Saturday, November 14, 2009

Good Gosh That's a Heap of Ends!


And a lot of wool for a big blanket. I've finished 7 of the 9 warp chains for the blanket.

All I can say is that someone should make a warping board that has enough room between pegs to allow a hand to pass through the spaces easily. None do that I know.
My Father was also taunting me with how wonderful his Harrisville Warping Mill is.
I happen to know it's collapsible, just wait until my next visit....I have a very large suitcase!

The Delta came with about 150 heddles per shaft. I am going to need at least 155 for this blanket plus a few more. I had two hundred extra heddles that came with the loom but were never installed, so I have put them all on shaft 1 to section and twist tie off
for placement on all 8 shafts.


I am only using 6 shafts for this blanket, but might as well do them all for whatever may come in the future. I was delayed for a time while looking in assorted household drawers for more twist ties.

The rag rug for the kitchen has been started and actually close to two feet already woven. I am happy with the color choices so far and as is typical I'll throw in some fabrics I like but don't have a lot of, for shots of random color as I weave.

I'm always hard pressed to weave a rag rug in a truly set color pattern. I like the surprise of it all both as I weave and as I use it.

On farm news, Bob had a flat tire, and I mean flat. Worse, I didn't notice it until I was driving him up to the paddock with hay during the dark morning feed. It was on the off side from the one I usually work in and out of. Gene had to take the tire down to town for a new tube. It had been patched over the years like 4 times. Tractor tires are very expensive but use tubes which can be replaced cheaply. Thankfully I didn't do any damage to the rim. Whew!

Angel was no angel last night, in fact she is in the doghouse.

She has always been a counter surfer but has been pretty good in the last year or so. I became complacent and put a package of boneless chicken breast just a bit to close to the edge while I let the oven heat. We were to have roasted chicken breasts and home made stuffing. When I wandered into the kitchen to start assembling and seasoning things, there was no chicken pack. A quick look down the hall and I spied a ring of dogs around the laundry room. Sure enough, Angel had taken the package back to her crate. There was only styrofoam left and some wrapping. The rest of the little sneaks were all hoping for leftovers. I'm sure most got bits of packaging with only chicken breast essence! That evidence will no doubt make an appearance in some form today. Enough said. Our back-up meal isn't worth writing about and was barely worth eating.

Some time around 8:00 p.m. last night (and after a couple glasses of wine and one, after the meal we called dinner but wasn't, Frangelica), I started to giggle. There was little 9lb Pogo in Gene's lap and I can only imagine how much he (or any of them) wish they could counter surf. He can floor moulding surf and that's about it. Anyway,
it lightened my mood and I made up with Angel before heading up to bed. She will live another day as the Caped Counter Crusader, bringing food (or package scraps) to the downtrodden and very short....

5 comments:

Cindie said...

On warping boards - make your own to get just what you want. I have a great one Sam made me years ago - the pegs are far enough apart that my hands don't ever hit any of them. And it's free standing - the cross right at eye level for me to count. Generally it stays in one spot but I can move it - I like having it not flat against the wall but at a bit of an angle. I also have a horizontal warping reel by Gilmore - love it but only use it for the long warps - anything shorter than 10 yards goes on the warping board.

Life Looms Large said...

Well now, if you do kidnap the warping mill, he'll totally know who to suspect!!

Twist ties to wrangle all those texsolv heddles are a good idea. (I need to do some heddle wrangling sooner or later too!)

The rag rug is looking good! If you can snag any photos of your rug weaving shuttles, I'd love to see what you use. I was just given a gift of shuttles - and I think some of them are for rag weaving.

We've had counter surfing dogs in the past (surfing my mother-in-law's counters no less for a quiche, or my counter for bread). Bailey routine stole my dishtowels off the counter when he was a pup - maybe because he knew I'd chase after him to get them back. (He abruptly stopped when I was on crutches - so that might prove that the chase was the thing!)

But just the other day, he came in from the yard and thought he smelled turkey - so he stuck his feet up on the counter so he could get a closer sniff. Fortunately there was nothing there for him to grab!!! I know it was turkey he was after because we cooked a turkey a few days ago and he's getting scraps as part of his dinner. He's never been so excited about his food. Good thing dogs are cute!

Sue

Anonymous said...

I agree with you on the warping boards - I always bang my knuckles when I wind. Once I got the HD warping mill - I never looked back - I just love , love , love it!

Sharon said...

I'm with Sue. I'd like more detail on the rag rug. I want to do one but don't know where to start or what sett to use. I've seen them on several blogs lately and want one of my own!

R. Delight said...

Now if I was a dog (and I ate meat) I would be thinking you left that package out just for me and I would be a good dog to just snap it up to save you the trouble of giving it to me later!
Your house looks cozy with all the weaving projects. It is cold here lately!