Just thought I’d let you in on how I was doing with my self torture project of becoming slightly fitter: I’m still at it, I’m pleased to say. I can do brisk 1 hour walks most days of the week now, and without my hips or knees crying halfway through, pulse down from 150 to 130; or 20 min on the crosstrainer at level 5 (started out at 2-3, 10 minutes). Physical antics leave me pretty exhausted most days, and sweaty as a galley slave. Sometimes I simply do short bursts at a very high setting for 5 minutes, then collapse on the floor panting, but not as dripping wet.
Author: Pia
Waffle weave towels
5 shaft / 6 treadle pattern
60 x 90 cm on loom + hems
55 x 82 cm off loom
40 x 60 cm hot washed and tumbled
All the old stained hand towels are moving to the loft or garage, then I’ll see if I need to make more new ones.
I knew I was probably making a mistake on the hems, making them flare too much, but didn’t have enough treadles to make a sensible pattern and didn’t want to change the tie up between each towel.
As for my threading mistake, the result on the one woven with the mistake and the two others where I removed 4 threads getting a more open spacing in that spot was that the first one WITH the extra threads has the least visible error, so I should have kept it that way.
Calendar’s end
 We’re getting close to turning a new leaf again and I haven’t been talking much lately because I had a feeling everybody was making busy for the holidays and gearing their minds towards elves, reindeer, cookies and eggnogg. I hope you had some time to actually relax as well, not just dashing from one meal to the next with crowds of noisy relatives and cranky kids.  😉
No rush at the cottage, I’ve been weaving my towels, just finished the last one of the batch yesterday, so I better get cracking with the band also. I had a full blown cold last week, the first one I can remember for years and years; I guess it had to happen at some point. Ginger and elderberry tonic for the win! We had to do some xmas shopping with the rest, because everything is closed for 3 days, but luckily it wasn’t too crowded and I got to pick up my sewing machine from service too. I feel horrible and exhausted if I eat too much, especially the endless combinations of fat, white carbs and sugar, it’s murder on my system. Love the taste, but it’s just not worth it, so we’ve been scaling down more and more each year.
Waffles:
One of the things I’m working on right now, when I’m not elbowing my way through a month’s backlog of house and other cleaning. Mucking is exactly the appropriate word! I hope it won’t land me with another month long backache, because then it’ll just be a selfperpetuating nightmare, won’t it. 😉
Loom extension
I’ve long wanted a few more pattern options on my Lervad no. 9 – not as much since I got the GlimÃ¥kra, but still. 8 shafts would require a lot of remodelling (for instance I would have loved to extend all the lamms), so I settled for 6. That means I can work with supplemental warps in designs, at least 3 variations of waffle weave, turned 2/1 twill blocks just to mention a few of the ideas I’ve had over the years.