New Toys

Mr. Deepend thanks everyone for the well wishes, we had a great time this weekend, it was non stop fun.
I received my order from The Woolery I was so excited, shipping was lightning fast. The bobbin winder is a Louet hand winder, I love the color of the wood and it was easy to put together. I wound 3 bobbins in no time, so much better than hand winding, I just need to learn to control the tension and spread of the yarn evenly through the length of the bobbin.

I also got a new warping paddle, can't wait to make a mess with that. I'll have to watch the you tube video a couple of times to get the motions of using it down. A new Harrisville shuttle that needs to get oiled and 20 wooden bobbins.

I didn't have any time to play with my loom with weekend, but have scheduled time tonight. I have new toys and no time to play with them, which is a bummer. I'm so happy that next weekend is a long one!

Happy Birthday!!

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<BR>Mr. Deepend's birthday is Sunday, his brother and wife are takeing us out to dinner and dancing on Saturday and I have planned a family dinner for Sunday. should be a really fun weekend.

I've been married to Mr. Deepend for 17 years, I do have to say that I am blessed, he is a wonderful person, great father, most of all a fantastic friend and really cute to boot. Happy Birthday Sweetheart, I love you!

Along with all the celebrating, we need to start packing, which should prove interesting. I'm going to need to have a large garage/moving sale, it's time to seriously downsize furniture, gadgets, garage and general stuff that you tend to accumulate over the course of 15 years or so, notice I didn't say anything about my fiber..... that's going along with me (I have been promised no yarn will be left behind).>
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The progess on my runners is a bit slow, but I think I will have some down time tonight to try to finish up the warp.

On a Rosepath

I finished one small runner and was not impressed with the weaving structure, I figured that I screwed up several times along the way, but it was good practice. I'm still battling my feet, I have been weaving barefoot to feel what I'm doing. I don't know if that's a strange way or not but as many have told me "do what works for you" well this is working. I've settled into this Rosepath weaving structure and I'm comfortable with the rhythm I've developed on it. This will be the table runner for the entryway table, the runner on the loom is a mere 5.75" the table is 8 9" wide so this will do nicely. The washed sample soften out a bit and became a bit looser, not by much but it works for a runner. I thought I might want to use this for dishtowels but it's very rough even after the wash. I think I can use the rest of the yarn for place mats, these colors would work with my SIL's kitchen colors, so maybe a Christmas gift in the planning.


I have a questions;
I find that I'm having trouble with the placement of my feet on the treadles , to me it seems as if the treadles are too close together, if I were to space them out say I treadle harness 1 & 4 on pedal 1 and harness 2 & 3 on pedal 3 leaving one in between each sequence will that effect the balance of the weaving in any way? I don't really think so, but I thought I throw out a dumb question, although I know the only dumb questions are the one's you don't ask.

Next question, in the next pic you see the two black lines on either side of my shuttle those are the floating selvage yarn, should I thread those through a non working harness say #6 just to keep them lower? As it is right now I have to push on them when I throw the shuttle so that the weft thread catches them.

Last question I promise: To weave a header, regular tabby weaver do I need to crawl under the loom and undo the tie ups every time or is there some magical combo of foot work I need to do?

Yes, I know you guys are enjoying my beginner naivete, the duh questions and reminiscing of your early weaver frustrations, I hope that it's not too boring and you all can stick it out, I promise this drivel will not continue for long, I have exactly 10 books from the library in my possession and am reading and taking tons of notes.

I have also promised myself I will save up some $$ and take a beginner's class and the Folk School in NC, that may not happen soon but it will, maybe by the time I get there I can actually take an itermediate class and not be a total dumba$$.

Ha, ha, blogger thought you all would get a kick of seeing my shuttle doing a straight dive off my loom, I can't get this to post any other way.

Question and Answers

I had these wonderful comments and I thought I'd share them and my thoughts.


Judy said...
It's going to be an outstanding table runner!! I can't tell you how many times I've messed up the threading or setting up the treadles....It is really easy to do, especially if you are at the back of the loom.Enjoy your new loom!
Thanks, I don't know if it's going to be outstanding but it has been exciting to see it form as I go along. I don't think I'll be threading heddle from the back of the loom again. LOL..

Spinning Out of Control said...
Yay! It looks great! I love the pattern. Thanks, it's a fun pattern, but I still get confused with it. I changed gears and am doing a Rosepath Ascending really interesting without too much stress on changing the harnesses.

Carrie said...
Inverting the threading is no big deal! Just think of it as renumbering your harnesses and change your tie-up accordingly. I did this and it worked out great thanks for the suggestion.

Benita said...
Congratulations at getting the loom loaded and going. I think your pattern looks lovely and you'll have that treadling thing down in no time. In the meantime, take breaks when you get frustrated, and don't forget to stand back and admire your work. I'm taking the breaks and am still getting use to really LOOKING and seeing what I'm doing correctly and incorrectly. I figure it will take time to read my weaving as I do my knitting to find mistakes. I still haven't found the correct height on my chair to be able to sit and use my legs comfortably, I'll get there.
Theresa said...
Woohoo! Looks great and congratulations on the maiden warp. Next time it will be easier. From your lips to God's ears, I can't handle another crazy warp just yet.

Acorn to Oak said...
It's looking great! How exciting it must be to see that pattern forming before your eyes on your new loom that you've worked so hard to get running! It sounds like you have and are learning sooooo much! Thanks, I am really excited and learning everything all over again in a different format gets the creative spark going.

Alison said...
Congrats! Twills are so much fun. Enjoy! Thanks, I can say I really do like twills and could probably spend a ton of time sampling them, really fun, amazing patterns.

Peg Cherre said...
Yay!!! In no time, you'll be weaving along smoothly, producing what you intended. (I might add that what I intended isn't always what I want -- things don't always look the way you think they will.)Enjoy Thanks for dropping by my blog, I don't really think I was intending much since I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I always figure a table runner cause I can weave without too much hassle worrying about the length, but now that it's on the loom, I can find quite a bit of unintentional uses for the weaving LOL...

On a different note I ordered some extra doodads, a bobbin winder (hand winding is a drag ), 20 extra 4" wooden bobbins(I'm going through my one bobbin after 6" of weave really quickly), , another Harrisville 12" boat shuttle (I'll get a different brand later in life right now I love my boat shuttle and wanted another just like it) and a warping paddle (I saw a you tube video on using it and thought it was a great idea don't know if I can do it just yet, but I'm willing to try it). I placed the order yesterday from The Woolery and today I got confirmation from UPS that they will be here tomorrow, I can't wait I have new toys to play with.

I'm actually weaving!

Finally I can show you some pictures of actual weaving, not great weaving, but weaving none the less. It was challenging and freakly rewarding once I got it to go, I even have floating selvages because of the pattern another first. The linen/rayon warp is behaving, under and the weft which I think is 100% linen has a lot of slubs and straw, interesting effect on the warp and in the pattern. I made a sample piece and washed it, once I get home I'll have to see what happened there. I was playing around with the pattern and my feet, I still have trouble with the order in which to lift the harnesses, but I know if I practice on this warp, I will get a rhythm going. I thought I had a threading problem and took the yarn out of the reed, recounted and found everything was right. I guess maybe I'm beating too light or hard and not getting a really clear pattern.

Then I found I'd screwed up, in a massive way since I slayed the harnesses from the back towards the front I inverted the order in which I slayed the heddles, well DUH! I was really laughing at myself after that discovery, which felt great. Yeah that was stupid, but what the heck this is the sampler piece and now I know what I can and cannot do when I put the warp on my loom, only next time I'm going to try front to back and see how that works for me. This is the draft I used, Rosepath M&W Above is what I got once I started weaving. After screwing up the pattern I decided to do a simple 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 liftplan so that I could get and see what I would get. I also found a simple Rosepath1 and Rosepath Ascending, that I can follow with the same exact tie up I'm using, which is way too cool. I"ll sample tonight and see which is going to be the final pattern for the short thin table runner. I have a entry table that is perfect for the size I'm working on.

Good Lord will it ever end!

I know, I know take a breath, relax, don't warp when your tired, don't do it when your annoyed (actually this one is really hard because warping is what's causing the annoyance), don't get the threads tangled, don't get frustrated, keep it on the raddle, keep it straight. I keep repeating these little snippets in my head as I try to get this stuff on the loom. I've never hated yarn this much before and can I tell you I don't want to hate my fiber, it's the only thing that keeps me sane. Maybe I should just take a cup or two of wine, throw caution to the wind and dance nekkid in the sun, ohh.... wait that's another nightmare all together LOL.

I have been threading heddles from the back of the loom, yes I know, it's not the right way to do it but I have issues. With that said, I will hopefully be sleying the reed tonight, fingers, toes crossed, with the lighter fluid and matches locked up.

If I get as far as I anticipate, I may have a pic for you all to see, determination is the only thing that is keeping me going. I WILL WARP THIS DAMN LOOM, IT'S GOING TO LIKE IT AND BEHAVE!! If the loom wins, I'll be in a fetal position on my bed, send in help if you don't here from my by Tuesday.


HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!

Warping Mess

I'm not a big fan of this, really someone tell me it get easier every time you do it cause this part was a serious turn off.

My mistakes:
1. The warp was too long, I cut it in half, have the rest chained up don't know if I can use it later but that's fine I can always knit it into something.
2. The warp is not wide just 48 picks, I didn't want it too wide just so I wouldn't give up, but I think I played it too safe.
3. I had no way of weighing down the front of the warp and tying it to the front beam was awkward.

My questions:
1. Does the picture below look right? (I used my knitting board as a raddle)
2. What do I use to keep the warp taut as I wind back?
3. Can I do this alone or do I need another body holding the warp?
4. If I center the warp and start in the middle, how the heck do I follow the damn draft? I reread the book twice still not clear.
5. Should I take off the extra harnesses I will not be using to thread the heddles?
6. Is warping front to back easier? (read the instruction there and wasn't really clear on that either.

Theresa, I was going to call you, but I left your number at work. I have it in my wallet now and may bother you later this week.
Definately not your average warping session, I was trained improperly with the RH and am going to need to break myself of the desire to return the buyer's money and unpack it, I confess I was really tempted yesterday to do so. My hubby has taken it to work and will UPS it tomorrow, there will be no going back once it's gone so, I guess that will be a good way to force me to learn and adapt to my Macomber and not long for the simplicity of the RH.

Planning the Maiden Warp

I was really excited yesterday with my package and forgot that we had a showing for the house. The potential buyers were there for 2 1/2 hours, they didn't leave until 7:30 pm at which point I was starving and had a headache. After we went to get something to eat and had a moment to discuss what had happened (Contract Pending) it was well after 10:00pm, to late to start a warp that would make any sense. That was really fine with me I was tired and wanted to sleep more than anything at that point. I woke up at 5:30am and decided that I needed to rummage through the yarn and find the cotton or linen I'd seen when the boxes first made it to the house. Mr. Deepend thought I was nuts, but knew that Monday was an overload to my system and just let me have my time with one of the things makes me really happy, YARN. (blogger is posting pics sideways, sorry but it seems to have a quirk today) I picked these because the only reed I have cleaned and finished is the 15 and

am limited to what I can use at the moment, but I got some Naval Jelly and woohoo is that stuff great, I'll be powering through the rusty reeds by Sunday. I forgot who suggested it in the comment, but THANK YOU, my fingers and hands love you right now.

This is the taupe looking one and it seems to be linen, burned like it was too.

This is the black it is 75% Rayon 25% Linen

These you can actually read the labels. The colors are a bit drab, but I figure I can whip something up that looks half way decent and I get to practice on the loom.

I threaded some snippets through the reed just to make sure they would work. I'm still getting the hang of the numbering system for weaving yarn and assume I can figure it out after going through the books I have. You'd think by now that would be old hat, but I've never been able to wrap my brain around it.

I'm planning on something simple to get the feel of the loom and figure out how to warp it, although I would love to use 8 harnesses I think I may get myself confused, so I want to build up to that point. Having always warped on directly to the RH, spoiled me and the Structo was a mission, but I think that was because the loom was so small it was a bit frustrating. I think since I was accustom to warping back to front I may try to do that with this one too. I have the book Learning to Weave and will have it handy as I go about working on my loom. I also plan to weave the linen yarn with each other and the same goes for the Orlon since one set is natural fiber and the other acrylic, but very soft, maybe for a scarf or shawl.

Happy Dance New Package

I got back from lunch and had this waiting for me on my desk, I wasn't really expecting to get it today.

This label made me really happy and excited! then I peeked inside and saw my crank for the back beam and 50 superhooks for my threadles.

I was so excited to see these pieces as they are the last items I need to get started on weaving. Oh Lord, am I a happy puppy right now. I'm going to staple my straps for the rods on the front and back beam today and I'm going to start a warp on my board tonight. I have the 15 dent reed clean so I'll have to find some yarn to work with from the inherited stash. WOOOOOOT!

Shrimp Creole - Cuban Style

My kids are all getting ready to move out, yippeeeeeee!!! Really, I love them and I'm sure I'll feel a twinge of sorrow as I move my loom and yarn in to my older son's room haha... all joking aside it's a big step and I'm glad they have decided that adulthood is calling and they're answering it loud and clear.

In all of this excitement with my loom and restoration, I was reminded by one of the rugrats, that "mom, you have not posted a recipe in like forevaaaar we'll starve with only the few you have on there". They're very dramatic when it comes to food. I checked and yeah they're right the last post was for the Meatballs in FEBRUARY, it's as if we haven't eaten since then, but I have put on a pound or two so no-one in this house is starving.

Camarones Enchilados (Ca-ma-rhone-es En-chee-la-dos)
Shrimp Creole

1- 2#bag of uncooked Shrimp
1- small green pepper chopped
1- small onion chopped
3 -cloves of garlic minced
2 -bay leaves
1 -8oz can of tomato sauce
½- teaspoon of sugar
1- cup of white wine (I drink Riesling so that’s what I used)
½- teaspoon of Kosher Salt

1- packet of Sazon Goya Seasoning (picture included)
1- lime
2 -tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Hot sauce to taste I usually put in a tablespoon or so.

Parsley for garnish.

Peel shrimp and divine, if you can get them peeled and divined then you’re ahead of the game (I get my shrimp at BJ's wholesale club they come frozen uncooked and ready).

In a sauté pan over medium heat pour olive oil, garlic, green peppers and onions, sauté until the onions and green peppers are soft and the onions are almost translucent
Add Sazon packet, tomato sauce, bay leaves, salt, sugar, wine and hot sauce.
Simmer and reduce the heat. The sauce will thicken some but not like gravy.

Make the rice; once the rice is ready you can add the shrimp to the sauté pan, it really doesn’t take long to cook shrimp and if they get over cooked they are tough and chewy.

Let them cook until they just turned pink, turn off heat and cover let them cook for about 5 more minutes. Squeeze the lime over the shrimp mixture before serving.

Serve shrimp over the rice and some parsley for garnish. Don't forget the Cuban Bread to sop up the sauce, your really going to want to do that.

De-Rusting Reeds

I've been working on de-rusting the reeds for the loom. I started out with steel wool and rubbing the heck outta the reed. After a few days of this practice I'm really not getting anywhere fast and my right arm is sore enough to need and ice pack which is not good.
I then consulted Mr. Deepend and asked him if he thought I could use the small Dremel Drill with some attachments to clean the reeds. He thought it would work so we took a trip to Home Depot to pick up these Carbon Steel Brushes, I'd never been so excited to purchase brushes before, the salesman looked at me and must have thought I was crazy, but I was very happy to start working and seeing results.

I started on the #10, it's very rusty but not pitted and I think that's pretty good considering the rust on the surface. The small drill heats up quite a bit so I'd turn it off to cool and would scrub the reed with a toothbrush and some metal cleaner that Mr. Deepend had in the garage.

After about two hours of work and two attachments later I only had 1/4 of the reed with back and front cleaned off, I was very disappointed. This is what the poor brushes looked like after my torture to them, I'm holding a new one for comparison. Once I'd finished for the night I took the attachments, reed and drill back to Mr. Deepend. He looked at all of it and said "Maybe you need my drill and bigger brushes, as I suggested". Yeah I thought so too, the only thing is that his drill is massive, heavy and really powerful. I think I need to peruse the power tool isle at the Depot and see what I can handle to get these done, I guess I should warn the salesguy not to freak out at the crazy lady that going to get really excited about a damn drill.

You all had some great comments and I wanted to share with everyone my thoughts and some answers to your questions.


Delighted Hands said...
So excited for you! You will be weaving up some amazing cloth in no time now! Nice work!
Thanks, I'm really itching to start, I've been looking at drafts and saving the ones I'd like to try out. I can tell you that the draft folder is getting full pretty fast.

Acorn to Oak said...
I'm so excited for you! You must be having so much fun!! :-D
Thanks, I did have fun along with the hard work, but am looking forward to it.

Judy said...
Wow-you must be jazzed! What a nice find and I bet the previous owner is happy that the loom went to an active weaver's house.
I think jazzed just about covers it. They were happy that I took it and was planning on restoring and putting it to good use.

ladyoftheloom said...
Wow! What a great job you have done with the Mac loom. My weaving teacher Cherri LOVES her Macs and the company too.10 harnesses, I am so jealous.
I've heard quite a few people love their Mac's and don't want to weave on much else, since this is my first big loom I can only compare it to my poor RH loom and that's kind of unfair. LOL.. Truth be told I'm afraid of the 10 harnesses, I know everyone say oooohhhhh you have 10 but coming from just 2, 10 is rather daunting to think about.

Charlotte said...
Brilliant! She looks great, happy weaving, looking forward to seeing those twills!
As soon as my chubby fingers get moving I'll be posting some serious twills and much more.

Benita said...
Congratulations!!! All that hard (and dusty) work has paid off nicely. You have a gem of a loom there and I can't wait to see what you create with it. Have you named the loom, BTW?
Thanks, yes it was hard, dusty, hot as hell, but rewarding, I've been happy tired if that makes any sense. I can't wait either, I really want to see how she works. The naming of the loom has been a bit of a conflict within my mind. I'm an avid Debbie Macomber reader, she's one of my favorite writers (I like happy endings) and since her last name is Macomber my first reaction was to name the loom Debbie, but then the previous owner is Peggy and I would like to honor her for the awesome gift she gave me. So I haven't really wanted to name her anything yet. I was thinking of a hybrid name like Deggy, Pebbie, De'pegy Pegbie.... but nothing really works in my mind.

Let me think about a "naming the loom" contest...

WOOHOOOOO!!!

I finished counting, cleaning, and putting the harnesses back on the castle last night, it was cloudy and a bit cooler than the scorching 99* we had during the day. I also emptied out the milk can and found that I have three lease stick pairs all tied together with shoe laces that I thought under the dust were leather straps. One is the size of the loom 40" the other two are 30", one being homemade from yard sticks. I have a bunch of yard sticks that I can only imagine Peggy used for warp tension. I think it's a great idea and kept them to see how that works out for me. I got rid of the all the small and broken pieces, kept most of the dowels, including some steel ones that I know are for tying up the warp. I'm planning on getting rid of the milk can, if anyone is interested please let me know, I'll send it to you if you pay for the shipping, if not it's going to the dumpster by the end of the month. I did keep a really great rattan basket, hosed it off and let it sit in the sun to dry, looks wonderful and holds all the warping sticks and dowels. (Blogger has decided that this pic needs to be posted sideways) I bought some strapping like what is used for the purse handles, after reading Learning to Weave by Deb Chandler, there is a section on tie up with canvas apron, the strings that this loom had and something like my structo, I'm going to go with that type of of tie on, I'll take a pick once I get it on the beams, but this I plan on doing inside the house.I decided to tie up the lamms to the treadles with some jewelry wire just to test things out and make sure I hadn't screwed anything up. Works like a charm with no hiccups smooth movements. I even used the little notched dowel for the 4th lamm wonderful little tool.

(another blogger pic turned sideways)

This is the break release for the back beam, I see there are some holes towards the front and need to ask Sarah if I'm missing something there, I think it needs to be tied to the front but not sure yet.

I have 2031 heddles on 10 harnesses.

1= 240 6=90

2=-426 7=78

3=80 8=172

4=90 9=224

5=430 10=201

I figure that Peggy used 1-4 more than any of other harnesses and had them set up with most of the heddles. I keep 1-6 with with 240 each and 7-10 - with the remainder. I think that will works unless someone has a better suggestion for me.

Here she is, finally finish with only the hooks, strapping and a crank missing. Those items haves been ordered, once those arrive we will be weaving even if it's just twills to start, I'm sure someone needs a twill table runner in their house

It's HOT!

It's been brutally hot, humid and all around miserable, yuck! Just a few months ago I remember everyone around here complaining "oh I want to cold to go away, it's too cold, it's been too much this winter". PHEWY, to that crap, I'll take cold winter weather any day of the week instead of this sweating your butt off just to put on a t-shirt climate we're having. I guess the only good thing is that I haven't heard the dreaded words "HUNKER DOWN" from the new media, so no hurricanes yet.

I'm still counting and cleaning this I wish could go faster but with the heat I can only work in the garage for two hours a nite before I need to drink a gallon of water and shower off, so progress has been slow.

I have my list of item to order and am getting ready to do that before the end of the week, YES! Once I get the order place, I'm putting the loom inside the house YES! Then I plan on warping the board and getting some practice on the loom. I've downloaded some drafts from Handweaving.net an am getting itchy to start weaving something, it's been too long without any weaving in the house and it just ain't right LOL.., plus there is a posting that shall go un-named (Benita) about some holiday that is coming up really fast, so I guess if I'm going to get some gifts done it's got to be soon.