I often get up early, but I cannot say that I do it with enthusiasm. This morning I voluntarily did so. I’m at Sand Key Beach, Florida across the intercoastal waterway from Clearwater Beach. Sand Key faces the Gulf of Mexico. Here was what greeted me this morning…
from the hotel room
and on the beach
In the community park next door…
Isn’t the dew amazing on the flower???
Time seems to speed by and it often feels like nothing is happening with the weaving. That is not true, but sometimes just how I feel. In any case, let me tell you what is happening. In the last weaving blog entry, I wasn’t sure about the header and the weft protection. I received great suggestions and encouragement. I did begin with a little nylon as weft with each of the groups. I used the “highly scientific” method of using the end of sharpened pencil as my measuring stick for how high to weave each group. (Somehow I’ve lost my ruler – just another reason to go shopping at Hobby Lobby!) Anyway – here are a sample of the groups along with my latest idea on how to hold this together when I take it off the loom – paper clips! No not the spiral wire kind – I’m using the big black mechanical spring kind. My intent is to hold these groups temporarily. Once off the loom, I want to work with each group one at a time removing the paperclip and nylon weft and then choosing some knotting method from Collingwood’s book.
So with all the groups ready, I’m a needing to get some bamboo in here. I did finally finish taking the branches off the last one. So now what? I decided they needed to be washed from their time outside in the weather and then maybe wipe them down with mineral oil. 
I was shocked almost immediately with how wonderful they looked. All the colors deepened and sharpened. I was nearly speechless. Not quite though – I ran inside and asked James – How can I make this more permanent??? He made a few suggestions and I decided to try using Tung Oil. The Tung Oil will penetrate into the wood unlike other varnishes or lacquers. So one by one they were cleaned, dried and oiled and then propped up against the fence to dry overnight.
That’s about 1/3 of them – and I’m beginning in a very small way to understand those who choose to spin their yarn before they weave!!! But isn’t it worth it – look at the before:
and after:
Next is to figure out how to cut them without splitting them and try out the weaving. Then I figure the next hurdle is – how will this wind up! Hee, hee, hee – what fun!
Shadow and I go for a walk through the town cemetery at least 3 times a week. It’s a safe place away from traffic and isn’t a bad place for training. We often meet new dog friends there. We’ve walked through there with all our dogs over the 15 years we’ve lived here and it’s amazing how many things one can miss. I always appreciated this headstone because it is very different from most of the rest, but just recently I actually read what was on it.
If you can’t see it, here’s a detail:
Spiro Christoff
Born May 17, 1889 Prilep-Macedenia, Yougoslavia
Died Aug 21, 1956 Greer, SC
I now wonder what’s the story. Who was Spiro and how did he end up in Greer, SC? Where exactly is Prilep? What I found is that it is now the Republic of Macedonia on the northern border of Greece. Prilep is almost central. You can check out the Google map. The photos from there are quite scenic with the mountain ranges.
As far as Spiro, he may have been driven out during one of the world wars. The fact that it says Yougoslavia, makes me think WWII, since the Kingdom of Yugoslavia did not start until 1929. But after the war, he didn’t go back. I like to think he fell in love. What do you think?
I’ll leave you with this headstone. It catches my eye, because, of course, it reads Penland and reminds me of the school in Bakersville, NC. Again, I finally read the stone and was shocked at what I saw. Do you see it????
The groupings of warp are 3 inches apart, so I set a tape measure on the reed to tell me if the placement was correct.
I was rather proud of myself when I finished the last group, until I realized that I had not sent the warp over the castle before heading into the heddles. This is one reason that I’ve chosen this simple warping – mistakes like that are not hours in the undoing!
I then inserted 4 of the spacers within the warp and spaced the warp out correctly.
With that you can see here the outside/inside order of the groups and hopefully can imagine what will happen once I start placing the bamboo in there.
The next step is generally to put in a header and some sort of weft protection (something to keep this from falling apart when I take it off the loom). I’ve thought about tying off a small portion of warp at each group, but wonder what you all think?
In general, hikes in SC are all about the destination. There can be prettiest along the way, but there’s a set of falls or a breathtaking view at the end that one is going for. This hike was different in that it followed the Middle Tyger River which meant there were many falls to see and hear.
While this is all beautiful, the main objective is wearing out the dogs. So does this face look worn out???
So we resorted to throwing sticks into the water. 
The river generally washed away sticks we threw in, so then it became just find any old stick. Otto won first prize in fishing out a tree and bringing it back to us to “throw in” again! Can you imagine the jaws and the neck he must have???
Otto and Shadow were still chasing each other at the end of the 5 hours, but we weren’t in the car more than 10 minutes before Shadow snuggles in…
Score two big ones for the humans!
