Stasia's Place Of Grace

Sunday, February 16, 2003

 

Little Looms

You haven't heard much from me recently because I've been busy with my new obsession - little looms. They're portable, they're good therapy for my hands, they're inexpensive, and they're fun!

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Ashford Inkle

This is an Ashford inkle loom. It comes in a kit to assemble (it's easy).

A lot of you have heard me say that I like to use Wood Beams from Goodies Unlimited to finish and treat all the wood items in my home. I thought you might like to see for yourself what it does on bare, naked wood.

The Ashford loom is made of New Zealand Silver Beech - see how the Wood Beams brings out the natural glow and figuring? And it's safe enough to use with your bare hands, and so easy to apply. Smells wonderful, and makes your hands soft, too!

Before Wood Beams

After Wood Beams

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Assorted Mini Looms

These are the looms I've collected recently.

Top: Tornadowood Mini-Stick Inkle
Middle: Tornadowood Paperback; Lynn The Weaver Keel Inkle; weaving needles and inkle shuttles from Tornadowood and knife shuttle from Lynn The Weaver; Cedar Hollow Pocket Loom.
Bottom: lucet from Lynn The Weaver; 12" ruler.

Here is the first tapestry project I did, on the Cedar Hollow Pocket Loom. It has since been comleted and I'm going to be putting on a border. It will be a hotpad because it isn't very good - but it was a good learning experience. I made a lot of mistakes but I know what I did wrong... and that's the key, isn't it?

This is a little German loom I got on eBay. The heddle on it is rotated to alternately raise one set of strings and lower the other. It's a very clever design, similar to the Good Wood Looms "magic heddle". That is my cat Dilly on the right... he is always interested in my projects.

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Lucets

Here are two new lucets. The one on the right is from Lynn The Weaver and is made of Juniper root wood. It is fantastic!

The one on the left is made of Cocobolo wood, by me. Can you see the little sideways number eight just above the hole? That's a natural knot in the wood. I thought this piece of wood would make an interesting lucet because when you use a lucet to make cording, you make "figure eights." It seemed appropriate! It's nowhere near as good as Lynn's, but it was fun to make. Hard work, though!

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Shuttles

To accompany my new fascination with inkle weaving, I have tried making some inkle shuttles. On the left top is an 8" one from Schacht. Below it are three of mine, in Mahogany, Cherry, and Lignum Vitae. To their right is a small one I made of rare Snakewood. To the right of those are two by Lloyd Stretton of Running Moon Farm. They are for tapestry weaving and are of spaulted Oak.

My hands, arms, and shoulders are really sore from doing the shuttles and the lucet (even though I found an inexpensive electric sander) but I just took it one step at a time, and it was worth all the effort to finally be able to make something out of wood.

I have such a fascination with the different woods used by the spindle and fiber tool makers, and to be able to craft some simple items was really rewarding. To see the different patterns created by Nature, to touch the varying textures and learn how different species will work up, to smell the sawdust... it's such a wonderful, tactile experience.

Not very frugal, though - when I calculate the costs of a new saw and the sander and some wood carving tools and the wood, I could've had a really nice fiber tool shopping spree! I have a whole new respect for woodworkers, too... and I think I'll leave the woodworking to them from now on!

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Completed Project!

I finished my Patons Kroy Intarsia-In-The-Round Heart Socks just before Valentine's Day. I feel like they are my "masterpiece" - something I created completely on my own, and which fit and feel wonderful. (They look funny in the photo, but look wonderful when I'm wearing them, and required a bunch of new techniques that I'm proud to have accomplished.)

If you want instructions for these socks, please refer to my Blog archives during the last week of December. Please do not e-mail me to ask for the pattern, because beyond my instructions on my Blog, there isn't one!

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The View From Here...

We finally got snow here in Wisconsin! Look at these huge flakes! Unfortunately, it brought with it very frigid temperatures - in the teens - and high winds. We're supposed to hit the 30s this week - I sure hope so!

View from deck.

View from living room window.
This is the tree that the kestrels nested in this past summer,
and to the right is our tiny orchard.

I hope to finish a pair of socks in Sockatta yarn this week, as well as start a new inkle weaving project. I'm working on a perle cotton, beaded lucetted cord. I'm continuing the silk scarves from Treenway Silks, on which I attempted some new weaves like "Leno" and "Basketweave." I am still working on the Rambling Rows afghan, which I still love. All this handiwork is helping me to maintain my current level of dexterity despite the frigid weather. However, it is preventing me from keeping my house clean!

I have been tired and haven't been keeping up with my journalling or doing my "The Artist's Way" exercises. I hope that once the weather improves, I will have more energy so I can get back to those things, because they are important to my "balance."

I continue to read the Fagles translation of Homer's "The Odyssey" and there are numerous mentions of spindles and looms, and spinning and weaving, in it - so many that I've ceased to post "spinning/weaving in literature" notices to my Yahoo! Groups! It's a very easy read and entertaining... check it out! You might be surprised! I will not, however, finish it in time for book group!

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I hope you will have a productive, and peaceful, next couple of weeks!

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