The Great Studio Swap, Part 1

The past few days have been spent finishing up sock orders, now only one order left. I've also been going through books, filing fiber magazines into holders, going through seemingly endless amounts of papers, and setting up more files, trying to get control of the paper blizzard, and keep it in check.

Yesterday evening, the great Studio Swap began when we took the Glimakra CM loom apart and moved it down to the living room. The drawloom will be down here in a few days, along with one other loom, shelving, and equipment. I wanted to make my studio space accessible to visitors. The living room furniture will be going upstairs to my (almost) former weaving room.

Lamms will be put back onto the CM this afternoon, cords put back in place, then treadles will be tied up for a ten shaft twill. Tomorrow a cottolin warp for towels and runners will be made.

The drawloom, when I reach that point, will be warped with cotton in satin weave. The Glimakra 8 shaft Victoria table loom will have fine cotton or linen warp for bookmarks. The 22" 8 shaft Harrisville will be warped for cards and/or sachets. The Gallinger rug loom (still on the main floor, but moved to the laundry room) sectional beam has perhaps 45 yards on it ready to go, only needing the new apron to be lashed on, then tie on and tension the warp. I'm getting the studio and looms ready for a long northwoods winter of weaving.

There were two "interruptions" last week in the form of phone calls from the Northwoods Wildlife Center. As a rescue driver for them, I never know when they might call. Last Saturday came a request to drive to the U.P. to look for an eagle that was down. After searching for two hours, and not finding the eagle, we returned home. It may have gorged earlier and could not fly, but was gone by the time we arrived, or may have been stunned by a mishap with a car, but recovered enough to fly. We'll never know.

The second call was Wednesday, could I meet up with someone from MI DNR and transport an eagle over to NWC in Minocqua, which I did. I stayed to watch Mark (rehabber) remove the eagle from the carrier, a quick refresher for me on how to grasp the legs and keep clear of those talons. I just called NWC, talked to Mark, and found out the eagle had severe internal injuries and only survived 1 1/2 days. Sometimes this volunteer work is heartbreaking, and other times it is very rewarding.