What is on and off the looms

Today I took two table runners off the Gilmore loom. They are woven with wool weft and warp.

Here is a close up of the striped one. The darker color is green.

Remember the other scarf that I wove using sock yarn as the weft?

Today I started another one but this time I am using the same sock yarn that I used for weft as warp and weft. It is turning out kind of neat looking. Want to see? I am doing plain weave on this one. If you look closely you will see a stripe that doesn't really show up on the other scarf.

I also wove some on the scarf that is on the Lervad. I would be weaving still but I have to get ready for a date with my husband! Hope all of you have a terrific evening!

Linda

I saw Santa Claus!

I did! Really, I did!

This evening my sister in law took me to the Yankee Candle Co. store. What a really neat place it is! When we walked through to the far end of the store we felt like we were outside. The ceiling was blue and it had big puffy clouds. The lights in there made the sky look like it was changing. You can see it looking differently in the photos below. The shops that surrounded us looked like downtown store fronts and the center section was similar to a town square. On the hour and half  hour the clock tower would open up and three mechanical animals sang songs. When they were done the clock tower closed back up.

In one area there were lots of artificial trees, a fountain and a gazebo.It was darker in there and it looked like night with twinkling stars over head. The really neat part of this area was that it snowed every four minutes! Pretty neat.

In another area we found ourselves standing in front of Santa Claus and his wife. They were very pleasant and reminded us to be very good!

Here are some pictures. The clock tower closed.

The clock tower open. See the sky?

There he is. Now I know where he spends him time when he is not in the north pole! Did you happen to notice his naughty and nice book?

Linda

The Wonder Loom

Today I went to a very large antiques shop in Williamsburg, Virginia. I wasn't looking for anything to buy but I do like to look. This is what I found. Isn't it a sorry looking loom? The wood needed to be refinished and all the metal parts were rusty. The label said it was a Wonder Loom.

They wanted $175.00 for it. I was shocked! I found one of the employees and politely told her the owner may want to know that their loom was very over priced. I told her it would take a lot of work and money to restore it to working condition. She didn't blink an eye and said there were people who would gladly buy it just to have it as a display piece. I told her that was sad. It is a tool that should be used. I think that poor loom will be sitting there for a very long time.


Linda

Loom assembly

Last week new weaver Nada asked if some of the Tuesday Weavers could go to her home and help her assemble two looms she had just purchased. Some of us love to do this so off Tina and I went yesterday. Nada had purchased a 8 harness Leclerc loom from the 1980's. The wood on this loom is beautiful! Here it is. I won't tell you who is hiding behind the loom!

The other loom Nada bought was an Ashford table loom. I didn't get any pictures of that one but it came all in pieces straight from the company. It is a neat table loom and the swinging beater is a nice feature. Unfortunately, we ran out of time so we didn't get it all together before it was time to leave.

Before we left we were fed a delicious lunch! Thank you, Nada! We had fun!

Linda

Trying to save this warp

Recently I put a warp on my Gilmore. It turned out to be a nightmare! I had used two colors. A dark blue and a tan wool. I could see when I was winding the warp that the blue had some knots in it but I thought they would go through the heddles ok. Boy was I wrong. I cut off the blue and threw it off the back and rethreaded the reed  skipping every other dent to spread out the warp but now what to do with a warp now set at 5 epi? I wove in a few loopers to see how that would look and I decided it just might work so I continued weaving. This is what I wove.

It is in the washer right now. I will find out how it does soon.

Linda

Sweet 16 party. Something different!

My son and I were invited to a masquerade ball so off we went. It was awesome! The ball was held in the Karlan Mansion located in the Wilderness Road State Park. The ball began just as it started to get dark.  Each guest was greeted at the door with a champagne glass filled with sparkling cider. The theme was Phantom of the Opera. Each guest was given a folded piece of paper that was sealed with wax. Inside were questions about the movie. If you didn't know the answer to a question there were hints in several rooms to help you. One example was...what was Christine's father noted for? He played the violin so there, on a pedistal, was a violin.

There were electric candles everywhere and the sound track from the movie was playing. At one point the Phantom suddenly appeared and slowly walked up the spiral staircase to escort the birthday girl down. They walked into one of the rooms and waltzed. The whole night was simply incredible. After dinner modern teenage music was played and the kids danced. Just before the party ended the mother of the birthday girl went over the answers to the questions and the winner got to take home the Phantom's mask.

My friend, the mother of the birthday girl, asked me to wear my 18th century clothes so I did. Here is what I looked like before we left for the party.

It was raining pretty hard and it was very foggy so we decided to spend the night at an inn. Sometime during the night it got really cold and the rain had turned to snow! This was our view when we walked out the door.

This morning we drove around and saw the sights. I really wanted to walk up to the Pinnacle but the road was closed. It sure would have been neat to see the view from up there!

Linda

What I am working on today

For a while now I have wondered what it would be like to weave a scarf with sock yarn. I knew the pattern wouldn't look the same but what would it look like?  Last week I found myself near a JoAnn's etc. Our son wanted to go into the guitar center and so I HAD to find a place to go! He loves it there but it is just too loud for me. They didn't have a big selection to choose from but this is what I bought.

I had a time deciding what color to use for warp but I ended up with  purple.

Today I started weaving the scarf. I was going to do a fancy twill but I played around with plain weave and a straight twill first. I really liked how the straight twill looked so I went with that. It probably won't show in the pictures ( I took the photos with my phone) but the purple areas, up close, look like jewel tones! Very pretty. The specks of green, in the lighter area, got washed out. The green looks almost gray. It looks much better in person.

With this warp I have reached my goat of a warp on every loom! Hurray!

More rain is predicted and we are under a flood watch already. I have heard two to three inches is expected and it could end as snow on Sunday! We sure don't need more rain. In some areas the creeks and rivers are still high from the last rain.

Take care and I hope you all stay high and dry!

Linda

Saying good bye

Today we made the decision that Monty had to go somewhere else to live. He is a sweet cat and great mouser BUT he is mean to our other cat, socks. This has been going on since last year and today we had had enough. He will stalk her when she is just minding her own business. He will slowly creep up on her and stay there until they make eye contact and then he will pounce sending her fur flying. She does nothing to defend herself! Every day I set out two bowls of food and he will go and eat her food and she will just walk away. So today was the last day for him to terrorize Socks. I have a friend who lives on a large farm and was looking for a cat to catch moles. I gave her a call and off Monty went. Will we miss him? Sure but Socks needed some peace in her life.

When Monty first came to us our son named him Monty. I asked him why he chose that name. He said it was the name of the bad cat on the Stuart Little movie. The name didn't fit at the time. He was so sweet and we would call him Montyzooma because he would run in the house, at lightning speed, when the door opened. Now the name fits.

Linda