Finds and Fun

In the last ten days or so, I painted the studio, added new shelving and storage to my space (thanks to my hunky and handsome hubby), spun and plied some 1,000-plus yards of fingering weight yarn, knit a cowl from my own hand spun (squee!), scored a trio of Little Man rug shuttles, and played with color for future projects.

Pictures of the newly spruced up and organized studio are coming, as it is not quite ready yet.

However, for a while now, I have been seeking a Howell Little Man shuttle. They can be identified by this marking:

I knew about Mr. Howell's shuttles and read, here and there, how well crafted and balanced they were, but I had never seen one in person and had not seen one available for sale, ever. 

A google search led me to this, which mentions in a blog post dated February 5, 2008 that "Mr Howell passed away a few years ago but his work is still out there."

Thus, he has been gone for more than ten years, yet people still talk about his craftsmanship. 

Saturday afternoon, I scrolled through Facebook and saw in one of the Weaver's Marketplace groups that someone had just posted (as in two minutes before) for sale three Little Man shuttles for rug weaving for $75. I immediately messaged the seller to state my interest and ask if the price were for all three. The instant I hit send, someone posted after me, inquiring, as well. 

The seller responded the price was for all three. 

SOLD!

As she was from Fredericksburg, we made arrangements to meet in Boerne at Bear Moon Bakery Cafe on Sunday.

The lady was so very nice. She told me she bought all three shuttles forty years ago in Taos, New Mexico when she first learned to rug weave. They were in excellent condition and had obviously been well cared for. I was thrilled!

They are also HUGE. The longest one is 16.5". Are they not just beautiful?

They are well balanced in the hand and remarkably light for their respective sizes!

The lady even had extra aluminum bobbins for them.

However, they are all too long to fit in my Leclerc double-end bobbin/spool winder. 

As they are rug shuttles, which usually requires quite thick wefts, it will not be an issue to hand wind them. Fortunately, the Macomber has a shed large enough to accommodate their height of approximately 1.65 inches. 

They are so beautiful and well-made, I am just delighted to have them.

While I have been reorganizing the weaving stash, I have been sorting like thread weights in groups. Within the groups, I played with color schemes. 

This time; however, instead of relying on only what I had in the stash, I decided to up my game and look at color combinations and inspiration on Pinterest. 

I love brown.

Boring, I know, but there is something intense and comforting about all the shades of brown. 

While I tend to shy away from wearing red because I do not like to draw attention to myself, I fell in love with this:

The amusing part is that I am not, nor have I ever been a coffee drinker. Thus, to my mind that is a creamy cup of hot chocolate.

This is my interpretation:

As my threads are 8/2 cotton, I assume these will be tea towels at some point, but I would not mind a shawl, especially, if I did something like this:

The other scheme, which caught my eye was this bright and bold one:

How fun are these colors?!

There are two dark blues there. The small one in front is my first choice. It is Bockens, which makes a wonderfully smooth 8/2 with INTENSE color; however, it is pricey, too. 

You guessed it, more tea towels, I am sure!

Lastly, here is what I have been spinning:

Morningside Road Targhee in my first attempt at fingering. 

This turned into 558 yards of mostly fingering weight yarn.

It was great fun to spin, and I learned a lot!

Playing with yarn when it was 113 degrees here yesterday!

Thank the good Lord for A/C!

Hope everyone is enjoying summer.

Happy Crafting!