Weaving - Trying Something New

A few posts ago I wrote that my friend in South Dakota, Sue (in the blogosphere known as SDSue) sent me a link for Singing Falls Ranch in Oregon. I read through Stanley & Alexandra Petrowski website and loved it.

I want to raise goats.
I want to spin fiber.
I want to weave the fiber that I spin.

I want, I want, I want.

Dreams. For the most part - dreams. It is going to be forever before I raise goats. I may be able to spin fiber one day (I have my ear to the ground, so to speak, about any info on the fiber arts here in Kherson). I may be able to weave the fiber I may one day spin.

Until then, I have been reading all sorts of things about weaving on the internet. I have watched several YouTube videos on weaving. Weaving in Nepal. Weaving in Peru. Weaving in Some Place, America. Clickity clackity clickity clackity. I have listened to weaving done to hard rock music. I have watched weaving done in a class setting. I have watched weaving done fast motion (3 hours worth in two minutes). I have watched some guy named Bill trying to figure out how a loom works, him not knowing any of the correct names for the parts and making up his own (as if I do know those names! ha!). I actually learned a LOT from Bill. I will probably watch his video again.

All these little videos - and still they are not enough. I want a full-length motion picture on How To Weave, Build Your Own Loom, Spin Your Own Fiber, Talk Your Husband Into The Idea That Yes There IS TO Enough Room In This Tiny Flat For A Full Sized Loom, and so forth and so on. (I haven't gotten to the Husband Talk yet - but I think he might be getting suspicious.....).

There are backstrap looms, Navajo looms, floor looms, table looms and I won't go any farther than that. Well, yes I will. There is my little loom.It is called the Weave Easy Hand Loom, came from Em's Attic and cost $3 in 2001, I think - there is a 11/15/01 on the back, along with a barcode. The box looks much older than 7 years, so maybe it is older than that, just resold in 2001. I can't remember where I got this (SDSue, if it was from you, forgive me my bad memory!). As you can see from the photo, I made a scarf on it. Twelve little 4 inch squares - each with 4 ends that had to be woven in. TOO MANY ENDS! I like it a lot, but enough is enough. That is part of the reason the scarf has no fringe - I was sick of little hangy down threads. Ha Ha!

So, thinking about how much I really liked all the over and under, over and under - done with a long weaving needle - and how cool it was to watch the pattern take form in the cloth I was making, I decided that I really do need to go to the next step.

But what is the next step?????

I decided that the backstrap loom was it. I have no trees in our flat (yet - the avocado seedling just won't do) to hang a loom from off a branch. Nor do I have any door frames from which to hang a stick loom or frame loom (Mel insists that he has to go through all of the doorways in our flat for some reason - I did not ask him this, I just know it instinctively). There are a couple of doorknobs that might be used to hook the end of a backstrap loom over, but those door knobs are slanted and the yarn just popped off each time I tried.

What to do? What to do?

Well, there is that exercise bike over there - sometimes used to hang clothes over to dry, sometimes used to hold stacks of books, sometimes it is even used to ride on as an exercise bike. "AHA!" I said to myself. "I know! I will make a backstrap-exercise bike loom!" And I did.

I measured out 45 inches plus more, doubled to make 90 inches plus about a two feet more of 19 strands of yarn, folded them in half, did a half-hitch knot over a little dowel rod that we got in the two boxes that arrived conveniently three weeks ago now, wrapped them around another dowel rod a bit farther down (for some reason - maybe to help keep the tension tighter, I think), and then tied them to a 3rd dowel rod at the ends. Oh - I'm glad we got those little dowel rods in those boxes, although they are actually meant for something else I am going to make one of these days. I tied white yarn here and there, including around my waist, tied two little loops of white yarn to the yarn around my waist, then hooked the end dowel rod through the little loops. I tied the first rod to the exercise bike, then stretched it out, out, out to the balcony door, set a chair there and sat down on it.

Yipee! It was far enough that I could get a good tension and begin weaving. So - here are my first two photos. The beginning, before we left for the English classes this afternoon:

After working on it for about an hour tonight:

The color on my monitor is horrible. It is bright orange, bright yellow and a soft pale green, not gray. I chose to go with the twill again. My next one, whenever that is, will be a different pattern, maybe just a plaid.

Oh, this is SO much FUN!

Maybe I'll get those goats one day, after all.