Sea turtle scarf

The last few days have basically been about surgery prep and sea turtles. Surgery is Thursday, so I have been tying off loose ends. At work I finished a major project review on Friday; I still need to do some work for performance reviews and tie up a few loose ends, but that’s about it. At home, I finally finished hemming the placemats and table runner, and handed them off to my photographer friend Lieven, who will be taking the beauty shots for the Handwoven for the Home contest being put on by Handwoven magazine. And I put together my sample sheets for the Twenty Four Plus or Minus study group. That’s almost everything I had planned to do before surgery – the last one, finishing two batches of candied citrus, will be completed today. They are not quite as sugar-saturated as I would like, but they’re done enough, and it’s now or never.

So what am I doing with my copious free time? Why, weaving, of course! I have put together a draft for a sea turtle scarf, a complicated process that involved redrafting the sea turtles and making sure they reversed gracefully in the center of the scarf. Because of the network drafted ripples, that meant drafting out the entire scarf. It will be 5,040 picks (72 inches) long, plus another inch or so on the ends to provide a generous hem. Here it is after the first few sea turtles:

The blue portion at the bottom of the scarf will become the hem. Why? Because, when turned back and turned under, it will match the back of the scarf:

This will make the hem much less obvious. (The idea comes from Kerstin Fröberg’s marvelous blog. Apparently it’s standard practice in Sweden, but it had never occurred to me before!)

The back of the scarf looks somewhat erratic, because it’s from the original set of samples with an incorrect pick density. The scarf itself has a much more solid underside.

I haven’t yet decided which side I like better. The ripples are more obvious on the bottom side, but the sea turtles “read” better on the top side. It also depends on the results of overdyeing at the end – I’m planning to scrunch it up tight in tiny ripples and then pour very pale shades of aqua and sea green dyes over the cloth. That will give it a bit more color and a more water-like effect. I will sample first, of course! Fortunately the reversed hem will match whichever side I choose to be the back.

Anyway, the scarf, as mentioned, is 5040 picks long, and I’m currently at 1,080 picks. I’m hoping to finish weaving/dyeing it before surgery, so I can add the beaded fringe while in bed recovering, but I’m not going to stress about it. There will be plenty of time to finish it afterwards. I’ll be off work recovering for a bit over a month, and I expect to be mostly ambulatory (though not fully recovered) within a week or two.

Surgery is scheduled for Thursday. I’ve got an excellent surgeon (one of the pioneers in his field, with tons of experience), so I’m not particularly worried, but well-wishes are welcome, as always. I’ll try to post my status on Friday, but if you don’t hear from me for a few days afterwards, blame the painkillers.

The cats, of course, have sensed there is something wrong in the household (cats have a sixth sense about these things), and are doing their best to help me finish my last few chores. For example, here are Fritz and Tigress helping me finish the placemat hems:

Said “help,” admittedly, consists mostly of batting at the thread I’m trying to sew with, trying to eat any stray bits of yarn, and sitting on the placemat I’m trying to hem, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

They had to help with putting together the sample sheets for my study group, too. Here is Fritz, helpfully chewing on a cone of yarn:

Then Tigress joined in the fun, and for awhile, I was too busy fending off enthusiastic feline assistance to get anything done. Fortunately a white knight (aka Mike) appeared and distracted the cats with a laser pointer, or I never would have gotten those samples finished!