A Promise Kept

I finished my purple flannel pajamas today and just in time. The sleeves of my shower curtain PJs are only elbow length because that's when I ran out of shower curtain. We heat with the woodstove, but Ian had to finally turned on the furnace for a while this morning. I need warm PJs. I used to sew all my clothes but haven't made any in at least 20 years. I can see that more sewing practice is required before I cut into handwoven cloth.
It was -9 this morning when I took this picture. Ian gets up before me and said it was -14 then. Today is supposed to be the last really cold day and then we will be close to freezing the rest of the week. That's when the dogs will start tracking in mud - good news, bad news.
By this afternoon it was a winter wonder-
land, that is, if you got to stay inside. DD Chris got stuck in her driveway with the front wheel drive wheels frozen in the gutter. We IMed for quite a while but came up with this solution: towels in front and behind front wheels, then rock the car back and forth to break the inertia. It worked and she cabled her tires right in the middle of the street. Even so she almost got stuck going back into the driveway. Ice is treacherous! I feel so much better, knowing that she is driving on cables.

I've been wanting to show off this specta-
cular Thanks-
giving cactus - it almost looks like an orchid. The starter was a gift from an elderly neighbor, one of the first to build out here, and wonderfully welcoming of us when we came. She died two years ago and I enjoy having this memory of her.
I have another memory that I am honoring. These towels are the first project to come off of Goldie. They are going in the mail on my next trip to town. Not quite two years ago I received an email (I'm the email contact for our guild), asking if I would advertise a loom for sale. Instead, I bought it. I had several email exchanges with Ken, the widower, and learned that he and LeeAnn had bought the loom in upper state New York and that actually both of them wove on it. He as an engineer liked the design process and she enjoyed weaving.

They had both retired from California and bought a new home in Gardnerville, which is south of Carson City, Nevada's capitol. They had been in their new home three months, ordered new furniture which hadn't even arrived, when she was killed in a traffic accident. The loom was still packed from the move. DS Josh was going camping in that area so went by and picked everything up and put it in their 5th wheel. Ken asked me if I would consider gifting him the first project that I wove from the loom. I said yes, but never seemed to find time to weave while I was working.
Ken included a lot of stuff and initially I gave some of the extras away. The whole box of yarns went to Virva, a Finnish weaver who lives at Lake Tahoe, and I forget where the frame loom went. But then I stopped thinking about it as time went on. I had woven a couple of samples on Goldie, but I feel the Texsolv heddles are what really made her mine and allowed me to enjoy her. Now I'm back to thinking about it.

This Schacht inkle loom was part of the package. I even took a class, but never even finished my project. I realize that I'm just not interested, so I asked Amy if she'd like it. She teaches inkle and could use it for a student loom. She said yes! I sent the wire heddles last week to Bonita for use in her student studio. LeeAnn's warping board went to Jeanne - why do I need two? I think the only things left to disperse are the books that Ken included. He and I are both excited about the towels - a promise kept. I just wish I would have used another color besides yellow. Deb Menz says a little yellow goes a long way. Why didn't I listen?!