A Day in the Life of Looms 2011

This is a wonderful tradition started by Meg.

Here is my clutch of looms, taken about seven this morning.

The Louet Hollandia (Hannah) 8 shafts/14 treadles has on a towel warp in 8/2 cotton that was just started yesterday.

The Louet Delta (Hey Baby!) 8 shafts/10 treadles has on the last of the endless pillowcase warp in 20/2 cotton. Just finished and waiting for cut off.

I have some warp left over so I'm thinking about weaving just a little more for decorative hems for more pillowcases. Haven't decided if I want to torture myself longer or not.

The Glimakra Julia (Julia surprise,surprise) 4/6 CM set-up has the start of more Prayer Flags.

The little Schacht inkle loom is collecting dust, but I really want to get it out and do some little bands for towel tabs.

That about covers my loom herd for this year. Anyone with a loom can join in and flash their looms! Sue at Life Looms Large has her looms up here.

Miss Bea is the loom room snooperviser today. Happy New Year!

So, Does the Red Make Weaving Faster?

YES, it does! It's just plain cheery working on a fire engine red loom, even when the weather is dreary. And let's be clear, no matter what the forecast says about partly sunny, it's been dreary. The weaving has not been. The flags are woven and ready to be cut off and finished today.

I have scads more warp for smaller flags and will retie it all on back later in the week.

I repurposed this little wire shelf pocket thingy from the old armoire. It fits perfectly on Julia and holds my serene little musical lamb safely along with my shuttle and anything else I happen to stick up there.

I had two of these, I gave one to Gene.

Part of Sunday was spent listening to the football games on TV and sewing on the work frock. It's all done except for buttons and hemming.

I'm pleased with it. It will get a lot of use while I work on my fiber pursuits. The directions for this pattern weren't the greatest, but I muddled through. Had to redo the first pocket 3 times. A cross between being mentally challenged and scant instructions. But finally, through trial, error and rereading for the umpteenth time, it was sewn in correctly. Pocket two was a cinch. The sleeves on this garment also provided a little challenge with the addition of a gusset. I think the last time I did a sleeve gusset was on an old Folkwear pattern a lot of years ago. It was fun actually and while I should have just set up the free arm Bernina to do the sleeve cuffs, I stayed on the flat bed Singer and it just took a little more time and effort.

Hey Baby Delta has had a little weaving done on the endless pillowcase warp. It grows, slowly as you all know.I will have to find a narrower use for all this 20/2 cotton because I sure am not going to do pillowcases again in it. The 10/2 would have sailed along by comparison. I can only imagine doing something like a tartan in an even finer thread. And that's just what I will do. Imagine it. ;)

Parting shots: Quiet company

Getting to Know All About You

Well, it took a week and some waiting and adjusting but weaving has commenced on the Glimakra Julia.

As with any new thing, there are some things you love, some things that you don't and somethings you just need to get use to.

The love column includes, size, getting good tight tension, easy to warp and treadle tie-ups, lack of noise and so far, shed and weaving. The getting used to column includes, shafts that don't lock in quite the way any of my other looms do, best place to tie the lease sticks on, adjusting the horses and shafts. Things in the don't like column are the lack of a cross bar/foot rest at the front of the loom. None of the benches I have left offer a cross bar either since the looms they go with have generous foot rest bars on the front of the loom. And being a light loom, she does walk. Heck I can make a loom four times her weight walk, and this is an easy fix.

I was wishing I had not sold the bench with the Murphy, but it too had no cross support in front for resting a foot, so no tears shed on that front.

In other weaving news, the blanket is just about done. I am at the second plaid part at the far end and hopefully will finish it up tomorrow. I was to involved into getting Julia weaving to leave for town yesterday. I have been pitifully slow on the pillowcase warp with a little less than half of the 736 ends wound and chained.

In knitting news, the Deadliest Crab has been started 3 times and finally seems to be moving along. I screwed up the count on the short rows the first time and twisted my stitches the second. Sheesh! He's a complicated little crab.

In farm news, Dennett did indeed make it out of surgery just fine. He lost one molar and had a thorough cleaning job. The vet was amazed at just how good his back teeth are. They did the liver biopsy and he has a very shaved tummy and two little stitches

at the actual biopsy site. He did not bounce back like the dog of old though. It took a good 48-72 hours before he was feeling himself and a lot of my time over the last couple of days was just spent keeping an eye on him, trying to anticipate what or where he might want to go. His tummy has been a bit upset and with both a long course of antibiotics and the anesthesia it's no surprise. The biopsy did not show cancer but beyond that I haven't had a chance to go completely over the results. It sounded like a hoppin' day at the vets yesterday and I have no qualms with waiting while true emergencies are handled. I'll give a ring today if I haven't received one. In the end, this fine old dog is at the end of his life, but today, he's eaten a grand breakfast which he was jumping up in the air to receive, snarled at Smoochie for being a pest and is having his after breakfast nap (complete with snoring) at my feet. I'll take it.

RED Alert

Thursday afternoon I got quite the surprise. The Glimakra Julia loom had arrived. She had arrived in less than a week after ordering. I was taken totally by surprise, pleasantly so. I should also say that Joanne & Ed Hall at Glimakra USA

can't be beat for customer service. I had questions, they had answers. Speedy, thorough and concise answers. This is the type of customer service we too often just dream about.

All that was between me and a set-up loom was exhaustion from goat wrangling that morning, a Friday morning trip to town (did the dogs really need that kibble?) and an afternoon grass fire (scary it's so early to have to even think about fire season) on Friday. Needless to say it was Saturday before I really got her into shape. And oh what a beauty she is.

She comes with a pretty nifty DVD showing how to put her together and do your first warp. Now this is a totally different way of warping for me. The reed becomes the raddle, lease sticks are cleverly moved from in front of the reed to the back and best of all, a little tip about winding on. She is small and clear enough underneath that I can sit by the warp beam in back, pull my warp to me under the loom and tension it myself while I wind on. Oh HEAVEN! The universe was humming my tune as I wound the prayer flag warp on, sitting on a cushion, warp sticks by my side and watching while everything rolled evenly into place.

There are still adjustments to be made. The pulley and horse system while quite traditional for a counterbalance loom is not one I have used so getting everything correct will take a little thought and fiddling. I rather like the bit of work that goes into adjusting it. I have again learned so much about how a loom works. The Louet looms come with the shafts and castle all assembled (not to mention they were all set up) so the inner workings are known to me in theory but not intimately. Some of the Swedish heritage this loom brings has now touched me in it's practice.

Julia brought her own serendipity. My much loved Murphy loom is sold to a new weaver and will be leaving me Thursday.

I will be sad to see him go. He has been a great loom and if I could have shrunk him to fit, I would have.

In other news, Old Man Dennett has to go in Tuesday for dental surgery. Just has to be done. His blood work also is showing signs of problems with liver function again, so while he is under they'll be doing a little biopsy to see if we can't put him to rights for a while longer.

The paddock is drying out. Of course a rain and snow mix is predicted for today and tonight, so good bye dry paddock. It was noteworthy that for the last two days I didn't give myself an ear worm when I went out there. Every morning since Feb. I have gotten this song stuck in my head after feeding. All in all it's not a bad song to have swirling around for a bit in the morning and I know it line and verse I might add.

The horses do too! Pete Seeger has always been a favorite of mine. Heck, my parents took me to one of his children's concerts when I was 4. I got up and sang (it was decided early on I should keep a day job). But I would say his songs are just as timely today as they ever were.

And finally, I want you all to know this is an equal opportunity household. Let no critter be be left unshowcased ...;-)