Tag Archives: loom

Mini Posts, Off Topic

Archimedes and Sir Gawain

2 Comments

I can’t show you anything I’m working on (happy December, guys!) so I thought I’d write a post about my guinea pigs.

If you recall, I have two of the little beasties. Both are furry, friendly, and possessed of an unfortunate penchant for nibbling on yarn.

1
Archimedes J. Pig.

Archimedes, often referred to as the Arkenstone, is technically my significant other’s pig, although he (the pig) and I have a certain bond. He loves to sit and cuddle on my lap, and nuzzles and flops and purrs and is remarkably endearing with his crazy little feet dangling all over the place. But once back home with his cagemate Sir Gawain, he transforms into a grouchy little monster and hogs all the food. My boyfriend claims he’s an intellectual recluse, but I suspect he’s just a bit of a jerk.

Sir G, on the other hand, is my very own pig, and lives up to his namesake: he is bold and chivalrous and maybe a little less bright than Archimedes. He has a tendency to jump on top of or into things whether or not they are structurally sound, such as his hay rack. While not the cuddliest guinea pig, Sir G makes happy noises whenever he sees me coming, and enjoys “popcorning”, which is what they call it when a guinea pig suddenly jumps several inches straight up in the air, twitches crazily, and then zooms gleefully around his pen.

2
If I hadn’t previously read about the phenomenon, I would have thought there was something terribly wrong with him.

So those are my furry friends. I’ll update you on everything else at the end of the month… if I make it that long.

3

Craft, Fiber Prep, Natural Dyeing, Weaving

It Folds!

7 Comments

Between twisting fringe, washing fleece, learning to crochet, digging through dormant works-in-progress, winding warps, and planning new projects, this past month has been a busy one. A few days ago, I made a happy discovery while idly browsing Etsy*: the manufacturer of my baby loom! It’s a toy loom from Brio, and at least one other adult weaver has succumbed to its charms. I wasn’t able to identify it before because one supporting beam, which would have been marked Brio, is missing. It seems that later versions of this loom used a rigid heddle, but mine is definitely an older model.

In fact, it brings back hazy memories of a toy loom I had as a child. Maybe it’s the same one.

Once I knew its manufacturer, I could find a PDF version of the instruction manual. To my astonishment…

…it folds! When I saw it in the weaving shop, I tried to collapse it for transportation, but when nothing moved, I assumed the loom wasn’t made for it. Actually, it was just that the screws on which the braces rest had rusted, and just needed to be loosened slightly.

Now it can come with me wherever I go. Or, at least, places that my Fanny couldn’t. So, with an upcoming weekend trip in mind, I warped it up again. Using a finer yarn than last time meant tying another 40 string heddles and using two ends per dent, but as a bonus, this made the log cabin threading a piece of cake. The yarn is Lion Brand 1878, which is a new one for me: a review on Amazon compared it to Harrisville Shetland for half the price, and so far it’s very nice, though I did find one knot and one weak spot in the eighty meters I wound for this mini-project.  I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Meanwhile, the laboratory kitchen was taking on a suspiciously sheepy smell, so I could justify spending time happily washing fleece in lieu of dishes. Below, a smidgeon of California Red and Targhee from the Spinning Loft:

Fresh fleece is so delicious and squishy that I’ve contemplated using it as a pillow. Or just sticking my face in it.

The Targhee has a good bit of VM, so I’ll be spending some time picking by hand while plotting to build a box picker. I think I’m going to card the stuff and spin it before dyeing, but I did toss some commercial BFL roving into the dyepot. Having done all the samples for my gamp at once, now I’m focusing on one dyestuff at a time.

In addition to deepening my knowledge of natural dyes, it’s much easier to coordinate.

Since it’s been a while since my last post, and the holiday season looms, there’s plenty else in the works: a hairpin lace shawl, a crocheted hat, a knitted sweater, and a 600-end Mystery Warp, all to be revealed in due time. But for today, I’ll leave it at that. Hope you’re having a nice November!

—

*A too-frequent pastime. Help!

Craft, Miniature-Making, Spinning, Weaving

The Introductory Post

1 Comment

Welcome to my fledgling craft blog! I’ve admired the online galleries and blogs of many different craftspeople and artists, and hope you’ll find something here that interests you as well.

At a certain point in my creative career, about when I began to observe an alarming quantity of my free time disappearing without a trace, I started keeping a to-do list. The following excerpt should be representative:

Blankets 14 epi
Still need to make floor: how to represent dirt? Rushes?
Timber?
Tambour needle
FIX WALLS
S-hooks
Leaves overshot draft—copy out
Wind and WRITE DOWN calcs this time

After months of scrawling these cryptic ideas in various notebooks and on the back of supermarket receipts, I am finding the brevity of the entries and the monstrous proportions of the list to be somewhat at odds. In other words, I can’t remember what half of it means! It seems that a more comprehensive approach to record-keeping is in order.

Enter the blog.

So, what do I make? Here’s a sampling of current projects.

First, a historically inspired, more than historically accurate, attempt at an Anglo-Saxon mead hall in 1/24 scale.

Saxon hall
For this project, I am valuing structural integrity (i.e. plenty-of-gluity) over strict adherence to historical construction techniques. Some people might be able to carve out a functional mortise-and-tenon joint in half-inch scale, but they are more skilled than I.

I am also learning to spin…

spindle

…and to weave!

loom
My beloved loom. Pictured is a half-woven blanket, part of a pair that I made as my first project.

In future posts, I plan to go into more detail about specific projects and techniques. Hope to see you then.