What's on my looms?

Busy around here has recently included 18" of snow, and a 24 hour power outage.  24 hours certainly beats days (and twice in the 24 years I've lived in this house, weeks) without power.

I spent part of that time figuring out how to get some weaving done by the light of the small casement window.  The big Macomber is the only one in a room with any outside light, so I worked on the Peaches & Creme baby blanket.

This one is the Goose Eye Baby Blanket from the Nov/Dec 2017 issue of Handwoven magazine.  I actually managed to get a handle on the pattern repeats by the time I had to stop.

These are my loom dogs!  The two Aussies (Penny, red tri full size Aussie, and Jasper, red merle mini Aussie) are the only two dogs that will come downstairs into the basement with me.  The two Border collies, River and Remy, refuse to come down.

Today, after spending far too much time shoveling yesterday, I managed to make progress on warping the Baby Wolf, and beginning to wind my next warp.

This is the warp on the Baby Wolf.  It took me about a week (the warp was already measured, wound, and chained) to get this into the raddle, wound on the back beam, threaded through the heddles, and sleyed in the reed.  Today I tied on to the front beam.  The yarn is Maurice Brassard 8/2 cotton from Lofty Fiber.

This is the pattern - twill blocks, the Masters Towel pattern from Lunatic Fringe yarns.

I also started winding the warp for my next project.

These are shades of gray from the previously-purchased Gray Matter kit from Lunatic Fringe.  This pattern will use the five shades of gray, plus white, for the pattern.  It will go from dark gray to white, then back to dark gray - 11 sets, with black outside edges and thin black stripes between the colors.  I will be using black for the weft as well.

The pattern draft for this is the Jack Hearts draft from the Ashford New Zealand website.

This is the progress on the baby blanket after my weaving-in-the-semi-darkness episode.  This is about half done, if not more, and I will be putting the gray Hearts towels on this loom (the big Macomber) next.

Following this (and the finish of the Artist towels on the Baby Wolf) I am planning to start a set of Pinwheel towels in white and Peacock blue cotton.  I may go ahead and warp this while weaving these other projects.  The draft is from A Weaver's Book of 8 Shaft Patterns by Carol Strickler, #59.  I saw a Ravelry project using this draft, and the same Peacock blue cotton that I already have, and it was spectacular.

My new loom is here!

Way back in January (January 4, to be exact) I ordered a new 8-harness Schacht Baby Wolf loom, complete with all the bells and whistles - height extenders, stroller wheels, and high castle tray.  It has been a long, difficult wait (especially since I am generally lacking in patience), but on Friday, my loom finally arrived!  It was shipped to the local yarn shop where I had ordered it, The Yarn and Fiber Company in Derry, NH.

I loaded it into my van and brought it home.  Of course, it was raining, and I didn't want to be hauling it out of the van and across the lawn (and down into the basement) in the dark, in the rain, so it stayed in the van overnight.

Yesterday I brought it into the house (with help) and started the assembly (without help).

First I added the height extenders.  They make it easier for taller people to weave on this compact, portable loom.

Then, for further portability, I added the stroller wheels.

The wheels engage when the loom is folded up and make it easier to move the loom around.

That was as far as I got with the time I had yesterday.

I started again this morning, after morning chores and grocery shopping.  I connected the crank handle to the back beam.

Then I added the texsolv cords to the front (cloth) and back (warp) beams, and added the apron rods for both beams.

Then it was on to the heddles!  The loom comes with 800 heddles - 100 for each of the 8 harnesses.  There were 8 bags, each with 100 heddles that were tied together with a nylon string.  They were fairly easy to string onto the heddle bars.  I had to remove each harness frame individually, move the heddle bars, string the heddles on, then put everything back together and put the frame back into the loom.  Repeat x8.

I kept all of the little nylon strings that tied the individual harness bundles together.  They strike me as perfect for scotch tension cord for spinning wheels!  Why waste a perfect brake cord?

All harnesses and heddles finished!

Then I had to attach all of the treadle tie-up cords to the lamms (the horizontal wooden bars with holes).  There were 80 to attach - 10 on each lamm (because there are 10 treadles to potentially tie up), and 8 lamms (one for each harness).

I found out I could prop up a harness, one at a time.  I used a shuttle for that.  Propping the harness lowered the corresponding lamm below, and made it easier to thread the texsolv tie-ups through the holes in the lamm.

All done!  80 texsolv tie-up cords in place!

The last thing was to assemble the high castle tray.  This lets me keep everything for a project (bobbins, shuttles, threading hook, etc) easy to reach.

Done!  Now I am contemplating what to put on it for my first warp!  I have several Cotton Clouds kits, plus quite a few awesome weaving drafts (like heart patterns, and a couple of geometric ones with squares, etc) that I'd like to make.

I also signed up for a kitchen towel exchange and I have to get those done by mid-April.  It will be fun deciding what to begin next!