The Baby Blanket Continued. . . and Finally Completed

The baby blanket I started in early April progressed nicely, with only a few unexpected interruptions, but still, the baby arrived before I got it to the parents. It is for a couple who were Debbie's good friends, and I wanted to do something nice for them. It always buoyed Debbie's hope for the whole world when people she loved chose to parent the next generation. I understand the baby is a girl -- and her middle name is Deborah. Nice.

Here, the warp thread have gone through the beater and the heddles. The most tedious part of this warp is done! Yea!

 

At the top of this picture, you can see that the warp has been pulled to the back and tied onto a bar. Towards the front of the loom, you can see several sticks running through the warp. Those sticks help keep the warp threads from tangling as the warp is wound to the back.

Here's another shot of basically the same thing. The back of the loom is at the bottom of this picture. I turn a crank handle that moves the entire warp back, back, back, until I can tie the ends off on the front bar. This process is hard on the tread, and if a thread gets hung up or snarled, it sometimes breaks. You can fix it, but it's a pain. Those sticks in the front help a lot. I just learned that trick. (Thank you Garnette and Michaela!)

Finally, I got to weave! This warp is 34" wide and I wanted the blanket to be square, so I wove 36" in length figuring it would draw up some when I took it off the loom. Under the tension of the loom, you can hardly see the waffle weave design at all.

Here's how I dealt with the only warp thread that broke while I was weaving: I tied it off close to the weft (so I wouldn't continue to rake the beater over a knot as I kept weaving), took the new thread through the beater, through the correct heddle, then just wrapped it around these 2 heavy bolts and laid them of top of the back beam. Subtle like a truck, but it put the thread under enough tension that everything could progress just fine.

When the blanket first came off the loom, I could see the waffle design, but not very distinctly. I could only hope it would pop out after it was washed.

And hooray! It did. White on white is always going to be subtle, but the little waffle squares show up nicely. This 100% cotton drew up more than I was expecting. The finished blanket is 28" wide and 30" long. Live and learn. I think it will be fine as a dressy blanket and it should not shrink any more with further washings.

Whoo-hoo! The Numbers Are In!

One of the things that motivated me to want to do the Healthy Charleston Challenge was a physical I had in October that showed my weight at an all-time high and enough elevation in my cholesterol numbers to make the doctor double the dosage of my medication. I went for a follow-up visit on Friday and here's what has happened since October and starting exercising and eating better in January:

Weight loss: 25 pounds
Percentage of body fat: down 11%
Total Cholesterol: down by 22 but still higher than recommended. LDL (bad): down by 12 but still higher than recommended. 
HDL (good): high enough to be a protective influence over the other two high numbers.

And here's what has really changed things for me. I figured out that all the knee pain and leg aches were not from gaining weigh or from the exercise itself -- it was a side effect of the statin drug I've been taking forever. And I've also been taking 2 Alieve tablets a day since at least 2004 to manage leg aches -- and I never attributed it to anything other than my own failing body.

Turns out, joint pain, especially in the knees, muscle weakness, and relentless aching is a very common side effect of all the statin drugs. Co-enzyme Q-10 is supposed to replace some of what they deplete. So, the doctor has reduced the dosage of my statin by 75% (wow!) and suggested I add the Co-enzyme Q-10 -- and we'll check how I'm doing again in 3 months.

We continue to go to the gym 2 or 3 times a week. It is exercise that keeps that good cholesterol number high. The bad cholesterol is influenced by weight and diet. So, I can still eat less meat and more salads.