Author: bradjrohr

The best intentions seem to somehow always get waylaid by something beyond our control.

I always meant for this to be a fairly steady blog, posting every few weeks. Well, It has now been 9 months. Due to things beyond our control, the first half of the year was murder at work, culminating with the doctor that Eric and I work for passing away. Once gone we were struggling to keep the practice open while it was sold, following the doctor’s final wishes.

Well, His estranged wife had other ideas. She had left him years before but stayed close for the money. After his death she descended like a vulture, making all of the employees’ lives hell. We had to ban her from the practice, get our HR company involved with their legal team, and it finally ended with her forcing everyone out of the practice, illegally withholding paychecks, stealing from the employees’ retirement plans, and accusing the employees of horrible things even though there is definitive proof that they never happened. Short story, we had to deal with the evilest, most vile person that we have ever met.

So Eric and I had a long vacation. We are now seeking other employment, possibly in different fields, we will see.

In the meantime, after the first 6 weeks of trying to get all of the illegal activities that the wife did reported to the proper authorities, we spent time delving into our various crafts.

Eric has been quilting like a madman and has now started his yearly task of embroidering his elephant ornaments (as seen in the Etsy store). He has started to incorporate goldwork into his creations and they look gorgeous! Now is the time to pick one up before the holidays!

I have been weaving, foraging into overshot and doubleweave, and loving both. Below are some pictures of both of our works.

After an unplanned hiatus just before a planned one, I am back with a few new projects, some new yarns, and new items on the Etsy store!

Completely healed now from the appendix issue, the remodel now in our rearview mirror, and the holidays now firmly behind us, I am able to get back to weaving!

We had nearly every part of our house changed, but the best part is that kitchen. It is so nice to have a kitchen that is actually useable and cleanable (the slate tile countertops were HORRIBLE to keep clean). The previous post has the before, here is an after…

The first project off the loom for this year is two sets of towels using the turned taquito style from my September post. This time I wanted an old world or slightly “antique” look as opposed to the mid-century modern colors of the last set. Using shades of burgundy, pink, blue, and ivory I set the loom and really loved the outcome. For no particular reason, they made me happy, made me think of our trip to Paris, and I really like how they turned out. As soon as they are cut apart and hemmed they will be available in the store.

I am currently working on a commissioned scarf and I am so happy to do it! I won’t post on it right now but will show it off after the recipient has it.

The last thing that Eric and I did was to get some of our scarves up on the Etsy page. These beautiful scarves have been languishing as we tried to figure out what to do with them. Once I had the Etsy site up we decided to put them up on there.

Brioche Stitch Scarf Hand-Knit Luxury Scarf

 

$179 USD

Wool and Silk Hand Knit Scarf

 

$189 USD

Entrelac Scarf, Hand=Knit Wool Luxury Scarf

 

$159 USD

I technically started my last project in August when it was still summer. We are now firmly into autumn and the project has been put on hold for two reasons.

Besides the appendix issues mentioned in the last post, We have also started a remodel. It began as only a kitchen remodel when we began planning over a year ago. It then morphed into getting new floors through the whole house, then new doors, then getting it all painted, fixtures…

It just grows…

And grows…

And grows.

Here are some before pictures of the kitchen followed by a few taken during the demo. Drywall is now up and hopefully cabinets next week! stay tuned for the final in the next few weeks.

So the weaving project that got interrupted was my first foray into weaving with wool. I had some wonderful Peruvian highland wool which I used for a warp. I went ahead and beamed on 7 yards, thinking that I could get 2-3 scarves and still have some warp to play with.

The first bit was using a variegated yarn with a long colorway that reminded me of wildflowers and a summer sunset. It was woven in a twill pattern and just looked beautiful when finished and fulled (fulling happens during the washing process; the water and slight agitation blooms the wool fibers making them soft and lofty).

After I took the twill scarf off the loom and retied the warp, I began to play with color and using Italian hemstitching as a decorative element. Usually, you will hemstitch the beginning and end of a project if it is not something that you want to machine hem.

The test…

And here is the actual process in progress.

The yarn for the weft is a merino and silk blend for the white and beige and more of the blue highland.

I got a little more than halfway done with this scarf before I went into the hospital for my surgery and when I got back and recuperated enough to weave, the loom had to be put away for the remodel. I cannot wait to get it back out and finish this scarf and get on to my next project, another scarf set, and some more towels for the Etsy store.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading this. I leave you this time with a picture of Perdita, she has been a trooper through all of the noise and desecration of her home.

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EVERYONE this past year has been through their share of… well, total shit. Some people baked bread and learned how to feed and name their sourdough starters, some people became involved with political issues (that opened a ton of cans of worms), and some of us did all of those and more.

FOR ME, the pandemic made many changes and at first, they were manageable; work schedule changes, getting used to masks, having more time at home and making do with what we could get from online shopping, and only venturing out masked and gloved when absolutely necessary. I baked, cooked, started learning French, knit… worked a lot from home and spent a lot of time just wandering around the house, doing nothing… it was all so exhausting. The only bright spots of my days were constantly pissing off relatives on Facebook who were pro-trump and anti-democracy.

LATER in the year, my beloved mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and passed away just 3 short months later. As so many people learned, it sucks to take care of someone you love yet not be able to hold them, hug them, or be with them when they have to go to the hospital because asshole people in the rest of the country refused to be smart and mask when asked and a bad pandemic became the worst pandemic imaginable for this day and age.

I HAD to find a way to relieve my stress and later heartache. My husband and I consoled each other, but without being able to have the consolation of being with the rest of our family due to Covid restrictions and people just being douche-bags when it came to virus control. Having been a long-time knitter, spinner, crocheter, I felt that it was time to try one more thing that I have always wanted to do…weaving. In July of 2020, I broke down and bought an Ashford 8-shaft table loom…

…THUS the monster was born. Join me as I discuss my weaving, the weaving of others, maybe the occasional recipe, and other things in life. Don’t get offended, the page is mine and contains my thoughts and nothing is verboten.