Oh baby blanket!

The last weekend in August, Elaine, a friend from Salem, came up and joined us for a whale watching excursion in the Salish Sea. It was a wonderful day at sea and we spotted humpback and minky whales.  Peter had to break the rules which nearly caused my head to explode  (I'm a great stickler for rules!) but I did get photographic evidence to black mail him with should the need arise in the future.

During Elaine's visit she became quite intrigued by my loom. Around our sight seeing adventures (Downtown Lynden, Fort Langley) she made a small weaving project.  She had never used a loom before so I tried to guide her in a simple project that could be done in the few hours she had.  Needless to say, things didn't go perfectly.  But as I was trying to show her all the steps in the process I figured out a lot of things that were giving me trouble.  After a few mis-steps (mostly caused by my inattention or misinformation) she ended up with a nice strip of woven fabric in a yellow and blue plaid.

I ended up inspired.

With inspiration swirling around me and a grandson on the way I thought it was a good time to try weaving something special for him.  I planned and plotted and started setting up the loom.

I know.. boring.

But it got more interesting..

After nearly a week of running back and forth to the warping board and the loom.  After threading more than 200 all-cotton strings through heddles and reeds.  After numerous bottles of beer and in the midst of an awful, snotty head cold, I finally started weaving:

An hour later I had a blanket.  A little anti-climatic.  I mean a week in prep and then an hour of weaving.  sigh..  I had enough thread left on the loom that I wove in a separation area and continued on to weave a second blanket in a slightly different pattern.   My nephew and his soon-to-be-wife are expecting a baby boy as well.  I'm not sure how much my nephew's baby will need a warm cotton blanket (they live in Florida after all) but it's the thought that counts.. right?

Today I finished the detail on the blankets:

My grandson Jack's baby blanket

My great nephew Jake's baby blanket

I had to go to the fabric store today to purchase the blanket binding and got further inspired by cute little fleece hats and home made booties and big fabric letters that can spell out words and names.  It all confirms my theory that I need to become independently wealthy so that I not only don't have to work - but I can hire someone to do all the things I don't like to do (like dishes and laundry and vacuuming and dusting and cleaning up cat yack) so that I can spend my time just doing the things I WANT to do.  

MCMIX

In 1909 Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States.
In 1909 Fatty Arbuckle made his film debut.
In 1909 Orville Wright set a new United States airplane endurance record, remaining aloft for 1 hour 20 minutes 25 seconds
In 1909 Janet Jackson was born.

In Janet's lifetime she saw the invention of TV, color TV, remote controls, cell phones, microwaves, cruise control, space travel, computers.  She saw woman get the right to vote and people of color be allowed to sit in the front of the bus.

Today we buried Janet Jackson.  She was 104 years old.  I met her when she was just 100 and she told me she wanted to make it to 103.  She managed that and then some.  Janet didn't have any children and always looked upon Peter as the son she never had.  She met him over 50 years ago. Unfortunately at 104, there aren't many people left to mourn.  Janet had no children.  Her husband passed away 30 years ago (at 80!).  Her brothers and sisters are long gone.  In fact there was no one left but us to attend to her burial.  It's very sad to think about.

The last time we visited with her we took her out for a walk in the park.  We picked flowers and admired the trees.  She seemed to enjoy it very much.

Peter tells me he could never tell Janet he was coming to visit.  If she knew ahead of time she would make him the gourmet meal of pork and beans with wieners and pineapple.  For dessert she would give him coconut cream pie and artificial grey whipped cream.  He had to surprise her so that she would not cook for him.

Enough maudlin.  On another, somewhat inappropriate note...

We were talking to the funeral director today and he told us that the woman who prepared Janet for burial was named Elizabeth Taylor.  I think that's so fitting.