Apr 28, 2012

Kitty in pain

Ok...this guy...I'm trying to weave, minding my own business, not knowing that he's in the Weaveatorium with me. All of a sudden shafts 2 and 3 just won't go down. So I thought I'd help them out and started pushing...nope. They're stuck. I try again and hear a small pained sound from under the loom. Mr. Levon here has gotten himself tangled up in the shafts. Of course having the sick sense of humor that I have, I was laughing so hard I could hardly get him out of there.
So cats and weaving...maybe not a good idea ;) except for entertainment value

Apr 25, 2012

Progress


Still working on the block weave sampler. I've done blocks, checkerboard blocks, lines and cross stripes within the blocks so far. Next will be vertical lines within the blocks. I'm having way too much fun with this. Don't look at the selvedges, ha! But like I said, I don't have a small temple, so they look a little, shall we say, "chubby" ... and chubby is cute, right?

Almost done with the scarf on the rigid heddle. I'm already looking forward to the next project which will be a wrap/shawl. I'm thinking the main colors will be the purple slub cotton and maroon 3/2 perle with smatterings of the pink and green.

P.S. - bought a lamp in, ...sigh, Walmart on Sunday. I was visiting my mom up in Themiddleofnowhere, FL so there aren't too many store choices. Anyway, I was hoping that it would light things up in the Weaveatorium a bit. That was my mistake. Got the thing home, screwed all of the various pieces together, stuck a light bulb in it and nothing. The light came on just long enough for my synapses to register it, then poop. So ok...try another bulb. Same thing. So my advice; don't buy electronics at Mr. Walton's place. 

Apr 16, 2012

Blocks and stuff

Check out these uber-cool things. These are fiber cards made from teasels. I had lunch with a very good friend and weaver who got these when she was in the Peace Corp back in the 70's in Ecuador. Thought I'd share.



I really wanted to take the class with Jason Collingwood at the Mannings this summer, but unfortunately, I can't get away from work in the summer. That's our busy time. So next best thing? His video on block weaves and shaft switching. Above picture shows the floating warp ends tied to the heddle eyes on shafts 3 and 4. The warp ends on shafts 1 and 2 are not floating and have no effect on the pattern. I have to say that when I was finally finished warping the loom, I was one sore puppy. I tried to take breaks but I didn't take enough breaks...I was just getting so into it. Definitely need more lighting though in the Weavatorium (as it's come to be known). I'm having a hard time seeing in there.




And here you can see the little blocks starting. Neat-o! I'm using a lot of left over stuff because it's just a sampler. I have a 6 epi reed so just sleyed it single to sort of conserve materials. And I didn't have a temple small enough for this piece so I'm not using one, but like I said, it's a sampler. I'll use one on the first rug. I'm really loving block weaving. It's like doing puzzles. And the video is really good.



Meanwhile, here's old man Sam hanging out with his doppelganger.