Wait, what?

I love weaving. Really LOVE weaving. From start to finish, and yes that includes winding and warping! I thought maybe, sure, when I started with a rigid heddle 4 years ago.

 

Next month marks 4 years that I have been weaving. My first project was a scarf out of some Cascade 220 for my kiddo.

 

 

Dozens of scarves later, I have graduated to floor looms and 8 shaft weaves. (looking at 12... shhhh)

 

I just pulled off a hand dyed warp by one of my favorite ladies, Blazing Shuttles.

 

 

This blackberry warp grew up to become waffle weave towels!

 

 

Currently waiting to be sewn and added to the shop :)

 

 

Rag rugs are on the Cranbrook and I am still learning how to weave on her. She is HUGE, strong and sturdy. The land between the looms is where I am currently sitting and winding my rag strips while I read up on double weave.

 

 

 

Go forth and be productive!



FOR SALE!!!!! Cherry, Cherry, Who wants a Cherry????

The decision has been made! I am selling my Schacht Cherry Baby Wolf. She has been well cared for and is in great condition. Here are the deets;

 

 

 

Schacht Cherry Baby Wolf
26” weaving width
8 Shaft - 10 Treadle
Baby Wolf Trap
Baby Wolf Stroller
800 Schacht Stainless Steel Inserted eye heddles
3 Stainless steel reeds 8,10 & 12 DPI
26” Baby wolf Raddle kit
leese sticks
63 Tie up cords
2 Schacht Cherry Boat Shuttles - 11” open bottom

To purchase this set up new, it would run:
loom - $2750.00
raddle - $109.00
extra reeds x2 - $138.00
Cherry Boat Shuttles x2 - $82.00
Total - $3079.00

My Price: $1900

This loom is located in Sallisaw, Ok - 74955. Pick up only - I will not ship. I would be willing to meet/deliver in a certain distance for cost of gas and a meal.

 

 

Please feel free to share this!

FO day!

I am keeping very busy here at Casa Wool Therapy. I finished my first rug on the cranbrook a few days ago. And yes, that includes the hem! I hand hemmed these and it turned out fabulous, I will be doing it again. Final measurements (30” x 72”)

 

 

 

 

I pulled another scarf off of my RH too. It is a mash of 2 different hand dyed yarns, both by the same dyer, Three Irish Girls. The warp is a 50% Alpaca, 30% Merino, 20% Silk blend in a solid, and the weft is a single ply 60% Silk 40% Merino blend.

 

 

Happy Weaving!



Lessons Learned

I am finally weaving on my Cranbrook, but only after a very long and frustrating weekend. I choose to change out the original string heddles for new texsolv heddles and they arrived last week. Hence the loom sitting vacant for a month :(

 

I decided to run a small test warp on the loom to get a feel for her, so a short 2.5 yard warp was ran for a bath mat. You see, I have this huge box of sock loopers for such an occasion.

 

 

The loom was warped, threaded and tied on in record time. I climbed into the body of the loom, which by the way is really cool, to tie up the treadles. I kept thinking that something was off.... things don't look right. After just sitting underneath a moment and staring at all the parts, I realized that the treadles were upside down. Easy enough fix, right? So I pulled out the bar that the treadles are on and I flip them all over. Re-tie.

 

Something. Is. Still. Wrong. I am a little more than frustrated at this point. I just don't get it. So I pull out all of my manuals, books on tying up countermarchs, and hit up google. I can't find anything I have done wrong at this point, so I decide to go back to the beginning. Do I have this monster put together correctly? I open the original assembly manual and read it line by line. Nothing jumps out at me and as I am sitting there staring at a picture of the loom, the problem smacks me in the face. Why yes, my treadles were upside down, but that was because the whole treadle frame was upside down! The treadles are supposed to hang from the frame, not rest on it.

 

 

I cuss at this point. The only way to fix the problem is to take the whole loom apart, flip the treadle beam and put it back together. And oh, re flip the treadles since they were on the beam correctly in the first place. And OH, did I mention this beast is warped? My husband and I start discussing how to attack this. I would rather try to save the warp instead of just pitching it, so a game plan is put into place. I tape all the warp threads to the warp beam like I've see sectional warpers do.  Then I untied all the threads from the apron bar and overhand knot them in front of the reed in small groups. My husband unpins and pulls out the back beam while I unhook the harnesses and pull the reed out of the beater. Together we walk all these pieces away from the loom. So far so good! Pulling the loom apart at this point is a cinch, and in under 10 minutes we have the back treadle beam flipped and treadles re flipped. In another 5 we have the warp beam on and harnesses re hung. The tape worked very well and I only had 1 section pull out of the reed.

 

 

I am really surprised. REALLY surprised it worked. I have no tension issues yet and we are weaving smoothly. I don't believe my shed is as big as it should be, it is at about 2" wide. I asked some weaving friends on Ravelry about it, but we have come up with nothing yet. The loom may just need some fine tuning and that will come as we move forward.

 

 Yeah for my first rug!!

 

Finishing and photographing

I have a pile of things ready to be finished.

 

Sewing, washing, hemming, pressing and twisting fringe. FUN!

 

 

This scarf was the first warp I put on my new to me Louet Spring. Finally washed and ends knotted. 8/2 Tencel warp and weft.

 

 

This AWESOME scarf was woven for a Raveler, and used hand dyed sock yarn as the warp with 8/2 tencel as weft.

 

Only a Partial photo of this project because it is a Christmas gift! Woven with 10/2 Perle

 

And last but not least, a set of kitchen towels. The warp was hand dyed by Blazing Shuttles. I used 8/2 Cotton for weft, 3 in orange, 3 in navy and 2 in turquoise. These towels are listed in my Etsy shop!

 

 

Happy Weaving :)



 



A towel a day keeps the..........

I recently bought a hand dyed warp from a fabulous lady I found on Facebook (don't ask me how) and started following her group. Yes, I am aware that I could do it myself, but what fun is that? Not to mention the fact that I love to support the fiber community!

 

The color is bold rainbow

 

 

The warps come in standard sizes, lengths and widths. This one is 8/2 cotton 7.5 yards with 400 threads. I decided to make kitchen towels

 

 

 

The first draft I picked didn't work out so well.  It was Huck Lace diamonds, and to get the diamonds in an even shape, I had to beat VERY lightly. Too lightly for towels I thought. So I cut out almost 15" of weaving and started over. I did not want to have to rethread 400 heddles so I started playing with weaving software. I changed the tie-up to that of draft  in the same book and changed the treadling some.

 

 

 

I will probably change the treadling again for a towel or two, but I love these so far.

Click lights!

My fantastic Louet Spring has an awesome built in tool shelf on top,

 

 but said tool shelf can block the light where I am working. I thought about using a clip on light, but that would need an outlet to plug the light into. So, after a quick trip to lowes my hubby and I came up with this!

 

 

Magnetic mounted click lights. There is a sticky back with a metal piece on one side which I attached to the underside of the tool shelf. Then the click light has a magnet on it. It is battery operated and has 2 light settings.

 

 

 

Works perfect! And no cord running across my floor :)