weaving – Yarn, Books & Roses

Shuttle Pilot Days

My sister Selma sent me some of my favorite gifts ever. Beautiful plants, cute figurines, rice cookers, and great shirts all arrived on my doorstep sent by my sister. Two years ago, I tried to get back into weaving, but it didn’t go all that well. I used a table loom and even that was too much for my sad little hands. I had to use oxygen. I was feeling pretty down about the whole thing. Selma, forever unwilling to surrender to the hardships sent her way by life, sent me this tee-shirt. I packed it away.

This is a beautiful shirt, very comfortable and in my favorite color. It was a kind of a flop, however, because… scleroderma. I have a great floor loom that hasn’t been used for almost a decade. I can’t remember when I last produced something useful on a loom. I had kind of accepted that my days of weaving were over.

Then Selma died last summer.

Time to channel the indominable Selma, right?!! This Christmas I bought myself a little rigid heddle loom that I thought I might be able to manage while sitting in bed. Good plan, right? I used the practice yarn sent with the loom to learn how to warp and use it, and then I warped it up again with superwash merino sock yarn. Guess what? I can weave like crazy propped up in bed binge watching Netflex. Yay!

I finished the scarf this week and it is great! I am really happy with the feel and the drape. I bought a little fringe maker tool so I can make even twisted fringes with beads. Did I do this propped up in bed? Of course. I’m feeling pretty successful and I have already warped up the little rigid heddle again. Do I have visions of finished scarfs dancing in my head. Yep. Watch out yarn stash, I am coming for you!!

I also, in a moment of determined optimism, signed up for an overshot weaving class that would require me to warp up and use the floor loom. Oh, boy. Getting the loom warped and correctly threaded was… a lot. Just exhausting, actually, both mentally and physically. Eventually the warp was on and I could begin weaving. Yikes. This was a lot of work. There were problems with oxygen levels and sore muscles. I persevered, took a day or two off between weaving sessions, and slowly I became stronger and my breathing improved. I worked my way through the lessons online, clearly behind the rest of the class, and struggled to master the equipment and technical details involved in weaving overshot, a technique that involved weaving two fabrics interlaced with each other at once to create the type of designs in the pictures below.

Today I have finished weaving two of the major projects associated with the class, and I couldn’t be more pleased. These two placemats look different, but they are actually made from the same threading on the loom. The two looks (the left is called “star” and the right is called “rose” in weaving language) are created by changing the treadling sequence. Cool, right? My next assignment is to create a table runner that combines these two patterns together in a creative way. Yeppers! I am so excited to do that and have already half-way figured out how it will happen on the loom. I have new yarn picked out and everything. I am gaining energy and I can weave much longer at a time, and I’m not experiencing too many joint problems. Am I wearing my shuttle pilot shirt? Why yes, yes I am!

Selma would be so pleased to know that I am once again a shuttle pilot!!

After thoughts:

Selma sent me Swedish gingersnap cookies last year for Christmas. I bought another can and I’m now eating those cookies while I work at the loom.
Grief is a tricky thing. So is stress management. I have discovered that working at the loom, creating something beautiful and useful over time using repetitive movements, helps with both.
I’m thinking of joining the local weavers’ guild.
I have a really lush, healthy looking African violet plant that Selma sent to me one year. Is this plant blooming? Nope. This is kind of on point for my sister. When the time is right, I anticipate that it will produce blooms better than any other plant that I own.

Thoughts on the Night of the Snow Moon: Cruel Romance Personage Year

Some of you who have been following my blog for a while know that I am a huge fan of Murderbot.

Like, I try to channel Murderbot whenever possible. Murderbot struggles with social situations. Murderbot is painfully aware that he is not like other constructs and absolutely knows that he is not a human. He pretty much is unique in most settings. (If he was a human, you might consider him a zebra). Murderbot is a total bad ass; often terrified, roiling with self-doubt and uncertainty, he takes action to protect what is important, and keeps moving forward. There might be some violence and murdering, but he gets the job done. He also watches media entertainment whenever possible. His favorite is a serial called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. Do I have a Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon tee shirt? Umm… yeah.

That’s why when I finally recovered from my injuries (car wreck) enough to drive last January (2025), I put on a Murderbot audiobook, opened up the sunroof, and placed my emotional support chicken on the passenger seat next to me. I can do this, I told myself! I did it, channeling Murderbot every single time I stepped into the car again until I had moved past the trauma and was a confident driver again.

I would have taken a cat with me if I could have. Mateo, in his January winter coat, declined.

That was how the year 2025 started. I still listen to one of the audiobooks in The Murderbot Diaries series every single time I go out in the car. The last year was just epic in its awfulness. It was difficult on all fronts, and it felt like I just couldn’t catch a break all year long.

My scleroderma flared with new, significant complications that just kept coming. I had tendonitis for months. I developed bacterial overgrowth in my GI tract (SIBO) that stole my energy as I steadily lost weight for months. My cat almost died. My sister died. My son died. I had a serious fall and caught covid at the emergency room. In the aftermath of my covid infection, I developed dysautonomia and new cardiac symptoms that kept me close to home and on oxygen more days than I wanted to admit to. For a couple of weeks, I mostly stayed in bed and on oxygen as moving around just a little caused dizziness and chest discomfort. Did I read Murderbot while I was bed bound? Of course I did. Finally, as 2025 came to a close, I realized that most of those symptoms were much better and that my heart was settling down.

My son’s fingerprint and a bead that he gave me for Mother’s Day.

There is a media serial mentioned in one of the Murderbot books called Cruel Romance Personage: the title, an approximate translation from an ancient language, puts Murderbot off so much he has never watched it. One day I realized what a correct translation would be. Cruel Romance Personage would be more correctly called… Heartbreaker. That is the perfect description of 2025: Heartbreaker.

While I was struggling, I bought lots of new pillows. Hannah has claimed them.

I finally got into the office to see my cardiologist last Monday. We talked about new treatment options. We talked about quality of life decisions within the context of a fatal health condition (PAH). We talked about resiliency. I asked if he thought that my heart had been damaged by my covid infection. Probably not, in his opinion, since I had recovered. The more likely scenario was that I had sustained heart damage from Broken Heart Syndrome, and I am now well on the way to recovery. I have follow-up testing in a couple of weeks.

Of course. How on point for 2025.

I’m supposed to avoid stress. (Ha. Are you listening, 2026?) What am I doing with my time? I’m knitting, reading, and weaving of course. I’m learning new things, I’m picking up new causes. I’m producing new things. I am moving forward.

I am finally weaving my overshot placemat.

Goodbye, 2025. You were a Heartbreaker.

And I am still here. Bring it, 2026! Let’s go!!

Hannah and the CoalBear: Weaving and Zebra Adventures

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I’m hanging out with the Mother of Cats while she works away on her loom downstairs. The Mother of Cats has been fussing around with this thing for days now, and I don’t see the point, but she seems to be happy playing with all of these strings that she WON’T SHARE WITH THE ME!!! I’m lucky that there is this nice bed to hang out on because I’m now allowed anywhere near the loom. Why does the Mother of Cats do these things?

The Mother of Cats took two evenings getting the heddles of the loom threaded and then did some test weaving to check to make sure that she hadn’t made any mistakes. It all looked great to me, but she suddenly burst out with…

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!

… it seems that there was a mistake or two in the threading of the loom…

If you look inside of the pink circle (hey, don’t judge my circle drawing skills… I’m a cat… paws…) you will see a couple of spots where two threads (AKA strings… or if you are Mateo… CAT TOYS!!) are hanging out side by side as they move up the weaving. Oops. That’s a problem I guess. The Mother of Cats spent hours fixing that mistake and a couple of others absolutely forgetting my evening tuna snack. Why is the Mother of Cats like this?

She had to cut out and remove the weft threads on one side of the weaving, and then she pulled out threads to fix some other problems. All of this had something to do with threading heddles correctly so that the pattern would be perfect. Perfect is overrated, right? What do I know… I’m a cat and I have to settle for less than perfect a lot. Have you seen Mateo? What an absolute goofball!! Anyway, as she worked, she found even more problems!!! There was some sighing. She kept ignoring me. WHERE IS MY TUNA!!! Finally, after some not nice words were said, she had everything fixed and was ready to do the next lesson in her online weaving class. She actually paid for all of this misery. I don’t understand humans very well.

In the daytime the Mother of Cats worked on knitting a little outfit for her knitted zebra. This is another bit of silliness that I don’t really understand, but it is nice to hang out with her while she knits. The outfit got done this week and I do have to admit that it looks pretty darn sweet on him.

Well, that is all for now. I’m going to see if I can get my evening tuna snack a little early to make up for yesterday.

I’m going to hang right over her while she types until I get the TUNA!!!

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

I really am learning a lot in the online weaving course. I have also figured out at least a half dozen new ways to fix threading mistakes while dressing the loom. I’m pretty sure that the next time I do this things will go much faster because I have learned about almost every single mistake that can happen.
Next project on the loom: I have to weave a band of the pattern and then cut it off the loom (!!!) so that it can be washed and measured. Oh boy. This is going to be an adventure for sure. I will also get to see if the cotton yarn I have chosen is color fast during washing.
I finished reading The Emperor of Gladness and I’m not sure what I think about it, but I am certainly thinking about it a lot. It isn’t a happy book, but it is a book so well written and crafted it feels like being in a dream. Imagine a group of people living on the fringes, coping with their lives in a number of ways through lies, imaginary realities, drugs, and tightly knit grouping of found family. People who really care about each other, and people rendered down to the essentials by trauma and life. People who feel consumed by the system. People who are vulnerable. People whose lives matter all the same. I’m glad that I read this.
I’m already thinking about how to create a scleroderma warrior edition of the zebra to enter into the annual fundraiser auction for my chapter of the Scleroderma Foundation.