Tina's World of Yarn

From Roving to Sweater - completed at last!

2011-01-02T10:40:00.001-05:00

In 2009 I wrote about my quest to knit a cardigan using handspun. I consider myself an advanced beginner to intermediate spinner. Basically, I spin the yarn the roving wants to be - and that's usually about sport weight. Which means I have to spin a lot for a sweater. While I've knitted since grade school (40+ years - OMG!), I've mostly knitted stuffed animals and things that I didn't have to worry too much about the gauge. I'm a very loose knitter and usually have to drop 2 or 3 needle sizes to get the gauge. So I must have been a little crazy at the time to decide to do this, but it worked.

I found some beautiful Shetland roving in blue (my mother's favorite color) with a strip of gray that I thought would make a pretty heathery yarn. I was told it would take 2 pounds to make a sweater, so that's what I bought.

Then I spun the yarn. Surprisingly, this only took 4 months. I did spin a lot during this time though.

I found a raglan sweater pattern on the internet that looked nice. After knitting some swatches and calculating my gauge, I modified the pattern accordingly. Then I had to figure out how to knit the buttonholes. My mom is 93 years old, mostly blind, and needs an obvious buttonhole. I knitted samples with the ones in the pattern, but they were too small and too hard to find, so I searched on the internet for an alternative and found a very nice tutorial on different button holes. I chose buttonhole #5, which would work well with a 3/4" button that's easy for Mom to manipulate. What on earth would I have done without the internet?

As expected, the sweater took a while to knit. I knit the body last winter. It's hard to knit a wool sweater in the summer time -- it's just too hot to have that big pile of wool in my lap. But I wanted to get it done so she could wear it when it got cool again this fall. I finished the sweater in October, so about a year and a half from when I bought the roving. And Mom loves it, which is most important.

1904 Gearhart CSM for sale!

2010-11-22T10:51:00.001-05:00

We're trying to cut back on what we have and have decided to sell one of our antique circular sock knitting machines. This is a 1904 Gearhart that we bought a few years ago. It has 2 cylinders: 64 and 56 slot. I think these are pretty rare cylinders since I seldom see them mentioned by anyone else.

If you've looked at these machines much at all, you know they're not cheap! All we're asking is to get our initial investment back and the improvements we've made, so the price is $800. This machine is complete and works just fine with the 64 slot cylinder. While we were told when we bought it that both cylinders worked and the 56 slot was great for children's socks, we were never able to get the 56 slot to line up right in the machine.

We have made many socks with the 64 slot cylinder, though. There is no ribber, but we prefer the look of the mock rib anyway. It comes with mostly new needles, a counter, set up bonnet, and we'll even throw in a couple balls of sock yarn. The stand too, if you want it.

We live in Indianapolis, Indiana, and if you live nearby and will pick it up, I may be able to talk my husband (the primary sock knitter in our family) into giving an introductory lesson if you're new to this.

If you're interested, please post a comment or send me an email at tlhilton_at_gmail.com (of course replace _at_ with the @ sign).

Here are some pictures.

Days 15 - 17 Monument Valley and Grand Canyon

2010-08-06T18:33:00.006-04:00

On Wednesday we left Mesa Verde and headed to Monument Valley. We arrived in the afternoon just as a thunderstorm was moving in. I couldn't capture it with the camera, but the clouds were pink from reflections of the red sandstone. Just after we got set up, a heavy rain started so we hid inside the motorhome to wait it out.

There was a nice hiking trail a short distance from our camp site. After dinner (and after the ground had a chance to dry a bit) we took to the trail. After a few false starts (it's hard to follow a trail when it's mostly rock), we finally found the natural arch at the end. That's our friend George on the right.

They had a really nice gift shop nearby. I found these incredibly cute dolls made by Native Americans. It took all my willpower not to buy one. There was a larger one available too, which also had a drop spindle and some wool to show how they made the yarn to do the weaving.

The next morning, we took off again for the Grand Canyon. The last part of the trail, after crossing the Colorado River, was on a narrow, winding road with sheer drops off the side. It would have been okay (thought still a little scary) in a car, but in a motorhome with a tow car I was terrified! But getting to the Grand Canyon was worth it.

Our campground was in the forest about an hour away. For the next two days, we took off in the morning to hike and take lots and lots of pictures. The Grand Canyon is so vast, it's nearly impossible for me to describe. We did get soaked by a rain on the second day during a hike, but it was still well worth it. Here are some of my favorite photos.

There was not enough time to see all the sites or hike all the trails, but we did enough that I was sore and totally exhausted.

Days 11 - 14 Mesa Verde

2010-08-05T11:25:00.016-04:00

Saturday the 11th was a cleaning day: we did laundry and cleaned the coach in preparation for leaving Albuquerque.

Sunday we left for Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. It was fantastic! The park itself was beautiful, but the cliff dwellings were so interesting and well-preserved. While there are some cliff dwellings you can hike to on your own, there are three that are only accessible via a guided tour ($3 per person for each tour): Cliff Palace, Long House, and Balcony House. Balcony House requires you to climb 30' ladders, so since I have a moderate fear of heights we skipped that one. I had no problems whatsoever with Cliff Palace and Long House, though, so I wonder if maybe next time...

It would have been difficult to fit 3 tours into one day anyway. Cliff Palace and Long House are on opposite sides of the park and it was quite a long drive between them. Plus there was a lot of road construction too. We signed up for the 10am tour of Cliff Palace and were told to be at the front gate no later than 9:15 in order to be there on time. We were a little early and was through at 9:08. But then there was road construction, with sections down to one lane and taking turns for the traffic to flow through. Then there were the slow cars that refused to go the speed limit even in the straight sections. We arrived at the Cliff Palace trail at 10:05. After a world record pit stop at the restroom, we got to the trail head to see the guide just starting to walk away. We called out and he was gracious enough to open the gate and let us join the group! Ten seconds later and we would have missed it. Here are a few of the many pictures we took. The camera can't capture the size, but these will give you an idea.

Long House was much more accessible. Unlike Cliff Palace, we were allowed to wander through and see a lot more rooms and kivas. Here's a picture of Long House from the trail.

This looks like we're climbing one long ladder, but it's really two separate ladders.

And here's a picture of Bruce and me with the bulk of the dwellings behind us. After this picture was taken, we returned to the trail and back to the car.

I wish we would have had time to hike to the other cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde too. But our time was limited. I hope to come back and see more of this national park.

Days 9 - 10 Convergence

2010-07-25T23:12:00.008-04:00

How the days do rush by! Convergence was a blast. I got to meet friends in person, after knowing them through the internet or through books. Here is a picture of me with Alison, Laverne, and me. I met them through Weavolution, an amazing web site for weavers.

I also met Helene Bress. I already had most of her books, but she was kind enough to autograph a bookmark. I'll use it in her books to keep my place as I read and learn from them.

I took three classes. All were very enjoyable, but one on converting overshot patterns to doubleweave really captured my interest. I can't wait to get home and try it. Although all my looms are full right now, so I'll have to finish the warp on one of them first.

The vendor hall is always a good time. Both to shop for things I need and want, but also to look at a lot of looms. AVL's new V series loom caught my eye. I currently have their big production dobby loom, but if we ever downsize our house and I need to switch to a smaller dobby loom the V series will be high on my list of possibilities.

I'm currently on a yarn diet and trying to only buy what I don't have in my stash, so I didn't spend as much as I wanted to. I only bought 3 cones of 20/2 cotton that I'll use in a double weave project (using what I learned in my class). I did buy 2 books to add to my library. One is on doubleweave and the other summer & winter, which Madelyn Van Der Hoogt autographed for me!

The exhibits were very inspiring. I have no photographs of them because it wasn't allowed. I was thrilled to see Tien's wedding dress, since I'd been hearing about it for a long time as she designed it, wove the fabric, and then did the sewing.

I can't wait to hear where and when the next Convergence will be!

Day 8 - Convergence Registration

2010-07-22T07:54:00.001-04:00

The big event for this day was registering for Convergence. There wasn't much of a line, so I was able to get everything taken care of after only a short wait.

I got my tote bag full of information and some goodies too!

Of course, that was after I checked out the yardage exhibit that I was forced to walk by. Such beautiful cloth! I was in awe of all the entries. These were all hanging in the atrium of the convention center. If you went to the top, there was a small sample that you could touch and a description of the weave structure.

Days 5 - 7 of the big trip out west

2010-07-21T10:24:00.008-04:00

Where to start in describing the last few days? Trying to avoid the heat as much as possible, we've still managed to get outside quite a bit. That's after slathering on a lot of sunscreen, putting on our hats, and taking lots of water. We've looked for several geocaches in the area. That's a hobby we all share and it is a very good way to find local parks and historical areas you might otherwise never know about. You can read more about it here, but basically people hide containers that contain at minimum a piece of paper for a log, record the coordinates using a hand-held GPS receiver, and post the information on the website. Some containers are very small, others are very large and contain lots of trade items.

Yesterday, in addition to geocaching, we went to the Albuquerque Balloon Museum. They have a huge festival every fall here where hundreds of hot air balloons are launched. The air currents here are excellent for it.

Here's a picture of the front of the museum.

In front of the building is this big round sculpture that has all these great pictures on it.

And they have a special gondola with a back drop for a photo op for me and my wacky husband Bruce.

The museum has wonderful scale models in addition to actual gondolas and balloons inside, detailing the start of ballooning through modern times. It's very interesting and well worth the $4 admission.

Today is the start of Convergence and my posts will contain more fiber information. I'll be registering later today and hopefully will have some time for a quick dash through the vendor area too. It's a little difficult to balance the desires of being with my husband and friends with indulging my fiber addition, but I'm sure it will work out just fine.

Days 3-4 of the big trip out west

2010-07-17T20:53:00.000-04:00

The destination for day 3 was Amarillo, TX. We stayed at the Amarilloo Ranch RV Park. It was a very nice place, with reasonable rates -- especially after taking our Passport America discount. It was nice to pull in after a harrowing encounter with a Flying J just a couple of exits before. They had all the auto lanes torn apart and only the RV lanes were available for people to get gas. It was a real madhouse!

The RV park is very nice. Across the street is this water slide that looks so scary. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the mosquitos were out (that surprised me since it was so dry) so I just took the picture from near our coach. The big white slide is like a slalom, similar to what skateboarders use. They go down the one side, up the other, and hopefully back down rather than over the top.

Day 4's destination was Albuquerque, where we'll be staying for 9 nights. Our friends pulled in about an hour or so after us and we had a wonderful dinner at Fiesta's Restaurant & Lounge, then nice conversation outside back at the campground.

Our motorhome is the one in front with the little red car parked in front. The next one down is our friend's Newmar. These are the friends that got us interested in buying an RV.

Here's a view of the mountains from the RV park.

Day 2 of the big trip out west

2010-07-15T19:42:00.010-04:00

**If you're squeamish, you may want to skip over the part about my cats**

We have 2 cats, Lucy and Ricky, and we take them on our longer trips. They are sister and brother but couldn't be any different.

Lucy is a typical cat. She's smart, a little devious, and likes meat, fish, and milk as treats. Ricky, on the other hand, is sort of like a dumb jock. He's very athletic and personable, kind of dumb, loves to be held, and goes crazy over fruit (especially watermelon and cantaloupe). Ricky also has a nervous or sensitive stomach and we never know when he's going to get sick and vomit. Because of this, we keep them out of the back of our motorhome. That's where the bedroom is and we definitely don't want a mess back there.

Early this morning I heard the dreaded sound of Ricky getting sick and got out of bed to clean up the mess. In order to not wake my husband Bruce, I didn't turn on the hall light. Big mistake! I stepped right in it. I sure hope this isn't setting the tone for this vacation.

Back to the trip. Tonight we're at the Will Rogers Downs KOA, just northeast of Tulsa, OK. We thought it was near a casino, but it's actually part of the casino! We even had to go inside to register. You can see the casino just down the drive and behind our motorhome is the horse track.

The sky is now very dark with storm clouds. Hopefully the storm won't be too bad and I can get caught up on my sleep. Rain is sooooooo loud in a motorhome, and of course my biggest worry is tornados.

Day 1 of the big trip out west

2010-07-14T17:23:00.006-04:00

We're heading towards Albuquerque and Convergence. I hoped to attend Complex Weavers too, but it had already filled up and I decided to hop off the wait list and just do more sightseeing in the area. Tonight we're camping at a KOA in Stanton, Missouri, near Meramac Caverns. It seems like a nice campground, but we're just here overnight and it's hot outside so I'm not bothering with any pictures.

We have a 2007 Itasca Sunrise motorhome. It's our big present to ourselves in our retirement. This is our biggest trip so far, so it's going to be a real test. We spent 3 months in Florida, and while we won't be gone that long we will be traveling more. After Convergence, we'll be going to Mesa Verde, Four Corners, the Grand Canyon, and a few other places. We'll head home through Colorado and stop to attend a Winnebago rally and visit my nephew Chris and his wife. This will also be our first time traveling through the mountains, so there's lots of "firsts".

For my fiber activities (other than attending Convergence), I brought yarn to knit a shawl and my mom's sweater. I'm bound and determined to get this sweater finished by winter and plan to get the sleeves unravelled during this trip so I can have Mom try it on to see how it fits. The shawl is a simple (well, they advertised it as simple) lace pattern and will be knit with baby alpaca yarn.

I think that's enough for an introduction to my trip. I hope to post an update every day or so.

The sweater that won't go away

2010-03-26T07:40:00.000-04:00

Progress has been slow on the sweater, but I finally got the body finished. Now I need to get the sleeves knit. I've partially knit one sleeve twice so far, but have ripped it out so far. The instructions called for one decrease every 10 rows until the sleeve was the right circumference and then knit to length. Well, that wasn't happening fast enough. So I ripped out and tried a decrease every 5 rows instead. That was better, but I put the sweater aside when I went home for a week and a half to help my mom, who had fallen and broke her pelvis.

When I got back, I was still preoccupied with my mom and her health and couldn't get motivated to work on the sweater again for a while. Which is odd because the sweater is for her. Now we have less than a week left in Florida, so I pulled the sweater out of the bag after breakfast this morning and knitted about 15 more rows. I thought the underside of the sleeve looked a little odd, re-read the instructions, and realized I was supposed to decrease two stitches every 10 rows -- one before and one after the center mark. So I ripped it out once more and am just getting ready to start again.

The lesson I've learned is to not just read the instructions, but make sure I understand them. If I'd thought about it a bit I would have realized that one decrease would not make the underarm look nice. Two decreases (one being knit-two-together and one ssk) will be nice and symmetrical.

This sweater has taught me another lesson. I didn't want to use dpns (and didn't want to buy them), but my options circular needles don't have a short enough cable for sleeves. The only option was to try the magic loop technique. It was so easy to do!

It's time to crochet

2010-03-09T17:55:00.006-05:00

I've been down in Florida since the first of the year. I didn't have a loom to take with me, but did bring my spinning wheel, knitting needles, and crochet hooks. I like to spin outside to keep the mess out of the motorhome, but the weather has been mostly cold and windy so there haven't been too many days I could spin. We have a lot of activities in the RV park here, and it's been a bother bringing a bottle of wine to the club house. So, I decided to crochet a wine bag!

This pattern is based on a pattern found at Michael's for a market bag. I just resized it for a wine bag. It's made with Sugar 'n Cream or Peaches 'n Cream worsted weight cotton yarn. I used Peaches 'n Cream in the color peppercorn for this.

I knit and crochet loosely, so I used a G hook instead of the recommended H hook. Your gauge may be different, so keep a bottle of wine handy to make sure the bag will fit! The key is to have a number of stitches divisible by 4, in order for the mesh pattern to work.

Note: The first sc in each round is in the same stitch used by the sl st of the join.

Start: Ch 2. Sl st in 2nd ch to form a loop.
Round 1: Ch 1. 3 sc in each ch. 6 sc. Join with sl st to 1st sc.
Round 2: Ch 1. 1 sc in first sc, 2 sc in next sc and repeat around. Join with sl st to 1st sc. 18 sc.
Round 3: Repeat round 2. 27 sc.
Round 4: Ch 1. 1sc in first 2 sc, 2 sc in next sc, and repeat around. Join with sl st to 1st sc. 36 sc.
Round 5: Repeat round 4. 48 sc.
Round 6-11: Ch 1. sc in each stitch around. Join with sl st to 1st sc.
Round 12: Ch 1. 1 sc in the first sc. *Ch 5. Skip next 3 sc. 1 sc in next sc. Repeat from * around, ending with ch 2. 1 dc in first sc of previous round.
Round 13: *Ch 5. 1 sc in next ch-5 loop. Repeat from * around, ending with ch 2. 1 dc in last dc of previous round.

Repeat round 13 until bag is the desired height. 18 rounds was right for me. Keep in mind that the bag will stretch when carried, so it doesn't need to be as tall as a bottle of wine.

Next round: Sl st in next ch 5 loop. Ch 1. 2 sc in same sp. *1 sc in next sc. 3 sc in next ch-5 loop. Repeat from * around, ending with 1 sc in last dc. Join with sl st to first sc. 48 sc.
Next round: Ch 1. 1 sc in same sc as last sl st. 1 sc in each sc around. Join with sl st to first sc. Repeat this round one more time.
Handle row 1: Ch 1. 1 sc in same sc as last sl st. 1sc in next 4 sc. 5 sc.
Handle row 2: Ch 1. 1 sc in each sc. Repeat until the handle is as along as you want, but use an even number. 50 rows was right for me.
Join handle to opposite side of handle start with sl stitches through handle and bag. Tie off.

I'd like to do something different for the handle, but couldn't think of anything so stuck with the original except for the last rows of sc. If anyone has a better idea for the handle, let me know.

And, of course, please let me know if there are any mistakes or if there's a better way to describe what needs to be done. I'm the first to admit I'm not a pattern writer.

From roving to sweater, part 3

2009-10-13T23:46:00.004-04:00

I had put the sweater project down for a while, distracted mostly by camping and weaving. But the recent chilly fall weather reminded me that I needed to work on this. Here is my mom wearing the first part of the sweater. I had to see how much more to knit before I join the underarms and start the sleeves. I need at least 2 more inches and the next time will have mom take off her cardigan so I can get a more accurate assessment.

I really feel good about the fact that it's neither way too big or way too small. It's a good boost for my knitting ego.

Back to weaving

2009-09-29T17:08:00.007-04:00

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last blog post. I've been busy helping with Weavolution and camping this summer. I have made progress on the stole that I talked about in my last post. I realized it would be nice to get other church members involved in this project, so I found someone to do the sewing and another to add embroidery. The other two ladies (Jackie and Sandy) like the weight of the fabric in 10/2 mercerized cotton, the pattern will have a point twill in the cross (the second set of crosses in my previous blog), and the colors will be white and golden yellow.

I also weave towels to be given to the parents when their babies are baptized. Sandy (mentioned above) uses her embroidery skills to add the name of our church, the babies name, and the date of the baptism. I changed the pattern this time to utilize all 16 shafts on my AVL, and I really like how it turned out. It's hearts in lace, alternating weft and warp floats.

Last weekend I attended a workshop taught by Bonnie Inouye. It was wonderful. The title of the workshop is Advance! and we all learned so much about advancing patterns and how to design them. We all wove samplers too. My draft was an advancing network twill. My treadlings included tromp as writ, advancing twill, advancing point twill, and many others.

I need to get the yarn on the AVL for the stole, but I also want to weave some hand towels to sell. I have one warp I wound months ago, but it's not too long. I want to weave up that warp, though, before it gets tangled up, and I could just tie on the another longer warp afterwards and keep the threading. And I need to get more rugs woven for the guild program I'm doing in November.

There's never enough time!

Fabric for a stole

2009-07-31T19:39:00.008-04:00

I offered to weave fabric and make a stole for a member of my church who is getting ordained in December. I've been trying and trying to come up with a design. Originally I was leaning towards the Theo Moorman technique, but after getting my 16 shaft AVL and seeing all the pretty patterns I can weave on it, decided to do my designing in the pattern. That's more my style anyway. While I still want to try the Theo Moorman technique, I feel more confident letting my loom do the work in the actual weaving for now.

I have Bonnie Inouye's book Exploring Multishaft Design, but haven't haven't studied it enough yet to do much designing on my own. When I was a programmer, I would use a similar program to create a new one rather than writing it from scratch. So that's what I did this time. I found a twill block pattern and altered it to make a couple of nice crosses.

The warp and weft is 10/2 mercerized cotton. The warp is a dark blue and I will try weaving it with a light blue and a golden yellow weft. The pictures below are from my weaving software (WeavePoint) and is what the fabric should look like. When I look at it on my computer, the warp still looks blue but when I saved the picture I see it looks really different.

The two pictures below show my first pattern, with opposing twills for the cross and the background.

This pattern uses a reversing twill. I think it looks more striking, but I know from experience that seeing the real cloth can change my mind.

Here's hoping I'll like the pattern when it's woven. I also want to get my pastor's opinion since she'll know what would be both appropriate and of most use. I hope the 10/2 won't make the cloth too heavy. I can easily alter the pattern for 20/2 cotton, but would have to buy some from my local yarn store.

From roving to sweater, part 2

2009-07-03T00:49:00.001-04:00

From roving ...

to yarn ...

to swatches ...

Now comes the hard part: knitting the sweater. Here is a link to the pattern I've chosen. I wanted something knit top down and seamless, and I think this will fit the bill nicely. I'll make the sleeves full length so my mom's wrists won't get cold, but otherwise I believe I can use the pattern as it.

And I still have to figure out the gauge. I knit three samples, using sizes 4, 5, and 6 needles. The size 6 is definitely too loose, so the choice is going to be between #4 and #5. I'm still pondering that and will likely ask my family for their opinion when I see them on Sunday.

I hope to have another update soon!

Towels

2009-06-28T10:00:00.000-04:00

Is there anything better to weave than towels for testing changes to your loom? The yarn's not too expensive and they don't have to be perfect to be functional. These are the towels I wove while testing my rotary temple. I got to play with more point twill patterns too. I've had this picture for a while, but just never got around to adding it to my blog because I've been having so much fun on Weavolution. If you haven't been to that wonderful new site for weavers, please check it out. It's getting more and more enhancements all the time.

V shaped shawl in doubleweave

2009-06-17T14:06:00.020-04:00

Back in 2007, I needed inspiration in my weaving. I found it by weaving something other than rectangles. In searching the internet, I read about the V-shaped shawl, which uses a doubleweave technique described in Kerstin Froeberg's book, Weave a V. This book is available from Laura Fry. This is a great book and was a huge help in completing this project.

V-shaped shawls were discussed again recently on a weaving list, so I thought I would copy my notes into my blog so it's easier to reference them. And this has made me want to weave another one soon. I think I'll do that when my current project on the AVL is finished.

I used 6/2 organic cotton in mint green and natural in this shawl, in a straight twill pattern. The cotton was purchased from Chamomile Connection. The shawl is woven doubleweave as separate layers, then the layers are joined together on the right by cutting warp ends one by one and using them as weft. Warp ends from the top layer become weft on the bottom and vice versa.

I wove 41 inches on the separate layers, so it's time to join the 2 pieces together for the part of the shawl that's on the wearer's back. Cut the first warp end (belongs to the top layer) and use as weft on the lower layer.

Here's the first joining weft pick in the shed. I looped the thread over a stick shuttle to place it in the shed.

The layers are still separate on the left side. These ends will become fringe.

Here's a picture of the right side after a few more ends have been cut and woven in. You can clearly see that the right side is joined together and is forming a 45 degree angle (approximately).

Now we're a little further along and the angle is more obvious.

See all the nice ends on the left that will later be used as fringe? The left selvedge ends will probably start getting loose since the weft never wraps around them. I tied groups of the fringe in loose slip knots to keep the left edge from spreading out.

It's recommended to have a helper at the back of the loom to cut the warp ends so you don't have to run between the front and back of the loom. I don't know if this helper will last, though.

As I thought, he got tuckered out right away and I had to fire him for sleeping on the job.

Now you can see the nice plaid patterns that are created as the weaving progresses.

More than halfway done! At this point there is little to no tension on the right. A suggestion in the book was to tie a string from the warp rod and wrap around a pin on the shawl to help keep things at more of an even keel. That is a good idea.

It's off the loom and the fringes have been cut and twisted.

I hope you'll consider trying this technique. It's fun, it's educational, and you end up with a very nice shawl!

Macomber loom for sale

2009-06-03T23:20:00.002-04:00

I've decided to sell my 40" 4 shaft/harness (but room for 6 more!), 4 treadle Macomber B5 Ad-A-Harness in order to free up some space at my house. This loom was built in the 60's, but has been lovingly used and is still in good shape. I'm only the second owner and have woven on it for 4 years. The warp beam is plain (not sectional) with a friction brake, which I replaced when I bought it. The dimensions are 52" wide x 36" deep by 49-1/2" tall. When folded, it's only 23-1/2" deep. I added the castors, which allows you to move the loom for easy cleaning of the floor. Included is a homemade raddle and 6 reeds: 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 20 dpi. Some of the reeds need to be cleaned a bit but I believe all are usable. I've used this loom for all types of weaving and it's a real dream to warp since both the front and back beam will fold up or lay down on the floor for easy access to the heddles.

All this for only $600. The loom is very heavy and needs to be picked up. It's located in Indianapolis, Indiana.

My rotary temple

2009-05-25T17:05:00.017-04:00

Note: I've been sitting on this post for a while because I wanted to get the warp completely woven and wet finished so I could give a complete and accurate review of the rotary temple.

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Back in March, I decided to invest in a rotary temple from Fireside Fiberarts. A rotary temple performs the same function as a regular temple, but rather than the weaver having to move the temple as the fabric is advanced, a rotary temple is in a fixed position and the pins/teeth rotate and allow the fabric to move over it as it advances. Since my AVL has the auto advance feature, I thought the rotary temple would be a great accessory and really speed up my weaving.

DH installed the temple while I was sick with a bad cold, and when I was finally well enough to weave again I didn't have much success with the it. I decided to wait until I was in the right frame of mind to really dig into it.

My problem was that the fabric was rolling off the temple. According to the instructions, that meant I had to change the pitch of the pins. So I pulled the temples off to the side and played with them, then put them back into action. That didn't help much, so the next time I made the adjustment I did so while the temple was in position. Then I saw the fabric move when I made the adjustment. I could actually see it be pulled to one side or another. Now the instructions made sense! I'd weave a while, watching to see if the fabric was moving straight over the temple or creeping to the left or right. I kept adjusting them bit until it seemed to be working fine.

This is a picture of the towels I'm weaving while using the rotary temples. They're sure helping me keep the ppi right where I want it and the selvedges look great.

This is a just a different view of the same thing.

Here you can see the parts of the temple. The pins/teeth are on the 2 rings you see. The rings rotate freely. The fabric goes over the rings and are grabbed by the pins, which have pins that grab it and prevent the draw-in. The plastic top, which is flipped back in this photo, applies tension to keep the fabric on the pins.

This shows the fabric going over the temple, with the plastic tensioner still flipped back.

I'm very pleased with the Fireside rotary temple and am a happy customer. The temple does reduce my weaving area a bit, but the shuttles go through just fine so there's no negative affect.

For anyone else wanting to install this temple on their loom, I would recommend first clamping the bracket to the loom and testing the height of the temple by running a few threads through the reed, over the temple, and around the front beam just to be sure. I think mine is positioned a little higher than optimal, but it's working so I don't plan to change it.

From Sheep (almost) to Sweater

2009-05-04T19:21:00.006-04:00

If you read my profile, you know that I started knitting in grade school. I was in third or fourth grade when my art teacher taught me to knit and crochet and I've loved yarn ever since.

At some point, I thought it would be great to make a sweater "from scratch": raise the sheep, shear them, spin the yarn, and then knit the sweater. This project may be skipping a couple of those steps, but I'm excited about it any way.

My project is to knit a cardigan sweater for my mom, using my handspun. She'll be 92 next week and is always cold. Other than one small lace scarf, I haven't used any of my handspun yet. And my knitting skills are kind of rusty. I'm hopeful I can accomplish my goal of knitting the sweater and get it done by Christmas.

This is the roving I bought at The Fiber Event, held in Greencastle Indiana, in April. It's two pounds of lovely shetland roving. Unfortunately, they only gave me a generic receipt so I don't know who I bought it from. That's too bad, since it's been a pleasure to spin and I'd like to buy from them again.

This is my first bobbin of singles. I'm dividing each ball in half so I'll have about 4 ounces in each skein. That's all my ball winder will hold, so it's a nice size for my skeins.

And here's the first skein of yarn after washing. I wound the bobbin of singles into a ball, then grabbed both ends and plied it on itself. I've found that to be the easiest way to ply (thanks for that tip Rosie!) and I don't have the problem of having a bit left over on one bobbin.

I took measurements of a sweater Mom likes to wear so I'll know how big it needs to be. Now the question is, do I try to make my own pattern following the guidelines in the The Sweater Workshop? I'd like to knit it without seams. I know in a regular sweater that would just mean knitting in the round, but since it needs to be open in front I guess I'll just knit back and forth on circular needles. Or does someone have a pattern they'd like to recommend? I would put my experience level at advanced beginner or intermediate.

Motivation

2009-05-02T14:58:00.011-04:00

I have been a very unmotivated weaver lately, and I don't really know why. I have been doing a lot of spinning, though, so I haven't been completely fiberless.

A few days ago a friend asked me to weave a tencel scarf for her. It needed to be finished for this weekend and I thought it would be a good challenge to get me back in the game. This is a nice 6 shaft huck lace pattern, although I added another shaft so I could have plain weave on the selvedges to get the scarf to 6" in the reed. As usual, I wound a warp for two scarves. I like to have warps for more than one item for two reasons:

If the first one doesn't turn out right, hopefully the second one will.
Winding the warp, and putting it on the loom makes up a good percentage of the weaving time. A longer warp doesn't take that much more time, so it makes sense as long as I have enough yarn to do so.

The warp is 5.6 yards long, 120 ends, of tencel. This will be 6 inches in the reed sett at 20 epi. I often wind warps in sections, but this was narrow enough to easily wind the whole thing at once. The white and green clips are there to keep the cross. They're the kind of clips you can find at many stores to seal bags.

Above is the draft of the pattern I used. It is "tromp as writ" (treadling is the same as the threading). Before using this pattern again, I'll move switch shafts 1 and 2 and change the tie-up accordingly so that the bulk of the heddles are on shaft 1, and the treadling will always alternate treadle 1 followed by another treadle. That will make it even simpler.

I wove the scarves on my Baby Mac, which has a 20" weaving width. The weaving went very nicely, except for a problem with the 6th shaft sticking. I'm going to have to investigate that. I kept a good record of the time it took me to weave since I hadn't done that for a while. Here are the results:

25 minutes to wind the warp
25 minutes to beam, thread, sley, and tie on
3 hours weaving for each scarf

The scarves were woven 73" long. The size after wet finishing is 5" x 69".

So here's a picture of the scarf, along with a closeup so you can see the pattern.

Getting back into the swing of it

2009-04-07T16:27:00.006-04:00

I've been laid low by a horrible cold and haven't done much fibery things for the past few weeks. I'm almost 100% better now, and finally getting back into the swing of things.

This is a scarf I wove on my Baby Macomber. It's been wet finished and is drying on a rack. It's a simple plain weave, using knitting yarns from JoAnn Fabrics, but nice spring-like colors. I love working with multi-shaft patterns, but an occasional plain weave with interesting yarns is a nice break.

And this is a rug on my big Macomber. This is actually the third threading of this warp. I've been sampling and rethreading, trying to find what I really want. My other rugs have been plain weave, so I wanted to try a twill. This rug will be in strips of polar fleece. What you see is some scrap weft, then a header in rug warp, then twill, then another header, and finally more scrap. The scrap just happens to be the same polar fleece, just in thinner strips. I kept looking at the diamond area to see how much I liked it, then I took a picture and saw the whole thing with the plain weave too. I really like the combination of twill diamonds and plain weave, so I think the first rug will be like that.

That's all for now!

Don't pay the ransom

2009-03-25T16:43:00.003-04:00

In case you've wondered if I've been kidnapped, the answer is no. I've been sick for the past 2 weeks and haven't done much of anything, and the little bit I have done I didn't do for long. I've got a bad cough 2 weeks ago that progressed to bronchitis and something causing extreme pain in my chest (strained muscle? pleurisy?). I'm on antibiotics and pain meds and finally (hopefully!) am getting better. So I hope to write a real blog entry soon, with pictures of my weaving and spinning.

My pennance for disorganization

2009-02-27T13:51:00.010-05:00

One of my goals is always to get more organized, especially with my fiber crafts. What I'm going through in getting this warp wound and on the loom should serve as a reminder of how important organization, labels, and documentation is.

Last summer, on the way home from Convergence and Complex Weavers, I bought a large cone of 8/4 poly/cotton rug warp from R&M. It's a large cone in natural, so I wanted to try my hand at dyeing it and use what I learned in my dyeing class. I decided to use put this warp on my Macomber and weave some rugs.

What I thought was a pre-wound warp (of course I didn't label it or write notes) was actually just a skein, and not even enough for the whole warp. So that meant I had to find other yarns to go with it. The dyed yarn is poly/cotton. Most of my other rug warp is cotton, and I didn't bother to keep the cotton separated from the poly/cotton as I bought it. Now I needed to figure out which was which so I would have uneven take-up or shrinkage. I cut lengths off several cones and used the burn test, and I think I found 2 colors that were also poly/cotton. But one was a partial cone, and since I wasn't 100% sure of the fiber content I decided to interleave the 3 yarns rather than use stripes as I originally planned. I ended up with 88 ends of the dyed warp, 90 ends of the yellow, and the rest (98) from the blue.

I normally warp back to front. It's the way I was taught and I find it easier than front to back. However, since I had 3 colors of warp wound separately I knew that F2B was the way to go. So here's a picture of the rat's nest of yarn after sleying the reed.

So, are you thinking "why the heck does she have a teddy bear tied to her loom"? Please don't report me to PETSA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Stuffed Animals). Someone on a weaving list mentioned using a stuffed animal as a cross holder for F2B warping. Some people hold the cross in one hand while sleying, but that was awkward for me, and it also meant I was trapped at the loom until until I finished with that bout. So I tried the bear and it works great. A closeup of the bear is below. I didn't think to take a picture until I was finished sleying, so I just put some thick yarn over him in a cross so you get the idea. Just tie him to the loom (I used shoelaces) and use his legs and neck to separate the 4 sections of the cross, then pick them off one by one. And you can slide him down the breast beam to keep him in front of the section you're currently sleying.

Now I'm on to threading the heddles, which is a challenge for me to do from the back instead of the front.

Never give up, never surrender!

2009-02-26T08:00:00.014-05:00

Remember the baby blankets that were on the AVL? Well, I had my usual trouble with draw-in, and since the yarn wasn't very strong I had trouble with the end threads breaking. I knew I needed to use a temple to fix the draw-in, but every attempt so far to use that tool has been a failure. Since I had no choice, though, I tried it again. And it worked! The title of this blog is from one of my favorite movies, Galaxy Quest.

It's hard to see the pattern on the picture of the blanket due to the variegated yarn, so I've included a picture of the draft. I used an additional 2 shafts to create a nice plain weave selvedge on each side -- well, a nice selvedge when it didn't break!

The blanket is done!

2009-02-20T10:48:00.003-05:00

This blanket was a real challenge. The white yarn, slightly thicker, apparently didn't wind on as well as the navy blue. I stuck to it, though, and kept adding weights so I could keep on weaving. While I normally like my projects to go smoothly, it was actually kind of nice that this one didn't. I kept my cool and tried different things to add extra weight to the naughty threads until I came up with one that seemed to work the best. The blanket turned out very well (if I do say so myself) and I continue to learn how to adjust when problems occur.

Next on the agenda for the Macomber loom is a rug, using a warp I dyed last summer.

Weaving and life

2009-02-16T15:40:00.003-05:00

Here's the current project on my Macomber. It's about 38" in the reed, a nice plaid throw in navy and off-white rayon chenille. It's been causing me problems, though. These were cheapie yarns I bought at Leesburg Looms at a ridiculously low price. The navy appears to be 1450 ypp and the white slightly bigger (maybe 1300ypp?). The white is sleyed at 16 ypp and navy at 18, but the white really wants to stick together so the shed is not great in those striped areas. The baby blankets are still on the AVL upstairs, and I also have a slight problem with that warp. The yarn is on the fragile side, and the selvedge threads keep breaking. That's frustrating, but as with the blanket shown above I'm sticking with it and working through the problems. Weaving, like life, is not always easy and carefree.

Oops!

2009-02-05T15:42:00.004-05:00

In my last post, I said that I liked to listen to my MP3 player while doing mindless things like tying a new warp onto the old one. Well, this just goes to show that you still have to pay attention. My AVL has 2 warp beams: a sectional on top and a plain beam down below. So there are 2 bars back there too, one for each warp beam.

First I pulled down each section of warp so it was hanging down the back. While sitting inside the loom, between the shafts and the warp beam, I would grab the next section to be tied, bring it forward, rest it on my lap, and go to work tying it to the old warp. That was fine for 8 sections. Then I screwed up and pulled the next section through the wrong route over the back bars for the next 5 sections. When I went upstairs to finish tying on the warp today, I saw what I had done the previous day. I didn't think it would cause much of a problem, so I let it be. I grabbed the next section, routing it correctly, and started tying the threads, thinking that next time I'll have the bouts of warp routed the correct way from the beginning. I should have done that for the rest of the warp because I made the same mistake on the last 4 sections!

I have it tied on the cloth apron, but won't start weaving on it until tomorrow. Tonight is a meeting of the Irvington Fiberistas and I'm taking my spinning wheel, so I need to make sure the wheel is ready and I have my selected roving all set to go. Plus get some dinner before I leave.

First sectional warp

2009-02-02T17:58:00.002-05:00

Here is my first sectional warp on the AVL. I used my warping wheel -- first time for that too. As you can see I need to improve my technique for using the tape to secure the ends. It not only looks messy, but it also makes it difficult to pull the ends out for threading. I've managed to get 4 sections tied on to the previous warp, so I have 14 more to go. It's really rather nice, sitting on a short stool between the shafts and the warp beam, tying the ends together while listening to my MP3 player. I've been downloading books from http://librivox.org. I'm almost finished with the Louisa May Alcott books.

Knitting

2009-01-31T19:04:00.004-05:00

I did some lace knitting for the first time. It was a simple pattern, only 16 rows in it, but it was fun. I used the yellow/orange/red handspun. The first bobbin was spun amazingly thin, so I thought I would give lace a try. It's shorter than I like for a scarf (I really like them long), but it's long enough. This is the first thing I've made with handspun, so I'm happy to be doing more than just stockpiling. It's being blocked after washing, thus the pins.

It's been fun to get back into knitting, but I still like weaving and spinning better. Of course, knitting is much more portable so I can take knitting with me when I might have time to kill.

Bags finished (well, almost)

2009-01-23T16:26:00.002-05:00

I like starting things, but hate finishing them. Like these bags. I had fun dyeing. I had fun weaving. Then it just sat. But I finally remembered to buy the strapping from JoAnn's for the handles. Unfortunately, I didn't calculate what I needed in advance and just guessed at the store. I underestimated and so only 3 of the 5 bags have handles. All other sewing is done, though, so it won't take long to finish them once I get back to the store for more strapping.

Latest spinning

2009-01-15T08:26:00.000-05:00

Here are the results of the spinning I've done recently. On the left is a luscious blend of shetland, alpaca, and silk. Mmmmm, it feels so nice and I really like how it turned out. In the middle is CVM. That is California Variegated Mutant. I bought some brown and natural at a fiber festival, primarily because of the name. I wanted some mutant roving. I didn't have much fun spinning it and the yarn is very springy. This will definitely be a knitting yarn, not a weaving yarn. On the right is some hand-dyed wool from roving I bought from KarenInTheWoods. I don't remember if she said what kind of sheep it came from, but I bought it for the color anyway. As someone who doesn't particularly like orange, I do like this one with all the yellows and reds that go along with it.
The yarn is sitting on my Macomber loom, so you see the warp ends, all threaded and sleyed, waiting to be tied onto the apron.

I'm really getting into the spinning lately. It's so relaxing and I've used up much of my roving stash. Next I'm going to try some alpaca (finally!). I've been putting it off, thinking if I improve my technique with wool I'll have a better chance with the alpaca. I know it spins differently, so that made me nervous. However, I have a bag full of unprocessed alpaca and another bag of unprocessed llama that I really need to try sometime. That will be after I practice on the processed stuff.

Hand painted bag warp finished

2009-01-10T20:26:00.002-05:00

No pictures with this blog entry, but I thought it was time to say something. I did finish weaving the bag warp and threw the whole thing into the washer. Quite a bit of dye came off on the Color Catchers, so I think I'll wash again after the bags are sewn and use some synthrapol to help get rid of the excess dye. The fabric looks really nice. Yesterday I bought some cotton strapping to use with the bags, but after I got home I remembered I'd originally planned to make them as backpacks. Hmmm, what to do. I think I'll make some of each!

Next on the Macomber is a chenille throw. The warp has been beamed, the heddles threaded, and I just started sleying the reed. I'd like to get new rods for the AVL before putting a new warp on that loom.

Hand painted double weave bags

2009-01-03T20:33:00.005-05:00

Last summer, at Convergence, I took a mini seminar in dyeing. It was so much fun! So when I got home, I wound a warp of 6/4 cotton for some bags, dug up a dyeing kit I'd bought a couple of years ago, and took it all outside to do some warp painting. It's not a perfect job, but not bad for a beginner. Here it is, lying on the apron of my Macomber loom and waiting to be wound on. This is more of my goal to use up my pre-wound warps.

It was a little snarly putting on, but not too bad. This warp is for weaving double weave (so the hand painting is even on the front and back of the bag), which made it tangle a bit more since it's rather dense. But I eventually got it smoothed out and tied on. But I couldn't start weaving yet because I needed some weft. I'm using the same cotton, and decided a nice deep blue would complement the warp colors and be dark enough so dirt won't show easily.

I also have some Ecospun yarn that I've been wanting to dye for a long time. This yarn must be dyed with RIT dye, so I bought a bottle of blue and dyed both the cotton and the Ecospun. Here's a couple of pictures of the two yarns side by side. The cotton is definitely a lot darker than the Ecospun. The Ecospun will probably end up being used to make some nice mats for my cats' food and water bowls. I got both yarns wound into balls and ready to use in my weaving, so tomorrow I hope to get started on the bags.

New year's resolutions

2008-12-31T19:38:00.014-05:00

I don't know why I'm such a sucker for making new year's resolutions. Most usually are forgotten or I just give up on accomplishing them. But, I'm going to try again. Of course I want to use up some of my stash. That will make it easier to organize my yarn and fiber (another resolution), if I have less of it to organize. I have 3 warps already wound, and I hope to weave those up before winding any more. Although I do want to try the warping wheel Bruce made me, so I'll probably sneak in a new warp or two. And there's the ever popular resolution to organize and do a better job of cleaning the house. That will probably be low on my list of priorities ;-)

I also have several "mostly finished" items. They're off the loom, but need work. I have a few bags that need straps/handles and some rugs that need to be hemmed. On my Macomber loom, I have a wool warp, 2" wide, that I'm weaving plain weave. I'll felt it after it's woven and use it for handles on some felted bags I wove a couple of months ago. Weaving a 10 yard warp, 2" wide, in plain weave, with the warp and weft being the same color is boring!

I am spinning some wool I've had for a while. I bought it from my dear friend KarenInTheWoods. She dyed it with (I think) easter egg dye. It's beautifully variegated in yellow, orange, and red. I've already spun one skein. I started it a long time ago, then stopped to spin some other fiber, and just recently started spinning it again. My first bobbin was spun really thin, so I plied it with a bobbin I spun fatter. There was more of the thin stuff, and I plied it with itself. Maybe I'll try some lace knitting with that. Speaking of knitting, I want to do more of it in 2009. I've been listening to knitting podcasts and reading more books. It seems less scary to knit with my handspun than to weave with it, but someday it will find its way to one of my looms.

I've woven a few chenille scarves with a supplemental warp of ladder ribbon yarn. I used information from a Handowoven (a weaving magazine, for those of you who don't know about it) project. It was really fussy, though, trying to keep the ladder ribbon yarn on the top of the scarf. I get lots of nice comments on them, but it wasn't fun for me to weave.

I decided to try it again, but this time I just wove 6 picks with the supplemental ribbon up and 6 picks with it down. It went so much faster, and was a lot easier to weave. The ribbon is equally visible on both top and bottom, so there is no wrong side to the scarf, I don't think it will snag as much as the other one. The ladder ribbon isn't as apparent this way, but I think it's a nice variation of less obvious to more obvious. The only thing I think I'll change is the way I had the supplemental warp weighted. I just grouped the 5 ends together and tied a slip knot which I connected a weight to. That caused the ends to be unevenly weighted and to vary each time I had to retied it. So I might try putting a weight on each end next time. I know this picture is kind of dark, but I hope you can see how it turned out.

Fringe twisting

2008-12-11T14:55:00.005-05:00

At the last weaving guild meeting, I received a comment about a scarf I brought to show & tell. A while back I started adding supplemental yarns to the fringe, but never thought much about it. I never thought it was anything special, just something that helps blend the fringe in with the scarf when there's a big difference in the colors of the warp and weft. Well, apparently some people thought it was a pretty neat idea so I wrote a short article for a future newsletter.

In this example, I have hemstitched around groups of 4 warp ends. Normally, I would then twist 2 groups of 2 strands. Using a needle or crochet hook, add a strand of the weft yarn. Now twist the 2 groups of 3 strands. The result will be an irregular, mottled mix of the two colors.

Another option is to use 3 groups of 2 strands each, keeping the weft yarns in their own group. When you twist them this way, you'll get more of a barber pole or candy cane look.

So here's the finished looks possible. From left to right is fringe made from 3 groups, fringe from warp only, and fringe made from 2 groups.

Busy, busy, busy

2008-12-08T17:22:00.002-05:00

I've been busy with my church, busy getting things finished to sell at the Wanamaker Christmas festival, and busy with life in general. I got everything ready for the festival (at the last minute, of course), but then woke up that morning sick to my stomach so I had to cancel.

So now I'm working on weaving towels for my mom for Christmas. I beamed a warp on the AVL loom this afternoon. It went much better than the first one I did, now that I've figured out how to get tension on it. These will be for the hand towels, and then I'll have to wind another warp for bath towels.

I'm also winding a warp, as I get time while taking breaks from other things, for a chenille throw. I'll weave it on my Macomber, and if it goes well I'll do more. I bought the chenille for scarves, but I have a lot of it so thought I would use up a bunch with a throw.

A weaving fool

2008-11-25T20:56:00.001-05:00

I got a couple more towels done today, plus learned more about using the dobby. A couple of times I didn't get the shed opened all the way and the shuttle jumped to the floor, so I had to get the dobby to back a pick. And it worked just like I thought it would. I also resumed weaving after having the computer and dobby shut down, and that worked too. I'm feeling much more confident about how well I understand this loom. It all seems to be coming together.

So now I'm starting to plan new warps. I want to weave bath towels for my mom, hopefully in time for Christmas. She doesn't like regular towels because they're too thick, so she uses ones she's had for years and are really thin. I'd like her to have towels that are new, absorbent, but thin. She's going to move into my sister's house soon, and I'd love her to have nice, new towels for her new digs.

First woven item

2008-11-22T18:18:00.001-05:00

I wove my first towel on the AVL. I need to fuss with the weight & tension device on the plain warp beam. It was too loose, now it's too tight. But once I check the results of the towel I'll weave more. It went pretty well and I started to really pick up speed.

Okay, now I'm adding pictures of the towel. It's snowflakes and will be Christmas towels. The one showing more green is the back side, while the one showing more white is the top.

dishtowel warp on the AVL

2008-11-19T13:12:00.000-05:00

I'm winding a dishtowel warp on the AVL. 10/2 cotton. I'm putting this on the plain warp beam since I don't have the sectional stuff set up yet. I hardly have any trouble warping back to front on my other looms, but this warp was one tangled mess! I guess I should have put on a shorter warp as my first one. This one was 11 yards. But, I finally got it on and now will start threading it. It will be fun to finally start weaving something for real.

The AVL is working

2008-11-16T20:10:00.001-05:00

Everything seems to be find on the AVL now and I've successfully woven off the warp that came with the loom. Now I just have to put another warp on it. I think I'll weave some towels to further exercise the loom.

Today's update

2008-11-10T15:50:00.000-05:00

Okay, I haven't blogged in a few days. We sold the LeClerc Mira to a new weaver -- Trudi. This was my very first loom and Bruce did a lot of work getting her fixed up. But I've decided I like bigger looms and needed to free some space. So, my Macomber (40", 4 shaft) is still downstairs, keeping company with the Baby Mac (20", 8 shaft) and spinning wheel. Upstairs is the Glimakra (60", 8 shaft) and the brand new (to me, anyway) AVL.

I have news on the AVL front too. I'm waiting for my official copy of Weavepoint to run the dobby, but got impatient and downloaded the demo version. I hooked the laptop up to the dobby and heard the magical click click click as it tested each shaft. Yeah!!! Now I just have to rethread it and make sure all the parts are set right to keep the tension, yet let me advance the cloth.

2008-11-04T13:53:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I was extremely sick, so I didn't do anything. My dear hubby, though, continued to work on the AVL loom and got it mostly put together -- all by himself.

I'm feeling better today, but my stomach still hurts so I can't do much other than check email and such. Maybe tomorrow I can get back to the loom. I have contacted AVL to try to get a manual, plus information on other bits and pieces I may need to get Dobby up and running.

Assembling the loom

2008-11-02T15:46:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was spent moving all the yarn that ended up spread on the floor, moving the LeClerc Mira against the wall, and dismantling the Newcomb Studio. The LeClerc is for sale, if anyone is interested. 45" weaving width, 4 shaft, counterbalance, 3 reeds (10, 12, and 15 dent). I'm hoping to get $450 but will negotiate on the price just to get it out of here. It was my first loom, so I hate to see it go, but really need the space.

Today, we brought the AVL parts in from the van to my studio. That filled up the empty space really quickly.

My new loom

2008-11-01T01:30:00.001-04:00

I finally succumbed to my desire for more shafts. I found a used AVL, with 16 shafts and compudobby. We picked it up today. It was an all day event, driving up to Naperville, dismantling the loom, and driving back home. But now I have a new-to-me loom with more bells and whistles than I can imagine, and I have a new weaving friend in Jill (the former owner).

As you can see from the picture, it was a little tricky getting everything in.

I wanted a 24 shaft loom, but that was going to have to wait for a long, long time. So when I saw a posting about this loom, at a good price and within driving distance, I jumped at it. Now we (my husband Bruce and I) have to get it put together. Luckily he's a wiz at this, so hopefully there won't be any problems.