Wrapping Up Loose Ends

In my last post I had warped the 2/20 hand painted silk that was sitting on pirns for yonks, and today I got the new scarf started and half woven. I didn’t use any of the wefts that I thought I would…I went basic and chose black because all of the other wefts hid the wonderful variegations in the silk.

I’ve chosen a pattern called ‘Twill Complication” and even though it’s on 4 shafts it’s a real looker and I wove half of the scarf today! This pattern is a delight to weave and I'm really getting a kick out of it.  I have plans to do it with some other silks because the pattern is very well behaved and allows the variegations to shine through and not be overwhelmed by the pattern.

Here is the draft for those of you that don’t have ‘A Handweavers Pattern Book’.

This last week has been a whirlwind of activity. I’m hoping to start the New Year with a clean slate and so I’ve decided to clean up some of my mistakes!

I pulled the failed shawl with black and brown handspun out of the drawer that I had stashed it in, you know ‘out of sight, out of mind’! I can’t bear to waste the yarn so I decided to deconstruct the shawl.

I started by unlacing the hemstitching on both ends and then pulled out each warp thread one by one.

This proved to be a much easier job than I had anticipated…for some reason the shawl didn’t full as much as I’d expected; this was a bane at the time, but a boon now as the warp threads just slid out. Can you spot the 'French Apple Tart' in the background?  It takes a lot of energy to pull apart a shawl and that is my reward! Although it’s hard to see I left just 2 warp threads in place to keep the weft in some kind of order while I made balls and this really helped hold it in place while I made the balls.

Here it is separated into its basic components just waiting for a better project that will turn the handspun into the show stopper it should be!

It's had to believe but we have been in our new house exactly one year today, so as a celebration I made one of our favourite appetizers to have with a bottle of 1996 Merlot.  This photo is before they have been cooked.

These are called Piedmont Roast Peppers and are amazingly easy to prepare and they are real showstoppers. Just cut as many peppers as you need in half and clear out all the seeds, but keep the stem intact. Then stuff it with a half of a fresh tomato and some garlic. Put a teaspoon of your very best olive oil into each one and then salt and pepper it. Bake at 375 F for about 40 minutes in a parchment paper lined pan and serve with a big hunk of crusty bread to soak up all the delicious juices…..soooooo good!