Done, Done, Done, Done...
The focus is usually on the three Macomber looms, as they are the work horses in my studio stable; however, I also have the small Leclerc Dorothy (Lola) weighing in with a weaving width of 15 3/4 inches, as well as a Schacht Cricket rigid heddle at a wee 10 inches.
In recent weeks, I have pulled projects from each of these looms!
Albeit, Miss Bobbie did the weaving on the Cricket.
As the studio is in disarray because Macomber sent a wrong part (eye roll) and the husband has been unavailable (Trout Fest board member), Meg’s upgrade has stalled.
Thus, there have been lots of weaving related activities for me, just no weaving.
I spent the first part of last week hemming and finishing all the fabrics.
Here are the Snowflake Towels from Meg. Georgia Yarn Company offers a kit.
On Lil Miss, I had a ten yard run of 8/2 cotton tea towels in a red and blue gradient. I just adore how these turned out, especially the ones with the white and purple stripes. I also have a companion warp with the same colors as stripes in a sea of white.
From the Beast, I warped a combination of 8/2 and 10/2 cotton with a fine cobweb wool weft in coffee. It required a light beat, but it was well worth the effort. I pulled two generously wide shawls from him. One I hem stitched and left with fringe (the original plan was to use the fringe twister, but I simply HATE using it). The other I hand hemmed after it was off the loom.
While soaked and dried, I realized I had not pressed them after I looked at the photos. Oops!
Finally, Lola saw a bit of action.
She’s the table loom I rehabbed a few months ago.
She had a short run of placemats in her. The warp is 8/2 cotton with 8/8 cotton as weft. I also hand stitched these hems, as well.
Miss Bobbie is the dear, sweet mom of a friend of mine. She was been learning to weave on the Cricket.
After two projects, she was ready to move onto a multiple shaft loom.
So, Lola and I spent some quality time together to move these place mats to put on a warp for Miss Bobbie.
Lola is aptly named. She is a bit rough around the edges and difficult to get along with, but once you adapt to her way of doing things, she comes around in the end.
My first multiple shaft loom was a Schacht 8 shaft table loom at 25” wide. She was smooth, sturdy, and so easy to use.
Lola is none of those things.
Her levers are difficult to engage.
I do not have a stand for her. She is too tall to use while seated at a table, so I stand to weave on her. This is actually a plus, as it requires BOTH hands to push down and catch the levers.
I understand that if I ease up on the tension the levers are easier to catch, but the trade off in backing off the warp tension is obvious in the selvages.
Her shed is tiny, which makes using a boat shuttle difficult, so I adapted and used stick shuttles.
Once I became accustomed to her contrariness, she actually wove beautifully for me.
Now, I do often have internal conversations with my looms.
When working on her to get her up and going, I made fabric aprons out of heavy decorator canvas and painted her hardware a metallic bronze.
When she was being difficult, I threatened to repaint her metal parts waitress red (think Flo from Mel’s Diner).
In my head, Lola responded: “I was a hostess, not a waitress...”
In any event, I rewarped her and took her over to Miss Bobbie.
I shared all of Lola’s idiosyncrasies, in addition to the waitress red conversation.
In the meantime, we took a little road trip to Yarnorama where Miss Bobbie purchased her first loom, a Louet Erica 4-shaft.
Here she is, as I have her to warp.
Miss Bobbie continues to weave on Lola while I dress her new loom.
She called the other day, and I asked her how it was going.
She said she could not remember what I called the loom, but she referred to it as the Truck Stop Waitress loom!
Ha!
She added the loom was behaving.
With the studio a mess, I have been avoiding it.
With all the fabric finished and folded, I was running out of things to occupy me, so I decided to dye a couple of warps.
I had three chains for a ten yard run of baby blankets. Two were 11” wide and one was 16” wide.
I decided to dye the 16” one a combination of dark orange, fuchsia, and purple. The other two are to flank that section and I dyed them sea glass green and peacock blue.
I wanted something bright, fun, and full of color for any baby.
This is how they turned out:
Now, I just need to weave off the wool overshot blanket on Beast to get them on a loom!
My first dye project is currently on Lil Miss. I simply dyed four 2-inch chains to act as stripes in a sea of natural 10/2 cotton.
Now, imagine a sea of dyed warp with asymmetrical stripes in varying narrow widths in natural, basically, the negative image of the warp above.
That is what this warp will be, although the Lime Pop green is a whole lot brighter than what I used the first time around.
And, that was my week!!
I have two more warps on deck ready to be dyed, but the utility room sink now has a clog that baking soda and water, Draino, and a two foot drain snake have not resolved.
Not so patiently waiting for the husband to return from Trout Fest. His Honey Do List is expanding!
In recent weeks, I have pulled projects from each of these looms!
Albeit, Miss Bobbie did the weaving on the Cricket.
As the studio is in disarray because Macomber sent a wrong part (eye roll) and the husband has been unavailable (Trout Fest board member), Meg’s upgrade has stalled.
Thus, there have been lots of weaving related activities for me, just no weaving.
I spent the first part of last week hemming and finishing all the fabrics.
Here are the Snowflake Towels from Meg. Georgia Yarn Company offers a kit.
From the Beast, I warped a combination of 8/2 and 10/2 cotton with a fine cobweb wool weft in coffee. It required a light beat, but it was well worth the effort. I pulled two generously wide shawls from him. One I hem stitched and left with fringe (the original plan was to use the fringe twister, but I simply HATE using it). The other I hand hemmed after it was off the loom.
While soaked and dried, I realized I had not pressed them after I looked at the photos. Oops!
Finally, Lola saw a bit of action.
She’s the table loom I rehabbed a few months ago.
She had a short run of placemats in her. The warp is 8/2 cotton with 8/8 cotton as weft. I also hand stitched these hems, as well.
Miss Bobbie is the dear, sweet mom of a friend of mine. She was been learning to weave on the Cricket.
After two projects, she was ready to move onto a multiple shaft loom.
So, Lola and I spent some quality time together to move these place mats to put on a warp for Miss Bobbie.
Lola is aptly named. She is a bit rough around the edges and difficult to get along with, but once you adapt to her way of doing things, she comes around in the end.
My first multiple shaft loom was a Schacht 8 shaft table loom at 25” wide. She was smooth, sturdy, and so easy to use.
Lola is none of those things.
Her levers are difficult to engage.
I do not have a stand for her. She is too tall to use while seated at a table, so I stand to weave on her. This is actually a plus, as it requires BOTH hands to push down and catch the levers.
I understand that if I ease up on the tension the levers are easier to catch, but the trade off in backing off the warp tension is obvious in the selvages.
Her shed is tiny, which makes using a boat shuttle difficult, so I adapted and used stick shuttles.
Once I became accustomed to her contrariness, she actually wove beautifully for me.
Now, I do often have internal conversations with my looms.
When working on her to get her up and going, I made fabric aprons out of heavy decorator canvas and painted her hardware a metallic bronze.
When she was being difficult, I threatened to repaint her metal parts waitress red (think Flo from Mel’s Diner).
In my head, Lola responded: “I was a hostess, not a waitress...”
In any event, I rewarped her and took her over to Miss Bobbie.
I shared all of Lola’s idiosyncrasies, in addition to the waitress red conversation.
In the meantime, we took a little road trip to Yarnorama where Miss Bobbie purchased her first loom, a Louet Erica 4-shaft.
Here she is, as I have her to warp.
Miss Bobbie continues to weave on Lola while I dress her new loom.
She called the other day, and I asked her how it was going.
She said she could not remember what I called the loom, but she referred to it as the Truck Stop Waitress loom!
Ha!
She added the loom was behaving.
With the studio a mess, I have been avoiding it.
With all the fabric finished and folded, I was running out of things to occupy me, so I decided to dye a couple of warps.
I had three chains for a ten yard run of baby blankets. Two were 11” wide and one was 16” wide.
I decided to dye the 16” one a combination of dark orange, fuchsia, and purple. The other two are to flank that section and I dyed them sea glass green and peacock blue.
I wanted something bright, fun, and full of color for any baby.
This is how they turned out:
Now, I just need to weave off the wool overshot blanket on Beast to get them on a loom!
My first dye project is currently on Lil Miss. I simply dyed four 2-inch chains to act as stripes in a sea of natural 10/2 cotton.
Now, imagine a sea of dyed warp with asymmetrical stripes in varying narrow widths in natural, basically, the negative image of the warp above.
That is what this warp will be, although the Lime Pop green is a whole lot brighter than what I used the first time around.
And, that was my week!!
I have two more warps on deck ready to be dyed, but the utility room sink now has a clog that baking soda and water, Draino, and a two foot drain snake have not resolved.
Not so patiently waiting for the husband to return from Trout Fest. His Honey Do List is expanding!
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