That darn warp!

I just realized that I never blogged about beaming the warp. That was quite the adventure considering that I did it alone. I finally found a use for the leaf from my formal dining room table:

It actually did a nice job of helping to keep the tension even. I really need to learn more about warping! Oh, I don’t really keep my loom blocking the front door. LOL I don’t have a “weaving room” (oh, but I dream of one!) so I keep my loom in the living room. Considering its a large table loom on a treddle stand, its pretty light weight. I have those furniture moving discs under it so I can easily move it when I need to.

The beam

Time for my monthly post. One day I’ll be better, I promise. Today I actually made good progress on the towels. I finally tied the warp to the back beam. Why, oh why did I think I could handle a 9 yd warp of cottlin? Because I’ve never worked with it before and had no idea how easily it tangles when that long! I’ve spent a lot of time trying to straighten it out so when I wind it on the beam, it will be somewhat even. I am excited that hopefully I should be actually weaving in the next few days. In true form, I’m already planning my next few projects. I have several baby blankets that I need to make. I think I know what pattern I want to do, but am still looking around. At least none of them need to be finished in the next 4-5 months, so I have plenty of time. We all know I need it! LOL The other nice thing is since baby blanket warps are short, they are fast and easy.

Getting Centered

Today I finally had some time to sit down and work on the towels that I started, what? 2 or 3 months ago? I just finished threading the heddles and have started sleying the reed. I started this blog with the hope that I would make myself find more time to weave. I love the way I feel when I’m weaving, the way it makes me feel centered. My life can be hectic – and it is, but when I sit down at the loom, I’m calm. But, the reality is that my time to weave is limited.

I haven’t told you much about myself outside of weaving. I’m the mother of 2 very active four year olds. That’s right – twins. They truly are a joy, but its hard. Very hard at times. Until recently, the only time I had to weave was when they were sleeping (they stopped napping a couple of months after they turned 2). Usually by that time I’m too exhausted myself to do anything but plop on the couch in front of the tv. We have finally gotten to a point that I can occasionally spend a few minutes in of the loom while they play. They are also pretty good now at leaving my loom alone. So I steal minutes here and there when I can. I should make more time to weave, though. I need to start taking more time for me so that I can be a better and more patient mom for my kids.

Heddles

May is a super busy month, so in typical fashion, I also decide to start a new weaving project and a blog about it! I did really well for a few days with getting the warped measured out. Even started to put it on the loom – if you count a couple of threads as starting. And then life got in the way. I finally started working on it again. I’m about 1/2 done threading the heddles when I came to a very important realization. I don’t have enough heddles for this project. Kind of important. So, I had to get online and order some more. Sigh… atleast they weren’t expensive.