Arrivals!

You can all say "Hello" to Marigold, the first Massachusetts family transplant to arrive here in Oregon.



 This has been in the works for a while. When I was on my July visit we secured a travel agent for her. Last Friday she started in Boston, had a six hour layover with day accommodations at a kennel in Seattle and then got on the shuttle plane down to Medford OR. where the "limo" awaited her. Alaska Airlines did a fine job BTW, as did Jet-A-Pet. She will be staying with us permanently. The two cats, Foxy and Omar will be taking up residence with my parents and of course, accompanying them on 9/18/14 flights here.

She is settling in with the crew well.



 They are accepting and she is easy going, but everything is different and at 12 it can be a daunting to suddenly be in a new place with a whole passel of busy terriers.  And did I mention she eats rocks?



Well, she does, so on her trips out to the pen to hang with the peeps she has to wear this get-up. So far, so good.



Marigold wasn't the only arrival Friday....

The new Gilmore Gem II loom arrived mid afternoon and all I can say is WOW!



 This is the second loom I've purchased new and first impressions couldn't be more different. Instead of pieces of basic dimensional lumber, this loom is truly hand crafted. The fit and finish impressive with quite a sturdy feel to everything. It has a solid wide stance and instead of skinny little metal bars for beams, he has nicely made beefy wood beams.



  It is well thought out and has the looks of a show horse and I'm betting the ethics of a work horse. It does not fold, instead, the breast and back beam swivel to fold against the loom body, tucking the beater in and then sensibly locking everything into place.



The add on high castle is easily removable for travel and worth the additional cost to have that upper storage for shuttles and wound bobbins and pirns etc.



 I managed to get a warp wound and spread on a rattle yesterday and then had to stop.



 I had no warp/packing sticks short enough to use for winding on the warp. DH will cut some today for me and we'll carry on.

Now I will say, that in general loom makers do not include near enough heddles  This has held true with Louet, Glimakra and also Gilmore. They allow 50 heddles per shaft ( and it was pretty slick and easy getting them on BTW!). That seems to be the standard for a smaller loom, but I think it should be 100. I put the 400 heddles on shafts 1-4 and will have to order 400 more for shafts 5-8. They did give me the option on the kind of heddles though, flat steel or inserted eye. I went with inserted eye and a 12 dent reed.  Gilmore does not include warp sticks with the loom at all. Louet and Glimakra do. Now this is really splitting hairs, many people use cardboard or heavy paper for winding on the warp and sticks may be a Swedish/Scandanavian method. In any event, they are cheap and easy to make.

The warp is my favorite Foxfiber organic colored (Buffalo, a dark rich coco color) cotton.



 It is 6/2 weight and I've mixed it with two thin edge stripes of cream organic cotton, also 6/2, for a simple towel warp. 16 inches at 16 e.p.i. for plain weave with a standard rose path threading, 5 yards long plus a little more for waste. This fiber makes beautiful thirsty towels and the darker color really is more practical for every day use. We no longer have any commercial towels in the kitchen BTW.

Needless to say, it has been a busy, fun and exciting weekend so far and who doesn't love a long weekend. I hope you all enjoy your Labor Day doing whatever makes you happy.

Parting shot: Supervising.