Monday, February 4, 2013

Super Weekend

Sometimes I wonder...
Why do I have a loom?  Why has it been freighted from Norway to New York... 26 years ago?  Why has it lived in a trailer behind my house in New Mexico for 20 years?  What has stopped me from putting it together and weaving something?
The answer to these questions is clear, now.  It's a LOT OF WORK!
True, I bought this loom in 1979, and I have a notebook that says my last project was January 1983.
 Here I am... my Norwegian long hair...

True, it has lived in a box, a falling apart box, in a trailer (down by the river) for 2 decades.  Only a year and half ago did I feel it should be removed, and placed in a plastic container in the shed.  So close to the house... I would have to walk around it from time to time, enticing me, and then...
My daughter requested a blanket/throw and knowing I would be pretty unhappy knitting a monstrous project, I thought about the loom.
Now, you might think that I trotted right out there and brought it in the house, as I usually do when my daughter requests something (that I want to do/make anyway) but I didn't.  She "hinted" at the blanket project last June. But the thought of putting it together, and learning how to set it up, warping and all that... instructions detailed in Norwegian... It took until two days ago to wake up and make the trip out to the shed.
So it started:
Saturday:  It looked like this, and though I had a diagram of the loom, there's a stand in there, too.  And no instructions.

Something interesting:  Yarn still on the shuttle, which matches the blanket on my sofa!


 Hours later, with the help of a screwdriver and my hub:
Look! The same warp as my blanket, removed 30 years ago.  In great condition, i.e. no moth damage. It's an omen!
 Hours later, with the help of my hub, I separated the warp into two sections, and I have half wrapped on the back boom.
 I found that my back was aching from reaching over and threading yarn, so at the halfway point, I went to the sofa and resumed knitting... wondering how crazy I could be.
 The next day, I finished the setup.
And I rested.
For about half hour...while I considered what I was going to do.  I don't really have a plan, just some practice, and then...?




This warp was originally doubled so that my blanket became twice the width (90 cm).  I now have a doubled fabric that is 40 cm times 2.  It's difficult to know what's happening to the bottom layer, but I'm hoping it will match!
I'll weave until it's done, then start again.
Crazy woman.

2 comments:

  1. Oh my. how clever you are. It looks good so far. Weaving interests me much more than spinning does - should I ever take up a second craft.

    ReplyDelete

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