Woolthing

Last post I mentioned that I’ve got a puppy in the studio. It has been a challenge. When I thought about a studio dog, I imagined something like this.

Or even something like this.

Of course, the key word here is puppy, so what I got was this.

Topaz, the pup, loves wool.

I did manage to save this warp and with some patience I got it on the loom.

And I started a run of baby blankets.

First one …

And even though the little rotter drives me crazy she also makes me smile … a lot.

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I haven’t seen any sign of the mother raccoon and the babies for a couple of days now.   I’m hoping that she just moved herself and her kits to a better location but realistically I’m pretty sure it was death by farmer.  Raccoons are real pests and good looks will only take you so far.  After you’ve had a crop damaged or destroyed by raccoons you harden up.

The swallows were harassing me yesterday …

but I didn’t see them today.

So they may have finally found another place to build a nest.

I’m trying to get the studio presentable so that means I’m not actually doing that much weaving or spinning.  Mostly I’m cleaning and sawing and hammering and painting and yard work.

But I am working on some towels.  They aren’t all that exciting but I like them a lot.

A natural colour and a subtle pattern.

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My Macomber loom is older than I am and that’s getting up there.  I’ve only had it a few years but I’ve anthropomorphized it, stopping short of calling it anything other than “the Mac”, it is a bit like a friend to me but I know it is just a machine that is replaceable. You would expect to do some maintenance on any machine that you use a lot and once in a while I do.  Cleaning, oiling and tightening screws.  I was, however, not happy to see this.

On not one but two screws.  I tried to get the ends out of the loom with no success so the only thing left to do was some major surgery.  There will be scars.

I found the drill, took a deep breath (maybe more than one) and did this.

A couple of bolts later and the loom was back in business.  Just a little the worst for wear.  Maybe it will keep weaving for another 50+ years.

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Today I painted and wove.

This came off the loom.

It’s a very gloomy day so the lighting isn’t great.  This is a fairly small rug.

Here’s another.  It’s a bit bigger.

I still have to finish the edges, but I’m happy with both of them.

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… of the loom that is.

When there is something on the loom that has either been on there a long, long time, or it’s something you are starting to hate so much that it’s stopping you from weaving, it’s called a dog and it’s time to cut it off.

It may be a couple of inches shorter than planned but I did finish this piece.  And it turned out okay but it was a struggle.

The biggest problem with this blanket was the degree of difficulty.

It was wide, wider than my arm span, so let me tell you that weaving bench got very nicely polished.

It was complex.  All eight shafts and bit of a challenging treadle pattern.

It was a softly spun alpaca that was starting to draw in.  As I was nearing the end of this blanket the warp started to break, one thread after another.  I’d no sooner fix a thread and I could see another shredding.  I should have used a temple but I didn’t have one and getting one long enough would be a bit spendy.   I’m usually pleased with my selvedges but I’m not proud of these.

And this was a new to me loom.   I’m still getting to know it.

After one more thread broke I decided that it was long enough and couldn’t bear to do another repeat.

All that whining aside, once it was off and washed it didn’t look bad at all.  It’s bit like the children we get to raise.  We go through a lot with them, some days good, some days not.  They drive us nuts and test our patience.  Then, before you know it, they’re grown and we look at them and think, “You know, they actually turned out rather well.”

Another thing?  This is a blanket.  It isn’t perfect.  The selvedges aren’t great and it isn’t really balanced but it’s main purpose is to keep someone warm and if that’s what counts, then it’s a success.

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I work on multiple projects.  There are two main reasons why I do this.  The one I like to use as a reason is that I tend to get injured if I do one thing too much.  I’ve broken both the wrist and the shoulder of my right arm and (I hate this part) I’m getting older.  So I change things up a lot.  If I’m tired of weaving I spin, if I’m tired of that I sew, or I work on the studio ripping out a carpet or something.

The other reason I change things up is that I get bored easily.

That’s all fine and it works for me but the problem is that I never seem to get anything done or I get a bunch of things done close to the same time and it seems like I’m just spinning my wheels till then.  I do have a lot of wheels.

So anyway, to make a short story long, I finished a throw rug today and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.

Technically, it’s a rag rug, although, I didn’t use rags. I used fabric from my stash.   Remnants from other projects or fabric that was given to me after a show or something I bought and then didn’t like.   But I do like this.  I think I’ll make another one.

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There are some strange things about this little house that have me wondering.  One thing is why the former owners covered almost every floor with carpet including the kitchen and bathroom.  Come on, who does that?  My mother tells me that the former lady of the house hated scrubbing floors so she loved carpet.

I, on the other hand, hate carpet.  Part of that has to do with my work.  It’s all threads and fibre and all that stuff gets stuck in carpet.  It is far easier to sweep the floor and occasionally scrub than it is to fish out every thread, piece of yarn and dropped pin that seems to adhere to carpet.  Also, I hate the sound of the vacuum cleaners.  so when I’m done there will probably be very little carpet here.

I got the carpet off the entire top floor and down the stairs.

The “yellow” room is mostly cleaned out and is waiting for me to finish pulling out what must be hundreds of staples.

I’ll work on that a bit at a time.  I also have to get the wallpaper border scraped off and a decision about the wiring has to be made.  I may have to build a shelf or something to cover the wire.

I got all the carpet off the hallway as well as the linoleum and the plywood. There was an old newspaper in the vent hole so I know that the reno to place the carpet happened no earlier than 1971.

I pulled the carpet out of the bathroom.  It was pretty much just laying there.  The linoleum was there before the bathtub.  You can tell that the bathtub sits on top of it.  Why oh why?   So,  I think the lino stays.  I think it’s neat that the original, and real linoleum is still there and in decent shape.  I just wish it wasn’t covered in dried out contact cement and I really wish it wasn’t so ugly.

Dirt and old contact cement.  Truth is this will probably all scrape off.  I’m not looking forward to that.  But, the bathroom is small.

I found out that there used to be a bit of a bannister at the top of the stairs.  Now why would you take that down?  Do you like taking a misstep and falling down the stairs?

Nice work on that.  Thank goodness for wood putty and filler.  I will keep my eye out for a bannistar or something to put there but that might take a while.

And then I looked at the stairs.

Why not go all in and take that carpet off too?

I do wish all the floors looked as nice as the wood on the stairs.

Not sure what the numbers are all about but there are signs that there was once a different location for the stairs and no bathroom, of course.  This is no Victorian Mansion, so I’m sure the original bathroom was an outhouse.  Anyway,  my Dad thinks maybe these stairs came from somewhere else and were numbered to make it easier to put together.  These stairs definitely don’t meet code.  They are too narrow and they have a slight tip both forward and to one side.  Everything else is rock solid and amazingly enough level in this house so his theory does makes sense.  I’m hoping that some alcohol will take those numbers off.

After all that I took a break and wove.

It’s amazing how much progress you can make when you just sit down and do it.

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I did get something done today.  It was easier to focus than the last few days simply because I could be at the studio all day.

I wove about 7 more inches on the Cranbrook and the pattern on the blanket is starting to emerge.

I’m hoping that it evens out a bit when I wet finish it.  I have to remind myself that I’m just getting to know the loom and allow a bit of unevenness to stay.  It really is a challenge and slow going to weave this wide.  And a stretchy alpaca yarn makes it more difficult.

I also emptied out the yellow room and am getting ready to take down the painted hardboard and pull out the ugly green carpet.  Here’s what it looked like.

Isn’t that ceiling light special.  Don’t get me wrong.  Yellow is a nice colour but not when it’s this bright and that wallpaper border has to go.  I’m just not a yellow person.  I look like I’m sick when I’m wearing it and a whole room of yellow would probably make me look as though I’m dying.

I’m sure this room was loved by the person who painted it and made it this way.  Maybe she (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a man) looked nice in yellow.

The carpet? … this colour is even worse in real life and there are plank floors under there.  I like plank floors.  They are easy to keep clean and fibre doesn’t become attached to them.  Oh yes, tomorrow I will be making a big mess and then … the clean up.

It’s interesting how much tastes change over the years.  I look at all the wood paneling on the walls in this place and the carpet covered wood floors and I have to wonder why people thought that was attractive.  Of course, now we put the wood on the floors and the carpet … no where.  I think white is very nice, especially in a studio, but some day someone will come along and think that I was boring or crazy and that I didn’t have any taste.  And they’ll wonder why.

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I’ve been feeling a bit blah the last couple of days.  I think it has a bit to do with the fact that I’m in limbo as far as the future is concerned.  This has caused me to be a little less than focused.  I’ve been dashing from one thing to another.

The studio that I’m working from is a house rented from my sister and her hubby.  She’s letting me rent for next to nothing and I love the space but I want to make the space my own.  (I am living with my mother-in-law so have no other space of my own.)  I look around at the house and there is so much I’d like to do. 

I’d like to take down all the stuff that is covering up the wonderful, original ceiling.  At least, I think it’s wonderful.

Should I be committed?  Probably.

But I think I might be committed to doing one more room.

It’s a small room.

Okay, I don’t know how long I’ll be there.  It could be a year, it could be five or more.  My sister has said I can do what I like so I’m going to go for it.  I love old houses and I like working on them and uncovering their history.  I have to empty this room before I go much further and then I can get to work.  Then, there is just the small hallway and bathroom left and I might as well … yes, I should be committed.

I also washed some fleece.  It is alpaca.  And very soft.

It’s drying.   And I carded up some wool.  I have a lot of fleece, really a lot.  I could spin for a couple of years and not even come close to running out.  Of course, I am still always looking at more, but I am trying to not buy anymore fleece or yarn for a while.

I will, however, have to buy some weaving yarn.  Weaving uses a lot of yarn.

Sorry, even my photo lacks focus.  Tomorrow’s focus?  Empty room and weave.

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… the loom that is.

I am having some issues with the loom.  One of them being my own stupidity.

If you weave, you will know why I was having trouble when you see this picture.  Yes, the lease sticks.  Those of you who don’t weave … see those sticks just behind the harnesses, in the middle of the loom.  Those have to come out or get moved way back to the back beam in order for weaving to go well.

Here’s what it should look like.

But, things still aren’t as they should be, and I needed a time out to think.  It usually helps me to step away and let my unconscious mind work on the problem.  I’ll come to it fresh tomorrow.

I will say that fairly soon I will change all the chain with texsolv cord which will be cleaner, quieter and nicer to work with.

Here’s a close up of the tie up.

I’m also realizing that a warp that is 65″ wide might not be the smartest project for someone who’s arm span is around 62″.

I’ll find a way to make it work darn it or do a lot of cursing trying.

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