 |
| 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 |
 |
| 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
