Visitors Outside

We had some visitors in the backyard yesterday.  We normally have just two families of geese that stay on our pond, but we've got a few more passing through.

Not weaving-related, but I could see them from my loom room!

AVL FOs

I just finished my first FOs from the new AVL. They are 8/2 tencel scarves with a black warp, then I used different colors for the weft.  I also changed the design each time, keeping the same 16-shaft point twill threading.

I really like the green and the gray ones, but the eggplant looks like an ugly piece of upholstery fabric.  The design was quite prominent on the loom, but once it was wet finished, the design disappeared. 

Off to the box of ugly FOs!  I've collected quite a few of them over the years and I just can't bring myself to throw them away.  What do you do with them?

Next in Line

I've had 6 kg of 2/9 wool in my closet for about six years.  I've been planning on making blankets, but have been putting it off because of the 1024 ends it will require. But my mom called me a couple months ago and asked if I would make her a blue throw for her new couch, so it's now the next project in line.


I've never done a project with that many ends before.  I had ordered a couple hundred extra heddles for my Glimakra last year in preparation for them, but didn't get to it.  Now I have a 16-shaft AVL with 1600 heddles already on it!  I'm going to use double weave plain weave, so it will require only 4 shafts, but I'm going to spread the ends over all 16 shafts so hopefully it will reduce the stickiness of the warp.  The blankets will be approximately 64" square (on the loom) with 6 inches of fringe on each end.  If I make a 15-yard warp, I should be able to get 7 blankets out of it. Or at least 6 blankets and a nice warm shawl.

I'm going to use the natural and gray for the warp and the blue, red and purple for the weft.

I'm also going to do something else I've never done before and I'm going to sley this OFF the loom.  I'm going to Hobby Lobby tonight to see if I can find something that will work as a reed holder.  It's going to be sleyed at 32 epi, so an 8-dent reed is also going to be ordered.  It will be easier to thread the heddles (being an avid F2Ber) on 16 shafts if the ends are always in groups of four. I'm thinking about pegging my dobby to raise 4 shafts at a time to make threading go smoothly with less chance of a mistake.

P2P2: Making Contact

I just received an email from Julie Bowyer, letting me know that she has received her packet of pix.  Now that she has them, I'll go ahead and post them here.  I have a good friend, Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston, who is a photographer here in the American Midwest. He took these pictures in the area around which I live and gave me permission to use them for this project.


I live in the Loess Hills of Iowa.  Supposedly, during the last ice age clay soil had been ground very finely into tiny particles by the receding glaciers, which were then blown by winds to form these hills.  Just a few miles from my home is an oxbow of the Missouri River which is now a state recreational area called "DeSoto Bend". Most of these pictures were taken there.

I hope Julie finds inspiration from these pictures. I tried to find pictures with a variety of textures and colors.

Where will it go?

I have something hiding in the garage.  A month ago I won an ebay auction for 3 looms, of which one was my AVL.  The other two are an 8-shaft Mountain table loom....

...and a mystery loom.  It's a homemade 8-shaft, 10-treadle countermarche loom and has been finished so beautifully it could be a piece of furniture.  The problem is, it's in the garage in front of my husband's workbench and he's getting very impatient with me. 

I'm very excited about putting it back together and seeing how it works...but I have no place to put it!

Neglect

I'm almost feeling sorry for my Glimakra.  She's been sitting patiently with a tartan now for a month, waiting for me to return. 

I've been spending way too much time with the new AVL (which I love, love, love). The Glimakra isn't the only one being neglected.  The twins haven't seen any action for months, either.  

So much to do!  And my house needs cleaned and there's tons of yard work to do.  The days are longer, but I have so much less time!

Will I or Won't I?

My AVL came with a fly shuttle system which increased the width of the 40" loom by over 2 feet.  I had approximately 8 inches to squeeze myself between the loom and the treadmill on one side and 6 inches to squeeze myself between the loom and wet bar on the other.  So...I took it off.  Right now I don't see myself using it, because I have my trusty Glimakra for rugs and blankets, but who knows what the future will bring.  I'll just try to store all the pieces in one place and hope I remember where I store it.