Slowly Getting Back to Weaving Again

I can't believe I haven't written anything since the beginning of January.  I think the bears took a lot out of me, so I haven't been doing any weaving since Christmas.

On January 30th, I had a mild heart attack, but even a mild one has affected me quite a bit.  I was too tired to do much of anything for at least a week, and after I started back to work, I didn't have any energy once I got home.  I think my brain finally kicked in to where I can actually concentrate on something for more than a few minutes.

I finished winding the linen warp that I was working on when I had the attack, and got it onto the loom a couple days ago.  I did a little weaving yesterday, checking for threading errors (I found two) and was thankful that my Leclerc Fanny came with a few snap-in repair heddles.  They are so easy to use.

The linen I am working on is for some cloths to use at church for communion.  I threaded an Atwater-Bronson lace, and then designed a cross to weave in the center, using a pick-up technique.  It took a bit of thinking, but finally figured out the treadling sequence for the pick-up.  I have to push two treadles to get a single shaft to rise on my counterbalance loom.  I could have done a direct tie-up, but I didn't feel like crawling under the loom to change the treadles, so what I figured out works for me.

Anyway, here is a photo of the cross, with as much as I could do tonight.  I have about 12 more pattern rows to finish.  It went faster than I anticipated, so maybe I can finish it tomorrow if I'm not too tired after work.

The x's on the design weave plain weave, and the lace is all around the cross and in the center of it.  It will show up much better after the cloth has been wet finished.  The lace threads will migrate toward each other, and leave larger lacy holes.

Here is a larger photo of my design, and a close-up of the bottom of the cross.  Clicking on the photos will enlarge them.

It feels good to be weaving again!

Ben, the Red Bear

Today, my daughter Becky sent me five pictures of a story our grandson Bobby wrote.  It's about his bear that he got for Christmas.

 

 

Bobby had to write the story for school, so Ben got to go to school with him.  I thought it was pretty cute.

Rosie is Adopted

Rosie, the last of the Griswold bears, finally got to go to her new home with 4 1/2 month old Elisabeth, the day after Christmas.  I didn't have any photos to post until today.  Edwin said that Rosie gave her lots of bear kisses when they first met, so I think she was pretty happy to have a new home with someone that will love her.

I think I mentioned in a previous post why I stitched a nose onto Rosie.  Elisabeth did exactly what I thought she would do--put Rosie's nose in her mouth!  Baby kisses are so sweet.

Here they both are getting acquainted with each other.

Elisabeth is still thinking that Rosie's nose looks pretty tasty!


I am happy that Rosie finally has a little girl to love her and have adventures with, as she grows older.

The Griswold Bears Get Adopted

The Bellairs family had their Christmas get-together on Christmas Eve day.  Everyone gathered for fun, food, fellowship, and of course, what I have been anticipating:  the Griswold bears adoptions.  The bears were left under the tree, still tangled in garland, and then covered with a sheet.  We had shoe boxes wrapped for each grandchild with a couple other gifts and a card, introducing each one to their bear.  I uncovered them, and they were able to find their bear according to the description they were given, and then find the ornament each bear hung on the tree.  The grandchildren were all told that they needed to name their bear before taking it home with them, so I could get adoption certificates made in the next few days.

Five bears went to the Michelsen family.

Ian is our oldest grandson at age 19, and thankfully, was very happy getting a Viking bear.  T10's name was changed to Björn Griswöld.

Amber, age 15, named her bear Samwell.  He is perfect for Amber, because he is a little bookworm, just like she is.  His favorite place is curled up under the covers in bed with a book.  He was even caught a few times with a flashlight, reading after lights out.

Emily, age 12, received the prototype bear, T1.  She is the granddaughter that helped with the Teddy bears picnic and pumpkin carving.  She fell in love with her that day, but I couldn't tell her then, that she was going to be her bear.  She named her bear Cheeka Bear.

Davey, age 9, named his bear Othar.  I think it is another Viking type name.  That's good, because they both look up to their brothers.

Bobby, age 6, got the pretty red bear.  He named him Benjamin, but is just going to call him Ben.  Ben is going to look a lot like Bobby soon, because he has a loose tooth.  I bet he will lose it in a few days.

  

The next four bears went home to the Bellairs/Schlegel family.

Trisha, age 14, was glad her bear was made out of her first choice fabric.  Her new name is Sugar.  She is very soft, because her white yarn is a blend of wool and angora.  When I first showed the girls the fabric and told them to tell me a first and second choice, she couldn't pick a second choice, because she wanted her first choice so badly.

Payton, age 12, got the orange angora bear, dyed to her specifications.  She had a hard time choosing a name for her, but finally decided on Truffel Bear.  Truffel is wearing a rayon chenille scarf I also gave to Payton. 

Hailee, age 11, hates to smile for photos.  She was so happy with her bear, that she put on her most beautiful smile.  She named her bear Sweetheart, and she really is.  They both are.

Morgan, age 9, didn't think I gave her the right bear, but after holding her a few minutes, they fell in love.  Her bears name is Hunysuckel.  Morgan wanted an unconventional spelling for her bears name.  Hunysuckel is a fuzzy mohair, so Morgan will have fun brushing her fur.

 On Christmas morning, I got a text message and photo of our grandson Landen just after he opened his bear.  Landen wasn't able to come to our house because he was with his dad at another family gathering.

I think he looks pretty happy with his new bear.  He called me on the phone a little later to thank us and to tell us he named his bear Sweety. 














Sweety is a boy bear, and loves to golf.  He made a few practice shots at our house with his golf set that he got for Christmas.

Some of the bears went upstairs after presents to watch the Teddy Bears Picnic DVD that we gave each family.

Our daughter Rachel, from out in Washington state, was unable to join us for Christmas, so we included her and her boyfriend Nick and her bear, Nilla,on Skype.  Nilla was very excited to meet all of the baby bears.  Here is a screen shot of Nilla taking a look at the sewing machine we gave Rachel.







As evening arrived, the families started to pack up to head for their own homes.  Two of them had close to four hour drives.  We gathered everyone for one last picture of the grandkids and bears.

Front row: Emily and Cheeka, Morgan and Hunysuckel, Bobby and Ben, Hailee and Sweetheart, Davey and Othar.  Back row: Payton and Truffel, Trisha and Sugar, Amber and Samwell, Ian and Björn, and our daughter Carolyn holding Sweety.

The sad part of the day was saying good-bye.  One bear didn't get to be adopted yet and she was very sad.

Here she is with Great-grandpa bear at the window waving bye-bye to the first family to leave.

Thank goodness for grandpas.  They are very good at comforting a sad bear.  We are hoping she will be able to go to her new home with our granddaughter Elisabeth very soon.

Today, after some discussion, we decided that T11 shouldn't wait till she gets to her new home to get a real name.  Because she is pink, our daughter Carolyn, our son Edwin (Elisabeth's daddy), and I decided she should be called Rosie.  She is very lonely, so I found Dolly bear for her to play with.  Great-grandma bear is holding her so she wouldn't be so sad, and Patty Bear and Uncle are trying to cheer her up.  Great-grandma looks pretty good since major surgery earlier today.

My Grandma Gladys Hobbs made Great-grandma and Great-grandpa bear years ago.  Great-grandma had one of her arms fall off and a couple other limbs were also getting loose, so I took her apart and replaced some of the incorrect hardware.  She is recovering quickly, and was happy to give some comfort to Rosie.

Hopefully we will have a picture of Rosie with baby Elisabeth real soon.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Teddy Bears Help Decorate the Christmas Tree

There is so much to get ready for a big family Christmas celebration.  It was coming up soon, and Grandma Jenny still had a lot to do, so Grandpa Bob and Uncle Edwin went outside and cut a tree and got it put in the stand.  The little bears were very excited that they would have a tree to climb inside the house.

Grandpa Bob set them straight about that right away, and told them they BETTER NOT!  It's bad enough having kittens climb it, and bears are a lot bigger.  He told them it was inside because he was going to decorate it.  Of course, they wanted to know all about that and started pawing through all the breakable ornaments as soon as he opened the first box.

Grandma came in to the living room and told the bears that she had very special ornaments for them to hang on the tree.  Each bear got it's own ornament with name (letter and number, actually) and the year 2011 painted on it.  She told them that when they got adopted, they would get to take their ornament with them as a reminder of their first Christmas and the year they got adopted.

The bears were so cute, stretching to try and reach the branches.  There were a few incidents of the domino effect, when one would lose it's balance, and the whole row of bears would topple over!
Starting from the left with the red bear, this photo is of T5, T7, T6, T3, T4, T11, and T9 in the back on the stool.

The photo on the left is of T10 on the top step of the ladder, T2 on the bottom step, T8, T1 (mostly hidden behind T8), and T5 again.
T1 is in the photo at right.

Just as a warning to anyone thinking about letting bears help decorate, Grandma Jenny says they do all right with the ornaments, as long as they are plastic.  Keep them away from the fragile glass ones, though, and don't let them help with the garland!  As you can see in the picture below, these little bears managed to get completely tangled with it!

T10

T8

T1

T7

T2

T3

T11

T4

T9

T5

T6

It was fun doing this shoot with the bears.  They all looked so adorable under the tree, and each one of them has such a different personality, that really came out in the photos.  I think they are all perfect matches for each grandchild.

In my next post, they get adopted and named.

Two Sets of Towels Done

The towel set that I wrote about weaving several days ago is now wet finished, pressed and hemmed.  I got three towels and a dishrag out of the warp.

This is the second set of towels, just completed a couple of hours ago.  It is a thick and thin cotton yarn that I dyed about a year ago.  The dark towel was woven with an 8/2 burgundy cotton, and the bottom towel was woven with left-over 6/2 hand dyed cotton.

Boy Bears Play Dress-up

The little boy bears got out the dress-up box today and were really having a lot of fun.  T7 is so much like Auntie Rach and Auntie Care-Care, because he likes to play Pirates of Penzance.
"Arrrrghhhh!  I am a pirate king!".

T10 likes to play Viking.  He made his own sword and shield.

T5 likes to play ball, and looks so cute in his uniform.  He needs a Detroit Tigers cap to go along with it.  Unfortunately, T10 and T7 don't like playing ball.  They would rather do sword fighting.  I think T5 is going to have to ask one of the other bears to play catch and practice hitting.

T7 and T10 started getting kind of rough with their fighting.  I warned them that someone was going to get hurt (just like a mom).  Of course they didn't listen, and T10 got hurt.

Off came the costume and I took him to get an x-ray to see if anything was broken.

All of his joints look ok.  I hope they listen, next time I tell them to settle down!