Finished!

John has finished his butterfly mat!  He’s been working on it since December, and today he completed the last few rows, patiently “sewing” the yarn into very tight space with a needle.  It will come off the loom in a couple of days, when niece Susie Fraser is here visiting from Sydney.

We both learned a lot from this piece.  John learned to adjust when he discovered his original estimates for the size of the center design were off by a couple of inches. Marilyn learned a new way to create yarn that is the right thickness, by calculating the number of yards per ounce.  To balance the warp, which is set at 8 per inch, John needs yarn that makes 12 wraps per inch.  With our wool, that adds up to around 35 yards per ounce–not the 55 to 60 yards per ounce that Marilyn spins to make plied yarn for knitting!