Starry Night Swirl

Starry Night Swirl Rep Runners

It’s always slightly sad when Christmas is over and our decorations are back in storage. Each year the whole process of “taking down Christmas” is a hurdle. At least getting a start on the process is tough. But then, once begun, I warm to the task.

After Christmas with all its red and green, I turn to blue for January. To me blue means cold weather, starry nights and Epiphany. In January we change our kitchen tablecloth to blue with sparkly blue snowflakes.

Planning my second rep swirl warp, I naturally turned to the color blue. The Yuletide Swirl runners seemed too tightly sett at 48 e.p.i. At least that was my opinion of them at the time. For the second warp I backed off and chose a sett of 40 e.p.i. Consequently, these runners are slightly wider than the previous ones, measuring 8” wide. You can see a slightly thicker and contrasting floating selvedge, a recent idea that still appeals to me.

January blue tablecloth with sparkly snowflakes
Starry Night Swirl Table Runner

The runners from this warp made me happy so I decided to weave the design again in another color way. Perhaps you can guess which colors I chose for the next warp. Look for details soon.

Detail of Starry Night Swirl showing red floating selvedge

Tatted snowflakes hang from antique fretwork

In keeping with the January theme, tatted snowflakes hang from a fretwork panel in our home. The fretwork came from my great grandparents’ Minnesota home where it once hung above the doorway between their dining room and parlor. But that was in the day before Mother was born and before the house was reconfigured. At least three generations occupied that house over the years. For my entire childhood the fretwork panel remained stuffed in the back of a storage shed. After my grandmother died, the fretwork came into my mother’s possession. When Mom and Dad moved into a retirement home a few years ago it came to us. I am so grateful to have this memento of generations past. After several nights' work to clean and refinish it, we hung it between our dining room and "parlor" where it fits perfectly and is the best place to hang tatted snowflakes.

My current tatting project

Most usually I have a tatting project in the works. As it is quite small and portable, tatting is the easiest kind of handwork to carry along to meetings. Here I am at work on a tatted bookmark with a center twist. I have a way to go on this one. You will find the pattern for it on the designer Jon Yusoff's blog here: https://tatsaway.blogspot.com

Ancient nub of sewing beeswax next to a new block

Do you remember my mention of the little bit of ancient beeswax I use when hemming? Here it is in all its glory. After 45 years of constant use it is now quite small. Once it was the size of the plastic holder on which it rests. That bright green rubber band keeps the slightly broken holder together. My sweet husband bought me a fresh bar of beeswax. But this little old nub of wax carries a lot of sentimental value. I wonder if it might last longer than I do.

A couple of weeks ago my husband brought the latest plague, an especially nasty cold, home from work. Naturally, he shared it with me. The timing was bad. Back in September I signed up for a workshop with Kelly Marshall. It was scheduled for this past week and for the 10 days prior, I’d been knocked off my game by the bug. Next time I’ll let you know how it went.

Stay warm out there on these cold, starry January nights. Soon it will be February!

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver