And There Was No Joy in Mudville

I can only imagine how grumpy the folks in New England must be this morning. Quiet times at the Dunkin' Donuts and water coolers. Truth be told, I'm kind of grumpy myself. Of course, that may also be due to the multiple beers I had and all the nibbling I did yesterday. The dogs enjoyed the old popcorn that had been ruined by tears but the cried in beer was sent down the drain. Congratulations go out to all the Giants fans near and far. Just don't gloat around me for at least a week okay?

Moving on, Saturday was a productive day. Another warp was put on the Julia loom and I tried something new doing it. I've never been happy with some things about the Julia, most having to do with getting a warp on her. It's a small loom thing more than a Julia thing, coupled with the way I like to warp. Back to front and using a raddle. These two things have made loving the Julia difficult. I needed to find a way to extend the meager 9.5 inches of space at the back of the Julia loom to allow comfortably for the raddle and the lease sticks.

And then I found it. My old Purrington angel wings provided a pretty elegant solution.

They allow more space, made the rise up to the raddle possible

and it also locked in everything nicely at the back so I could get a good uniform tie-on to the warp beam bar.

I need to refine the steps afterwards to either move the lease sticks back into position for the wind on or get a very stiff metal bar to act as a back beam, but this is easily solved with a little trial and error. I made mistakes with this one as I found my way through but after everything was said and done the warp was wound on. I also put the sleeve back on the warp beam so it would be thicker than just that little black beam. A vast improvement.

The warp itself is awaiting threading. Some improvements were seen there too. I marked exactly half on the warp chain, so that my threading will be even on each side of the cords that come down in the center of the shafts for the Countermarche system. These drive me a little nuts too, but if I can get it all nice and symmetrical I can accept the differences between this loom and my Louets.

The green mixed wool warp is off and having it's fringe twisted. I promise pics when it's all done. It came out quite nicely!

Since the serger breakdown sewing has been on hold, but cutting has not. Six patterns have made it to the cut out out stage.

In fact I'm out of pins so unless I buy more, it's a pretty safe bet no more fabric will fall under the scissors until I start moving these along.

But wait there's more! Saturday a big old box arrived. An early arrival on the birthday front. A new serger. In fact the Brother 1034D that I had been investigating. My folks and Gene went havers on this because no one person should bear the brunt of my fiber addictions! (Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!).

Of course I had to test it out. I re-threaded it, taking off the cheesy and dinky color coded spools and gave her a little run through. As to be expected, the instructions that come with Brother products are excellent and yes, he works beautifully so far on the 4 thread overlock. And then, I put him away. The cover is back on and a little stuck on bow is sitting on top. I'll coo loving words to him over the next couple of weeks and practice french seams. I have moved the possessed White to the foyer for the next trip to Medford. I don't want any bad juju rubbing off. A set of stairs and a few walls should be enough separation don't you think?

Parting shot: Foxy Charlotte