My New Loom

I got up this morning with all sorts of good intentions. I had a long list of things I wanted to get done over my long weekend. I was going to write a long, meaningful 'Merica post. I was going to go fishing.  But in the end, none of that got done, because I have a new loom to play with.

First thing I did was to wax all the pieces and let them dry.  Well, the first thing I did was to hunt all over the house for the waxing pad that was just in my hand, but suddenly wasn't there any more.  I finally found it in Cody's room.  Why it was in there, I have no idea.  I must have carried it in there when I was looking for my screwdriver.  But, I did find it eventually and waxed my loom pieces. 

I debated on putting a second coat of wax on, but decided it didn't really need it.  Then I buffed the pieces out with an old t-shirt, and put the loom together. 

It didn't really take that long to put it together.  Indeed, it took me longer to find my screwdriver than it did to assemble the loom.  But that's what happens when you have had teenagers in the house.

Speaking of, I was in Wal-mart yesterday, in line to check out, when the young woman in line in front of me said, "Hi, Miss Becky."  I had no idea who she was.

She said, "Don't you remember me?"  Um, who are you?  When she told me her name, I remembered who she was.  She is Cody's old babysitter's granddaughter.

 "Lord, child, I haven't seen you since you were 5 years old!"

She asked me, "How's your little boy doing?"

"About to be 21," I replied.  Yeah,

But I digress...

Now I had my loom put together, I needed something to weave on it.  I went into the craft room and dug out all my worsted weight yarn.  After I put back the yarn that was already designated for specific projects, this is what I was left with. 

I chose the big hank of tannish yarn in the middle, and started to warp my loom.  Straight away, I ran into a problem.  I don't have a table long enough to clamp the loom to one end, and the warping peg to the other.  I tried to use my Mammaw's old ... whatever this thing is...

but alas, it wasn't heavy enough.  About halfway through warping, I noticed it was creeping forward just a bit.  Then it fell over.  So, my tension wasn't exactly consistent.  I had to do some creative adjusting, but eventually got things lined out.  Still, I'm going to have to think of a better way to warp my loom. 

I soon ran into another problem...the yarn was in a big hank, and I didn't want to have to wind it into a ball.  I have a ball winder, but it won't hold that much yarn, and I sure didn't want to have to hand wind it.  I got the brilliant idea that I'd put the yarn on my swift and warp directly from that.  It worked, sort of.  The main problem I had was the yarn kept snagging, and I'd have to put everything down and go unsnag it.  That contributed to the wonky tension.  If I do that again, I'm going to move my kitchen table over to where the swift is.  That should make it easier. 

It's a learning process. 

Finally, I was ready to start weaving.  The instructions in the book say to use these little cardboard strips when you begin, but I've seen videos that show people using waste yarn instead. 

Next time, I think I'll go that route.  Oh, and I also had a design element.  You know, we don't make mistakes.  We just add design elements.  When I was warping the loom, I mistakenly pulled the yarn through the same slot in the reed twice.  You can see here where the yarn is doubled.

I'd didn't want to pull it all out and start over, and I wasn't confident enough to cut the yarn and pull the extra length out, so I just left it.  You can't tell in the finished scarf anyway.  Not unless you're looking for it. 

After a few hours, here is the finished scarf:

You can see how my tension got better from the end shown on the right, which was the beginning, to the end shown on the left. 

I went back and tied the fringe after I took this photo.  I've got to learn how to do some of the fancy fringing like I see some of my friends doing.  I just tied plain knots in mine.  I'm going to wash it tomorrow and see how it holds up.  Then I'm going to weave something else.  Next scarf I make will be longer and skinnier.  And I think I know just which yarn I'm going to use. 

Whoever sent me this, I hope you're reading, because this is the best present I ever got.  Thank you so much!  

Now, we can't close out this Independence Day post without a 'Merica moment, so here it is:

 And all God's people said, "Booyah!!"