Shoulder

So I saw the surgeon about my shoulder a few days ago.  I guess I had had hopes of a miracle and felt let down.
All he was interested in was how high I could lift my arm then sent me for an xray.  (Why that couldn't have been done at the time of the ultrasound I don't know!)  Back to surgeon who told me my shoulder is frozen.  Well, what's new.  I new that.  I wanted it fixed!
Told to go back to xray for an appointment for more cortizone which it seems a radiologist has to do.  Oh good, I said, my physio hoped that would be suggested.  It was only then that he had the courtesy to open the letter my overworked physio had taken precious time to write - grrr.
No, can't do the injection today, no radiologist working who can do that.  Wait until after 14th Sept when the new roster comes out!  (Was rung yesterday and will have it done Tues 12th.)  When I've had the cortizone I see the surgeon again though I don't know why as he can't make a decision as to whether to operate or not until the shoulder has thawed.  I would have thought by now a hospital could be more organised and co-ordinated.
Each procedure means a 100 kilometre round trip and a day off the loom, time I can ill afford at present.
Thank heavens the NZ tax payer is funding most of this by way of ACC.
One question the surgeon did ask was do I work after asking me my age.  I was pleased to say I am a weaver and work for a shop in Auckland.  Over a certain age ACC won't fund the procedures as you are considered "on the heap".

Home again

I've walked the beach, dealt with the washing, restocked the pantry, made yoghurt, been poked and stretched at physio and am now more than ready to explore fibrey things, if the frozen shoulder will allow.

We had a super holiday catching up with relies and friends in Perth (West Australia) and Melbourne and doing quite a bit of site seeing each day (if you rent a car you have to use it - no relaxing around here).  It wasn't warm like the Queensland coast but "light jumper and shoes" warm.  No rain but a storm was forecast for each day and then delayed and delayed until the morning we drove to Perth airport from Bunbury (two hours) and the heavens opened delaying our plane's take off by nearly two hours which meant arriving in Melbourne quite late.

I had a lovely time visiting with Tony Bennett, machine knitter, and when he realised I was interested in the garments in the shop he started bring out boxes with outfits he had entered into fashion parades.  The inspiration was priceless.  Also found Treetops Silk in Perth and came home with some lovely slivers which I can't touch until the shoulder is better.

New stash

In Melbourne I was taken by my dear cousin to ZiguZagu, a Japanese based store and did more spending although the stencils were too fine for what I wanted to do on handwoven fabric so reluctantly left them for someone else.  Beautiful Silks was on the itinerary and we were there so long I was given a cup of tea and more damage to the "plastic" just happened.  Melbourne Spinners and Weavers Guild have a large premises not far from where we were staying so I spent some time there browsing their wonderful shop and they had an exhibition featuring natural dyeing displayed.

We had a few days in Auckland on the way home to see the kids and I was Selector for the Auckland Spinners and Weavers Guild exhibition on Sunday morning.  An interesting selection of work so if in Devonport between 1 and 13 September go see it.

Great to travel but always good to be in ones own bed.

I need a holiday!

My goodness, I need a holiday.  The weaving just won't go right.  The blanket mentioned in the last post has a threading error right through it 2.2 metres, on both layers and its unfixable.  Grrr.

Meet Wingspan, a ravelry pattern.  I did a couple of extra segments to get a good wrap around for a scarf.

Truer colours.

A close up showing how I crocheted the ends at each change of yarn.  Note that alternate colours went on each other, light pink on wine, wine on light pink to blend.  I did this thinking I could just tie the two ends together at the end of the crochet loops to form a tassel thus avoiding the needle stitching in but that didn't happen for some reason.

There will be no posts here till the end of August as I really am going on holiday ... to Perth, West Australia to see my brother and his family.  Here's hoping we find some sunshine over there because we have really really had enough rain.

Double layer blankets

This week it was time to rethread my Nitschke 8 shaft for double layer blankets but could I find where I'd recorded the tieup.  No way.  So I had to sit down with pen and paper and do some mental gymnastics.
I thread the loom in a point twill, 1-8 x 4 then 8-1 x 4 with odd number shafts the top layer and even the bottom layer.  At each change of direction I miss one thread, either a 7 or a 2, otherwise one has double threads.  I used to go 1-4 top and 5-8 bottom but I realised the groups of bottom threads came out in one place between the 4 and 1 leaving a gap in the fabric.

So to the tieup.  Hold your hands palm together then roll them open holding little fingers together.  That's how your fabric will be so both palm sides have to match and the backs of the hands match.  In a straight 2x2 twill its fairly easy but if treadling a point twill creating diamonds in the fabric its important the right sides match each other when opened out.  Actually its only the centre of the diamond that is different and probably only a weaver would pick it up.  And I've recorded the drawdown in my workbook, my cupboard of information!  Two days ago it hurt my shoulder to stretch out to throw the shuttle, today I've woven 50cm and don't want to push it any further.

Now to my shoulder.  Tendons are torn - bad.  Most people have 1 - 2mm tears, mine is 9mm. Imagine a whole lot of  warp threads in a bundle and pull them apart.  Some stay intact, many break.  Physiotherapy and acupuncture is helping a lot and treatment was started just as the shoulder started to freeze so was able to halt that. Surgery is on the cards but am hoping if I can get it strong enough I won't need surgery.

Kereru, NZ pigeon

Shed a tear with me!
Look at that wrinkly edge!

What happened was that the knit panel wouldn't felt (I didn't check but the threads are descaled.) so I kept rubbing to no avail BUT the pink yarn next to the knit panel did felt.  And this looked so wonderful when it came off the loom, even DH commented on its success.
 It doesn't look bad when draped to wear but I certainly can't put it in the exhibition it was intended for.

Look at the two pink tassels by the green knit stitches; see how short they are.

Is there a code or something that manufacturers have to put on wool labels to say it has been descaled?  I've been caught out too many times.

Diversified plain weave

In simple terms diversified plain weave has a thick thread forming the pattern and a fine thread providing a plain or tabby background and tying the thick threads down.  Conventionally it is threaded 232,141,252 etc with shafts 1 and 2 being the tie threads and 3, 4, 5 etc being the thick pattern thread - usually about 4 or 5 times thicker than the ties.  A new way to thread is 123, 124, 125 etc which I haven't tried.  Weaving uses two shuttles and again two pics of fine thread weaving plain to one pic of the thick pattern thread.

How did I create the drawdown?  That's a bit of a mystery but first I googled and came up with a few sites and Handwoven magazine has had various articles in recent times on diversified plain weave (DPW).


My inspiration was this paper which my daughter brought home from Japan and was used on many greeting cards she sent me.  (Sorry about the photo, I spent way too long trying to crop it to no avail.)

 I planned to weave on my 16 shaft compu dobby and, as two shafts are used for plain tie downs I had 14 shafts to play with pattern.  I thought a point threading gave me the most option for size and positioning of motif. I then drew a square the size of 14 wee squares of my graph paper and sketched out a cherry blossom.

I then transferred this back to the graph paper and filled in all the wee squares where they were intersected.  I seemed to be able to see the petals better on plain paper to start.  Then I went to Fiberworks PCW software and transferred the information from the graph paper to the screen.  Because I use a compudobby I can extend the shafts to the full 64 and place "cherries" where I want.  Then convert the whole thing to "lift plan mode" and add the two tabby rows between each pattern row.  Even then there was a lot of fiddling to get a clearer image, not so easy with just 14 shafts to play with.  The waves were done much the same way but with even more fiddling.  I know there is a way to lay one draft over the other and I might try that soon.

Time flies

Oh dear, time is flying by.  I've had a trip away to Auckland to see family and friends and very enjoyable it was too.  18 month old grandson is a treasure but I was totally ignored once his Grandad showed him his image on the camera and which button to press to get it back.  He was very gentle and asked with his eyes before pushing.  

I came down to the studio armed with camera some days ago to post but discovered the latest issue of Entangled magazine was out and no guesses as to who won.  Each article I've read so far has been interesting.  Of particular fun is an article by Stella Lange about workbooks and journalling.  She quotes Leoni Schmidt as saying her journal is "a cupboard for her mind" where she can store ideas and thoughts.  It might make me more enthused about my workbook if I can smile each time I remember the quote.

Now to the crappy news.  I hurt my shoulder some time ago and thought a pulled muscle would mend with time but it didn't so the doctor sent me for an ultrasound xray and the ligaments are torn.  I won't know if its torn from the bone or torn apart till I see the doc later this week.   The xray technician was enthusiastically looking at the other shoulder for comparison till I explained it had been injured about 12 years ago.  She wonder why they looked the same.  Its sure slowing me down - I could throw the shuttle with the injured arm but not beat so all beating was done with the left arm.  

Another diversified plain weave pattern.  I love these shuttles from Mecchia's, so light and zippy but if I wanted to remove a bobbin that was partly full I couldn't get my fingers in to lift it so ...

 I found an old cup hook and made sure it worked before asking Pete to put a handle on it.  Its not the most elegant of craftsmanship but it works.