The Loom is Home

I can't even begin to explain the mix of emotions today as my Farmor's loom finally made it to its new home.  Getting the loom here was a much bigger task than I had imagined.  It all started back in July with a conversation with my Dad - what ever happened to Farmor's looms?  In August, the conversation began with my Uncle Sten about Farmor's loom - he and my Aunt were so kind to pass the loom on to me.  Then in September, the conversations began with freight forwarders, customs officials, customs brokers, banks, shipping companies, etc.  My Dad and I logged countless hours on the phone and computer figuring out how to get this shipped across the ocean...safely and without penalties...we learned the shipping business has changed a lot in the last few years and I could not have done this without his help! The loom eventually was collected from my uncle's house, packed and put in a crate.  On Wed, Nov 6th, the loom finally set sail from Gothenburg, Sweden.  It spent nearly two weeks at sea, stopping in Liverpool, then Nova Scotia and finally unloading in New York. Technology made it exciting to track across the ocean. From there it was put on rail and arrived to Minneapolis on Dec 2nd.  There were a number of bumps and setbacks on this great journey, but it was, without a doubt, totally worth it!  On December 6th, a full month after it set sail from Sweden, I picked it up from the warehouse in Minneapolis. I couldn't help get a little teary-eyed when I first saw the crate come out on the lift.  All this time waiting....and there it was! What a moment!

 This made me a little nervous....the crate was only made to be held by the forklift on the wide side, but the truck opening wasn't wide enough.  They had to balance it on the pallets like this and then slide it in the truck.  I suppose they do this all day long so it was no big thing.  They probably thought I was a little nutty to be taking pictures of it all....especially when it was only 5 degrees outside!

 Home!

 Can you tell how cold it is?  Of course it would come home on the coldest day of the year!  

 They did a great job packing it.  Everything was in perfect condition.

 I thought this one was funny....I can just see someone standing there thinking, "now, how am I gonna wrap this one up?"

 Oh look!  The loom came with a little boy!  Haha!

He loved playing in all the wrappings.

 Setting out parts and pieces.

"This is a BIG guy!"

Sorting through treasures.

We had to do some rearranging to make room for both looms...but here it is!

  This room is filled with my family - Farmor's loom, Grandpa's easel and paintings, Auntie paintings, Great Grandma's yarn basket and picture knitting, weaving supplies from Aunt Lena....I am surrounded by love and creativity each time I step in this room.  Makes my heart happy.  :-)

I chose to have the looms facing the windows so I can look outside.  In the summer I have the front door open and can see out front...I love that.

I am just so happy to have my Farmor's loom...and I like to think she'd be happy that it's here too.

Welcome Home!

How It Works

!Caution!

This blog post is about warping a loom.  

If you have no interest in how a loom is prepped for warp...just move right along!  ;-)

I've had a lot of people ask me how the loom works and how long it takes to make a project.  I can't tell you how long exactly...but the prep is most certainly the most time consuming.  The first part is deciding what type of design you're going to make, then you have to figure out how many ends of warp per inch, if you want a border, length, etc.  There are some awesome charts online that figure out much of this for you.  Once you have that all figured out, you get the yarn on the warping board.  For my latest project of three scarves, I figured out I need 144 ends, each being 9 yards long.  

So, here's the warping board I made for less than $30.  Much better than the $100+ ones they sell online.  Each path is 1 yard.  So you can come up with any length up to 12 yards of warp on this board.  You start at the bottom right, zig-zag your way up to the top left and wrap yourself back down and do this until you have your set amount of warp ends.

 Then you have to tie off all kinds of ends.  Won't bore you with the details, but believe me, they are important.

 Because once you have everything tied off, you can take the warp off the board, loop it in a chain so it can go on the loom.  Isn't that just pretty?

 Here we go!  Rattle goes on loom and loop the ends on the middle peg.

Here it starts getting a little crazy.  Basically, you have to split the yarn so it slides through the loom nicely.

These are lease sticks, they separate the yarn and prevent them from crossing over on each other.

Next, you take a break to yell at new kitty, Stanley, who loves yarn.  I know you don't believe it from looking at this sweet picture...but he's crazy.....CRAZY about yarn.  

Suzie, our 17 year old cat could care less.  

Once kitty is removed from loom and locked downstairs, the warping can continue and warp is then wound around the back beam.

And this is where the real fun begins.  Each one of these metal strings is called a heddle and it is attached to a shaft, the part of the loom that goes up or down depending on which peddle (treddle) you step on.  It is the order of strings in the heddles, mixed with the order of treddles that makes the pattern on the fabric.  So, you have to take great care in threading this properly....or you have to do it all over and fix from where you messed up.  Don't ask me how I know this.  ;-/

And then you have to bring each thread through the reed, which is attached to the beater...brings the yarn across the fabric and sets it in place.  That's a boat shuttle with the yarn in it.  It passes the yarn back and forth throughout the fabric.  

So there you have it!  Something like that anyway.  ;-)  It's crazy, but fun, and I love it!

Guitar Wall

We have this great space downstairs that is perfect for the music equipment, but it has mostly looked like this since moving in over a year ago.  We had some ideas rolling around of how to display his guitars, and knew we wanted hooks to display them on the wall, but they can be pretty pricey when purchased at the store.  So, a little online searching for some diy ideas, and this is what he came up with.

Some scrap lumber cut into octagons and painted black, combined with heavy duty tool hooks made some pretty nice looking guitar hangers!

And there you have the Guitar Wall! 

Here's a close up.

 I love it!  Gets them all up off the floor and it looks so cool to have them out on display instead of tucked away.  Next is to organize the recording equipment, cords, keyboard and such, but for now, so happy with how the guitar wall turned out.  

Overshot Table Runner

I had a blast weaving this Overshot Table Runner in Grey.  It has 480 warp ends...yikes!  That took some time to thread through the heddles.  Then I wove it in tabby, using two shuttles -- one in the thin warp thread alternating with the thicker, grey weft thread. 

 It was so exciting to see how the pattern came about.

 Kind of bummed about these pix.  I was taking them at night, generally not a good idea, but I was too excited...and then I'm using the wrong lens as my other lens is in need of some fixing.  

Oh well, you get the idea.

Each project I have done has had many, many "learning opportunities"....I don't like to call them mistakes. ;-)

I'm a master at fixing broken warp strings. I have learned how to make edges much more straight. I learned how to hand stitch finished edges.  I learned that 100% cotton shrinks....a lot. And I have learned that an 8 month old cat reacts differently to yarn than a 17 year old cat does....uh-huh...I don't want to talk about that.

Anyway, I took a class last week at the Weavers Guild on Fiber Characteristics.  It was a very good class and I learned so much!  So far I have worked with Pearle Cotton, Cotton Warp, Tencel, Unmercerized Cotton and I currently have Merino/Tencel on the loom.  Each project I'm trying different fibers to learn how they react on the loom and to see what I like working with best.  Again, lots of "learning opportunities"...but strangely, it doesn't upset me, I just undo whatever I need to, adjust and try again.  It's really fun learning and figuring this all out.  Now, if I can just get Stanley to leave the yarn alone...that would be swell!

Fall Scarves

 Remember when I told you last spring I was warping my loom to make three scarves and I told you not to hold your breath to see results?  Well, here they are!  I made three, each one about 78" in length and 8" wide.  I made two in the burgundy/gold and one with the burgundy/red wine.  The yarn is Tencel - made from wood pulp, it has a lovely drape and the pattern style is Huck Lace. I had a number of learning experiences along the way...most frustrating were a few broken warp strings, but I figured out how to fix them (and prevent them) and moved right along! 

Here is one of the burgundy/gold.

And here is the burgundy/red wine.

It's been slow going with all three kids home for the summer.  I'm looking forward to fall to be able to put more time in on the loom.  I'm currently prepping it for another project...this time table runners!  I'm trying new types of yarn and new styles of weaving...trying to learn as much as I can. 

 I'm in love!

Chore Chart

We are home for the summer and I wanted to get organized with a routine of chores.  The kids are really good with their daily chores of getting ready, brushing teeth, making beds, etc...but it's always nice to have it written down.  Makes it much more official that way, you know?  And the same for the extra daily chores....if it's on the board, it just HAS to get done, right?  And so far, it's been great.  They have been really good about doing their chores and then checking out the Help Wanted section.    Here's a look at the board in the kitchen.

 The Daily Chores change each day, although I think this will pretty much be the routine.  I made them with velcro so I can add more or moved them around.  The kids all participate somehow, each vacuuming their room, helping with garbage cans and picking up sticks, dusting, sweeping, etc. I find it easier that they all have the same job so I can teach them how to clean and help the little one out.

 This is just wasted space on the board since they all are good at their daily routine anyway...but, it never hurts to have it official.

 Help Wanted.  I gave up on allowance awhile back...it just got to be ridiculous.  So I thought this would help out.  If you want spending money, you work for it.  That simple.  If you don't want to work extra and have money, that's fine too.  I put in a bunch of odd jobs - sweep off deck and deck table, weed, dust staircase, vacuum edges of carpet, wipe down kitchen appliances, wash windows, water flowers, etc.  They are listed on the popsicle stick along with the amount the job is worth.  When they finish the job, they put the stick in their envelope and wait til payday on Saturday.  Eliah, the worker, has scoped out the high paying jobs and has already earned $4 for the week and has plans to save it.  Ava has earned .25 and she's already planning on how to spend it.  Yup, I foresee some financial planning classes in her future.  ;-)

So, that's our summer chore chart!  Think it will work!

Summer is coming!

I had to chuckle that I hadn't realized how close we are to the end of the school year.  It wasn't until an old co-worker posted on FB that there were only 9 days left of school that it dawned on me that in just a few days I will have all three kids, each three years apart, at home again with me again all day for 3 months!  Holy buckets do I need to get some things planned out or we will all lose our minds!  Ha!

I'm so excited to go through the full summer here at our house.  Last year was so wild and crazy with us moving from our old house on the very last day of the school year and living out of a suitcase for the next 7 weeks until we moved here.  It's hard to believe that we are so close to being here for one full year.

Anyway, back to the three little people that I need to keep entertained for 3 months.  I'm so looking forward to not watching the clock and to have those wonderful, lazy summer mornings with the kids....but I know that I need to have some activities mapped out throughout the summer.  Here is my list of things so far -- some of these are annual events, some we have done once or twice and some are totally new.  I'd love to hear your thoughts and things you think I should add to the list.

• visit all the parks in our city - one or two parks a week and picnic lunch
• swimming beach
• make a tic tac toe board on a stump and paint rocks for play pieces
• visit the zoo and zoo farm
• geocaching
• Caponi Art Park
• Sculpture Garden and Sebastian Joe's IceCream
• Fort Snelling....I don't think I've ever been there
• Art Museum
• Minnehaha Falls
• Arboretum
• Shoots and Ladders Park
• Playdates with friends from old hood
• Hiking trails
• Weekend camping trips
• Visit to Island G&G
• Cabin
• Mini golf/go carts
• water park
• camp in backyard
• set up swimming pool / sprinklers
• make a water station using pvc pipes
• ride bikes to local farmer's market (tuesdays)
• Moms group outings
• visit the other libraries in the county
• swimming lesson camp
• golf with E
• see a movie
• go to a drive in or local movie in the park
• kids participate in a service project
• Explore local bike paths

And that's what I've come up with so far.  Let me know if you have other ideas that would be fun for an 8, 5 and 2 year old.

Porch Make-Over

The porch is my favorite room in the house.  When we originally looked at the house we fell in love with the kitchen and it's big window (is it weird to have a favorite window???).  Seconds later I fell even more in love as my eyes moved out to the porch.  The windows, privacy, relaxed feel....it's a great room.  We bought the wicker set from the previous owners, but dark green really isn't my favorite color, in fact it's probably my least favorite color (sorry people who love green) so I had pictured something different from the start.  Blues, yellows, oranges...something like that.  So, this is how the porch went from this:

....to this!

I recovered the seats in the Trellis Blue.  Bought some new pillow forms and made all new pillow cases. Got a new floral rug (just barely seen on right) that goes out to deck. The woven table cloth was a gift to me years ago from a good friend and was part of the color plan....as was the pot on that 3 legged stool.  That pot was also a gift to me years ago as I had hoped to someday have a blue and yellow room.  I plan to paint that little 3-legged stool and also that square, brown table in the corner.  It's pretty scratched up on the top and a coral or even lime green could be fun.  A new lamp is also in the works for that corner...something a little more porchey....that's a word....right???  Haha!

This back wall was also painted as it had been the dark, forest green to match the stripes.  It's the same blue paint in Nikkel's room...had a bit left over and figured we may as well use what we have!  Sconces were added on each side of that window.    The black little table there had been in the living room housing our tv....but I think it works okay out there.  This wall needs something yet...art, porchey type things.  I have some floating shelves that could be staggered here...just not sure yet.

Here's a close-up of the fabrics.  I fell in love with the birds and flowers.  We are really loving our backyard and learning about all the birds...so it just seemed perfect for the room.

 As far as sewing the cushions, I just kind of winged it and traced the shape of the cushion and went for it.  The only thing I wish I had done was make it just a bit tighter.  I went with the measurements of the seat and really I should have gone down in a inch....I can always go and take it in....but we'll see how much it really bugs me over time....sewing that large cushion closed was a bit of a challenge.  The pillows....the two long ones on the back are envelope style pillows and the red ones have zippers.  Zippers can be tricky, but I got it down pretty well by sixth pillow ;-) So, overall, I'm really pleased with how it all turned out.  

If you're ever in the neighborhood, please stop over and join us on the porch for a cup of tea or a G&T!