New Toys

Day 102: After banking almost all of my first economic stimulus check, I decided that the second one might be better applied to some stimulus toward keeping me sane. To that end, I bought myself two new toys, and each has a tale behind it. The first is a bit sad, and concerns the rigid-heddle loom I was given by a friend in our Morris dancing group. I was excited to have a larger rigid heddle at my disposal and warped it up with a project at nearly the full width. After creating six inches of cloth, it was time to advance the warp. To my ultimate dismay, I found that one of the gears would not engage, apparently worn out from use. I managed to transfer the weaving to my floor loom (a process I devoutly hope never to have to repeat!) and thus saved the piece, but the rigid heddle was beyond hope. I was back where I started, with a 10" SampleIt as my only rigid heddle. The new one is a 16" Ashford, mounted here on a floor stand. I purchased it from a dealer in Oregon, but it was shipped to me express mail at no charge all the way from New Zealand!

The second half of the story is funny in hindsight. One of the essential tools any weaver must have is a warping board or warping reel of some sort to aid in measuring out long warp threads. I have a large warping board, so when my mother passed away and I was sorting through her weaving supplies, I decided to yard-sale her smaller warping board which, as I realized several years later, wasn't a warping board at all, but her inkle loom! I'll chalk the mistake up to having been pretty stressed-out at the time, but believe me, I felt pretty silly about it when I discovered what I'd done. Such being the case, I wanted to add an inkle loom to my weaving studio partly to hold the tablet-weaving projects I am currently draping over the 10" rigid heddle (an unorthodox procedure), but also to be able to make inkle bands in the approved manner.

All three items (the rigid heddle, its stand and the inkle loom) required some assembly and the wood (New Zealand white birch) was unfinished. Presently, I'm waiting for the first coat of varnish to dry, anxious to come up to warp speed on both of my new toys.