along to you.

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    1. P.S. Good luck to Laura on her adventures---she seems like a cool person!

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  15. Laura is one of the 'can do' people.

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  16. yeah for Laura. two good hard workers getting the job done.

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  17. That girl of yours is an angel. Glad you got all set up again. And I adore those houses, so very pretty and with character to boot!

    XO
    WWW

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  18. I wonder if Laura will be a weaver one day. She certainly knows how to help you with it. So nice of her to give you her time just like that!! Wonderful granddaughter!

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  19. Laura looks so content. You can see it shining from her. Those houses are beautiful. I like the idea of the flat rocks drainage too.

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  20. It’s good you had some time with Laura!

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  21. So glad Laura was able to help.

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  22. I think you’re going to miss Laura.

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  23. I too love the placemat. Why not do a few of this size for us placemat lovers. Runners too.

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  24. Great photos. Laura is such a wonderful granddaughter. You are key to the strong and resourceful woman she is becoming.

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  25. I'm glad you and Laura got together before she is off to Cleveland. Going forward, when Laura is working with WWOOF, could you occasionally fly her in to spend a few days with you? I suspect Laura will miss you as much as you will miss her. I love stone walls too. My stone walls were built by farmers many years ago. The history on the walls states: Farmers uncovered rocks of all sizes when plowing fields. They built two parallel walls a few feet apart and then threw more rocks and boulders between the two walls. These walls are 3-4 ft. wide.

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    1. I think every country with a tradition of stone walls has a history of fields of rocks. Walls were the farmer's method of disposing of them without carting them off and dumping them.

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  26. For whatever reason, Yahoo Mail decided you were spam and hid several of your posts in my spam box. I only ever clear it out when I remember to do it and so this is a belated thank you for this post. Great photo of Laura; she is a jewel. You'll need another just like her after she's gone. Lovely woman, thanks to a fantastic grandmother.

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