busy, busy, busy

been quite an adventure here at the weavery lately...had a new washer/dryer stacked unit installed and a new water heater, all in the same day in the very small bathroom. afterwards, floors needed cleaning and the closet needed putting back together along with a small mountain of laundry (been without a washer since two days before christmas). glad that's done!

now, onto weaving a baby blanket for my new niece. it'll be made out of 8/2 cotton, natural colored, for the warp and 8/4 and 4/4 cotton for the weft, light green/light blue/natural colors. yes, i said niece, not nephew! might throw some purple in there, too, just see how it goes. the finished blanket will be 36" x 36" so it will be done on the new big loom. the warp calculations declare i need 916 warp ends, each 5 yards long. oh my.

the big loom

the big loom that i wove on while at school

first, hello to all hopping the link from mrs b's giveaway. if any of ya'll have questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment and i'll get back to you as soon as i'm able.

i wanted to post a picture of the big loom i used while i was at school learning to weave. yes, there are still schools (i went to the local community college) that have programs to teach people weaving, pottery, woodworking, metal fabrication, jewelry techniques and other crafty arts. i have an Associate in Applied Science in Professional Crafts-Fiber degree (sounds prestigious, doesn't it?). to tell the truth, it was one the BEST times i've ever had learning in an academic setting and hardly seemed like school at all.

but more about the loom. the loom i've got at home has a maximum weaving width of about 24 inches. the one pictured above has a maximum width of around 40 inches (maybe a bit more; 45, perhaps). when i dress my loom at home, there is no dis-assembling it to get all the warp yarn on and ready to weave. when at school, dressing the big loom required dropping down the back and climbing inside it (yes, inside). it was quite a daunting task that very first week of class when my wonderfully talented instructor told us (we were a class of 10 students) to wind our warps and then climb inside our looms. you don't usually hear that every day.

i miss that big loom, sometimes. i could weave larger width pieces on it without having to sew panels together like i'm constrained to do now. i could also put much more warp yardage on to weave (say 25 to 30 yards of warp vs 10 to 15 yards now). but i do love, love, LOVE my smaller (way more portable and practical for the house) baby wolf loom. some people collect stamps or books or artwork from favorite artists; me, i dream of a day when i can collect looms. of course, i'll need several outbuildings to house them.