Rug Warp

I'm still here!  I am still weaving!  It's just been very, very slow over the summer.  Now that the kids are in school again, I'm trying to get some more weaving time in.  It takes a LONG time to get everything figured out.  This time I tried out Farmor's Warping mill, now that I found the right size dowel from the hardware store, that the mill had been missing.  It's a pretty short warp, but since I'm still learning, I think it's okay to do more, shorter projects...I'm a hands on learner.  Anyway, WOW!  Was this thing a dream to warp on!  My other warping board would make my arm and body so tired, zig-zagging back and forth, this was a piece of cake!

 Warp chained and ready for loom.

 This is sleying the reed...basically, getting the warp evenly spaced across the width of the reed, to get it the correct width to wind on the loom.

 Every weaver needs a trusty helper, right?  There's mine....sound asleep and snoring.  I guess this is still the boring part of weaving.

 Getting the warp attached to the back beam and waiting for my other weaver helper, the Hubs, to get home and help me wind on.

 I love this -- isn't that pretty?!

 And I finally ordered new Texsolv heddles.  The other ones were fine, but since they were rope, some seemed to be different lengths and it just came across a little uneven.  So, I now have 100 heddles on each of the four shafts.  I'm about half way there threading the heddles...a little over 130 left to go.  I love this part - sitting inside the loom, listening to the rain, some music and my faithful hound snoring away.  

Next is to finish this, get the warp through the reed and I'll be weaving!  Well, after I figure out how to prepare the rag strips that is...THEN I'll be weaving!  Almost there!

First Project

It's been an adventure figuring out Farmor's loom.  It's a different set up that has taken some research and learning along the way, so it took quite a bit more time than I was expecting to get the loom warped.  But, now that I've done it, it makes sense and will go faster the more I do it.  I have a bunch of Tencel from my very first set of scarves I made on my other loom last summer, so I warped up enough for 2 scarves approximately 72" in length.  This time I used the variegated for the warp. A nice zig zag of 6+ yards.

 Off the warping board.  Isn't that pretty?

 Threading the heddles.

 I'm doing the first scarf with a solid color weft.  It is a Bronson lace, and typically lace is best shown on solid color yarn, but I wanted a bit more texture than just a plain weave and I'm happy with how that's turning out.

 And here is scarf #2.  I know, they look the same, but they aren't!  I'm using the same variegated yarn for both warp and weft, and I also changed the treadling order to create a different texture.

 Isn't that fun?  That's the cloth beam...where the finished cloth goes.  ;-)

 Here you can see the lace design as it's going down to the cloth beam.

 And another.

I'm still figuring out the little quirks of the loom but it is a joy to weave on.  I understand why so many prefer these swedish style looms as they are quiet, smooth, easy on the arms and body. I'm in love with my new loom. Hopefully I'll have finished scarves to share with you soon.

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!