From the Obsessed Crafter

I'm so bad with the blog lately. I started working "outside the home" a few weeks ago, so with that and everything else that I am trying to keep up with I haven't spent much time here at the blog.

So where to start? The weather today was fantastic! 78 whole degrees! Perfect day for yard work or opening all the windows and cleaning everything top to bottom. I wasn't feeling well, so I did neither... We keep having these wonderful days followed by cold days and nights then warm days again. Now I think the rotten spring cold is setting in.

The puppies eyes started to open Wednesday, and today they started trying to walk instead of scooting around. The big boy, who I have named the Tank is reaching up to see over the top of their box. Just like little kids, once they start to walk the trouble starts. Our little tiny runt passed away, so now we only have 4. We are selling them all. It will break my heart to see them go. So adorable!!

I've started random tablet woven bands on my Inkle Loom. I cut some cards, punched holes in them. Warped the inkle.... twisty-turny and ta-da!!! The inkle is great for those days you feel like nothing is going right. It is instant gratification. Amost immediately, you see the pattern growing, and it goes so fast!! I have only been playing with the inkle, putting out the usual projects, like collars, leashes, belts, straps and trims. I am hoping to card weave a cute trim for a little dress I'm machine knitting for the new baby. Pictures of that project tomorrow.

This is my pattern draft...just colored pencil and graph paper. Nothing fancy. I do have a couple of programs for designing both Inkle and Inkle Pickups, and then I have a couple of Tablet weave design programs. I still like to plan on paper. With the programs I have I can take what I came up with on paper and put it into the computer. I can then print it out nice and neat.

Here are the cards all threaded onto my warped Inkle loom. This is so much fun to do. I had no idea it was so easy. If I had, I'd have been doing this long ago!!

This is the band in progress. Not a great picture, sorry.

My "new" Table loom arrived. I was misled, this was not the machine I thought I was getting. It isn't even the width I was told it was and is over 20 years older than I was led to believe as well. Good thing I had only sent a partial payment for it. When I got it, I was shocked. I have no intention of paying for this thing, what I agreed to when I thought it was majorly newer (like made after 1995!!)and in wonderful condition. This is the condition it came in.....you can't see the rust, hunks of missing wood, rental check out labels, and scratches from this picture, but the thing is in hideous shape. Miraculously, it is in wonderful working order. This is the original Leclerc Dorothy 4 shaft model. A search by Leclerc for me using the serial number revealed that this is a 15" manufactured in 1973. The seller told me it was the newer 15 3/4" model. Those weren't manufactured until 1995. Misled? Ripped off is more like it. Again, however I have to say that it works wonderfully, it just needs some tweaking.

I got to work on the cosmetics and rust removal. It came pre-warped, and not very well. Nothing is centered like it is supposed to be, there are knots in the threads so they can't go through the reed, the threads are all twisted and a lot of them are broken.... it's a nightmare.

Rather than waste the cotton warp, I wound lots of bobbins using the bobbin winder the seller included and started to play. Since there was no paperwork of any kind with it, I broke out my book by Dedorah Chandler called Learning to Weave and started to play.

Here is the loom after a bit of cleaning up and lubricating the moving parts. I still need to putty up the missing chunks and use my dremmel to remove the rust where I can. Looks a lot better doesn't it? You can see the fabric I have started to weave. It's a sampler of all the combinations I've played with so far. I'm just flipping levers to raise the shafts and writing down what happens. It's a cool way to play and learn. Once the warp that came on it is used up, I'll finish doing the work that needs to be done to the loom. Then I will get down to business and do an actual project!! I'm going to make a bag on the table loom, and make the straps on the Inkle!!

A couple of the patterns I've done so far. Maybe I'll turn this sampler into a bag or something?