Serene Weekend Over

After puttering around for the last couple of days we’re back to the roofing today. It really was lovely to have some peace but I also want this job over with asap. The back of our house is now covered in tarps:


and more old roof is coming off. At least they left me the front door or I’d be trapped in here! I already had to close all the windows on a sunny summer day. (Yes, I learned my lesson last time.) Help, I’m buried in a sea of blue…

Anyway, while it was quiet this weekend I was finally able to finish the blanket and it dried quickly on a line strung over the deck in the sun. So here’s the details:

Circus Blanket


Begun: July 27, 2007
Completed: July 13, 2008 (nearly a year since I started!)

Loom: Woolhouse Gertrude 45” 8-shaft countermarche
Yarn: Warp & weft — Condon’s 2-ply medium, Briggs & Little Heritage and one or two unknown wool 2-ply yarns. 32+ skeins of various colours (some overdyed). 2 extra dyed black skeins for crocheted edging.
Warp: 324 ends (40.5” in reed) by 11 yards long.
Sett: 8 epi (1 per dent in 8-dent reed)
Weft: 8 ppi (approximately square)

Weave Draft: 8-Shaft Pinwheel Twill


Comments: Since I'm using old yarns in various colours, the warp was wound in random alternating stripes each a multiple of 8 and woven the same way. The colours blend in the plain weave areas and show individually in the floats. The pinwheels show best when the crossed colours are the same or similar, but I'm not taking full advantage of the colour-and-weave design.

Wove 10 yards and cut into 3 lengths of 120". Multi-zigzagged the cut edges with the sewing machine. Laced sections together with a strand of yarn. Crocheted around with 3.75mm hook in Pointy Edging (my own pattern design).


The huge piece of cloth shrank down to approximately 93-95" square (not including edging), which is more than 20% take-up and shrinkage in both directions. This is fulled somewhat more than most blankets might be for thickness and warmth and to stabilize the long floats. It came out a bit smaller than I had anticipated and somewhat unevenly fulled in the washing machine. I did end up chopping off the selvedge knots at the seams as the blanket was drying. The edging is still wavy even after a hard pressing with a hot steam iron but I kind of anticipated that. My finished blanket is very firm and warm and it fits the bed just fine. And it’s heavy! But I slept really well under it last night.