When Kathy and I looked back over this past year, we really didn’t think we’d have much to tell you because — unlike many of you — we didn’t go on any exotics vacations or remodel our home or welcome a new grandchild (having no children ourselves, that would have been quite a trick!).
Our calendar looked pretty ho hum, but then Kathy looked at all of the photos we — well, really she — took and realized that we had a really busy year with lots to report!
Jim spent most days improving his weaving and his skills improved dramatically. Having to stay home and weave was about the only good thing that came out of the COVID lockdown. Apropos COVID, we figure we are part of that dwindling cohort of folks that HAVEN’T gotten it yet, a testament to our quiet lifestyle, lots of vaccinations, mask wearing, and dumb luck.
Katharine took several quilting classes — oh yes, we forgot to mention that she is becoming quite the avid quilter, and continued knitting. Jim continues to knit as well, but is mostly consumed with weaving and reading about weaving.
Our cat, Sherman, vigilantly kept us motivated and under a watchful eye.
Photos included below of some of our activities, and more will appear shortly!
Weaving
Jim recently became the proud owner of a new AVL loom:
AVL is a loom manufacturer based in California that produces looms, especially for the commercial / advanced weaver market. The loom pictured is a 16 shaft, 40 inch computer dobby loom with an Elift feature. A computer dobby loom uses a computer and a weaving information file to determine which shafts are raised/lower for each throw of the shuttles: that’s the large box on the upper left of the picture. The Elift raises and lowers the shafts so that the weaver is spared the effort of manually raising and lowering the shafts (lower box on the left). The bandage on my right arm was part of the assembly process.
The loom arrived on a palette in 11 boxes and require 8 days with some help from the vendor to assemble. Whew! I am still learning to use it.
Jim at the Louet David II for the woven pieces on this page:
Runners
Star runner
Traditional Scandinavian Crackle runner
Rep weave placemats with plain matching runner
Modern Crackle Runner
Towels
Kathy has, as mentioned, become a quilter. Here a few examples of her work and of her knitting:
Best Wishes to You All,
Kathy, Jim, and Sherman
Marginalia and Aphoristica 