Makin' Fabric

So you may remember that I got a loom... oh... 2 years ago, and I'm just now getting to it! Click HERE to see the original post.

Well, I took the plunge and decided to give this a try. Terrified at first, I just tried a small 2" section of cloth in a plain weave to see how the process of threading the loom worked.

Here are those results...


Now, many people would probably just try a slightly bigger section and then work their way up to a larger project. But that's not really how I like to play.

I found this really great weaving book at the local library and decided to try one of the patterns.

Find it on Amazon.com HERE!

I chose the pattern on page 204 at the bottom (it doesn't have a name)

I warped the loom with a 5 yard warp that is 25 inches wide!


Stats:
Number of ends (individual threads) - 400
Hours to thread the loom - 12
Total finished width - 23 inches
Total finished length - 4 yards (yes, there is a whole yard of waste :-( )

And here is the beautiful work in progress!


I'm in LOVE with weaving! I grabbed my mom and showed her the work. Her response was "well, you have wanted a loom since you were 8!" :-)

What do you think?

Spinning and Weaving...

Awhile back I bought a drop spindle and some fibers from a great store in Paige, Texas called Yarnorama. I loved spinning and knew that I wanted to get a spinning wheel as soon as possible.

However... in case you've never looked into it, spinning wheels are expensive! Well, I let the idea go due to lack of excess money and lack of room for a new piece of furniture and moved on. But from time to time my mom and I still talk about how much fun it would be to have a spinning wheel and during one such talk I had mentioned seeing a few for sale on Craigslist last summer and that we should start keeping an eye out for some in our area.

AN HOUR LATER she comes to me and says that not only did she find one in our area, but she found a 32" loom as well! Both were for sale by the same woman and she was only asking for both items together what the spinning wheel on its own would have cost. I was very excited but knew that I didn't have the money to spend on it... so.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO MEEEEEE from my awesome, wonderful, brilliant parents :-D

I am now the proud owner of an Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel and a Herald 32" 4 Harness Loom!

Here are a few pictures of my new acquisitions.























































And here's a video of me spinning! A few seconds in I have to restart the wheel (cause I'm a noob and I still stink!) and you can see the bunch of fibers in my right hand that will turn into yarn as I spin!



The video lighting isn't that great and the yarn looks kinda dull, so here's a better picture! I'm spinning a 4 oz bunch of bamboo that I got from Yarnorama. Here are the fibers before spinning...

















And here is a picture of how much I have spun so far!!