Over the Rainbow Blanket
Finished. Finally.
First things first. Deepest thanks to each and every one who left such kind words and warm thoughts while I’ve been absent. I do believe that thoughts are things, and that they tranform into energy that finds its way to their intended.
My sis is doing remarkably well, given the circumstances and has reached a real state of Peace around her imminent date with death. She refuses to accept any estimated ‘date’ so continues to make plans several months into the future. She’s wonderful that way. Her mind is becoming a bit cloudy, but her spirits are high. Her sense of humor is intact.
She and her partner are going to fly to the Ocean in a couple of weeks, to spend some time by the sea before she returns home to begin the ‘hospicing’ process. I wanted to complete her blanket before the plane ride, as she chills easily and planes can be quite cool.
I’m surprised that it didn’t full right on the loom from all of the tears that have been shed into it — but it did survive! Speaking of fulling, it softened up so nicely, and I’m just so pleased with it. It is a small blanket and/or wrap so that it can be easily taken anywhere with her.
On the loom, it measured 36 x 57 and after fulling its final measurement is 33 x 52 without the fringe. I had planned on basting it in with several other blankets for a tradtional waulking — our guild had a wonderful workshop by Norman Kennedy (more on that in an upcoming blog) — and held a waulking one evening. But, this blanket is so petite that I was concerned it would full up too much with the amount of time that was needed for the larger tartans that were being done.
It was a bit dicey to full it as I have a front loading wash machine. I set the cycle to ‘ultra hand-wash’ and warm water. Then added a few drops of shampoo in the detergent cup. About every 5 minutes, I’d pause the machine, and take a look. It took about 20 minutess to get it where I wanted it. Then I put the machine on drain and gentle spin. It came out of the machine still pretty sopping — so I cavalierly tossed it in the dryer set on medium high ‘touch up’. Every few minutes, I would stop the dryer and check the blanket — it began to fluff up nicely at about 13 minutes in. So I dropped the heat down to ‘medium’ then gave it another 10 minutes, then dropped the heat down to ‘air dry’ and gave it another 10.
When I pulled it out, it was still very damp and the fringe was very wet . We have a huge bed that my beloved hand hewed from pine tress — and it has a rail around the top of the same logs. So I draped a towel over one of the rails, then draped the blanket over that — and placed more thick towels on the footboard to catch the drips. It dried beautifully overnight and is soft, supple and lovely.
My plan was to give it to my sis this weekend — but we have had over 20 inches of snow in the last couple of days (welcome to Spring at high altitude!) and are quite snowed in. The sun is out today, however, and the melt off should be fast.
I did have a wonderful time learning spinning from Mr. Kennedy (a real life treasure) and will be excited to share photos and more on that later.
Again — thank you all for your loving support. Life does indeed go on, and weaving my heart and tears into this blanket was a wonderful healing process. I feel very ready to face all that comes within the next few weeks, made even more resolute by the lovely common threads that run between us all.
Love to all –
Jane
