Heatwave, Voles and Placemats (Cont.)

For now, the heatwave that we've been stuck in appears to be over -- temperatures over the next week are forecast to be in the mid to upper 90's.  Amazing how just five degrees can make such a difference.

The marshy area below the dam

The voles, mice and gopher numbers continue their slow decline, but we're not letting up on hunting them.  On Wednesday I saw a vole scamper under a small, moveable deck we have behind the house.  I had a strong suspicion that this was the one chewing down the stalks of my potted lilies.  When Bruce got home, he got the pellet gun and we worked together to lift the deck to expose the vole that hopefully was still underneath.  The vole was there, all right -- but only as a bulge in the middle of the rattlesnake that had killed it for us.  The dear thing was preoccupied with digesting its hearty meal, so lay still and never so much as rattled.  In a quick change of plan, I ran for the snake tongs and a covered lard bucket while Bruce kept watch.  With the tongs, Bruce gently lifted the snake into the lard bucket, put on the lid and off we went to release it.  Usually we take rattlers to a place several miles away where there is a source of water but very few people.  However, we decided that this snake had earned the right to stay at Frogpond.  We carried it down to the wild blackberry bramble that sprawls in the marshy area below the dam and let it out.  There are plenty of voles there and they should keep him/her well fed.






The weaving goes well.  To my pleased surprise, there appear to be no flaws in my threading (this is a bit of a miracle, considering my tangled mess of warp).  I'm about halfway through weaving the color sampler -- I've got stripes of the various colors I'm considering plus am treadling them in two different ways (rosepath and undulating twill).  I like many of the color combinations and the hard part is going to be settling on only one or two.  A pleasant sort of problem!

 I'm learning a lot about the design process with this piece.  In my desire to break free from the "stuck" place I was in, I chose to not plan out my design on graph paper.  The placement of the stripes is counted out and regular, but the individual threads do not pick up the patterns in perfect symmetry.






It's not easy to explain, so here are closeups of the four orange stripes:

First Stripe

Second Stripe

Third Stripe 

Fourth Stripe

Each of the stripes is composed of four orange threads that are following the same threading pattern.  But because I didn't plan on them landing in exactly the same place in the pattern, the stripes look different.  I  greatly prefer the look of the first stripe and don't really like the messiness of the third and fourth ones at all.  However, I'm also drawn to the element of randomness this gives the overall look.  The variations give it a naturalness and interest that absolute symmetry cannot.

Either way, I'm enjoying the process of watching the weaving reveal itself to me as I throw the shuttle and step on the treadles.  It's a kind of magic.