Tonight, mightyjesse  and I finally conquered the loom and finished the warping of my first project (more narrow projects from here on out, I swear...) I did discover a little hitch with the tie up of one of the harnesses, but I fixed it with a stick! That's right, I shimmed my loom. ;p I can fix it properly when I don't have a big fat project on it. However, by the time we were done with the warping, I wasn't up for more than about ten rows of weaving, just enough to prove that it was warped up correctly. The rest will wait until tomorrow when will I have a less ungainly shuttle...



In other woolen news, I found a source for thick, 100% Merino wool throws in red, white, or navy... for $3.50 each! They are advertised as 40"x60" but the one I measured was closer to 44"x58" (including the fringe) with the fringe on the two short sides. Two will make a tunic for someone my size or smaller, three to make a tunic or viking coat with a contrast trim. With the unsightly serged edging cut off (and possibly replaced with a decorative stitch? ;) I'll show you...), they would do as a great ready-made brat. Remember - summer may be coming, but night at war is pretty damn chilly! I think the white ones will dye up nicely too...


Navy, white, and red. The red is fully opened. The silver stripe on the white blanket is an 18" ruler. I'll have them at practice if you want to better see the colors or feel them.

I'm putting in a mass order on Thursday AM, let me know if you want in by midnight on Wednesday night. Shipping should be about $0.50 (depending on the number ordered), so the final cost should be about $4 each.

This past weekend was lovely, if exhausting.

Thursday night I stayed up entirely too late waiting for a friend to get in and consequently collapsed into bed in short order.

Friday I woke up bright and early (OK, at 11, but that is bright and early when bedtime was at 5AM) and took delivery of my new baby. I am now the proud owner of a lovely loom!



She's a four harness, six treadle, 42" wide loom from Kessenich. I'm not warping her up until next week because I have too much to do between now and this weekend, but soon, SOON, there will be the weave-y goodness!

Then there was lunch on Monty's Blue Plate Diner, some online research, and the drive down to Chicago. We went to go see a bunch of bands, primarily TYR, which was a lot of fun, if not what I am used to. After the show we sat around with various folks from the band and chatted for some time. Much of the topics were out of my ken, but geeking is good in all its glorious forms... The drive back home was loooooonnnnnnggggg, especially since we did not pull in until something like 6AM. Ooof.

Saturday afternoon, we had a number of folks planned to come over for projecty goodness. However, W and I could not make it, J got sick, dread_ex  was lazy, ysolt  and  knappenp  arrived late, and mightyjesse  arrived even later, so it was a much smaller crew than planned. As usual, I had WAY too much food, even after not making several of the dishes I had planned. :P Much projecty goodness was had but things broke up around 10:30PM or so and we headed to bed shortly thereafter, successfully making it to bed before 4AM for the first time that weekend.

Sunday we slept in, lazed about a bit, went out for brunch, and then were sitting around relaxing when my dad come in to town a bit earlier than expected. I said good-bye to my company, went out to dinner with my dad and then spent the rest of the night working on my smack-down project.

Monday was work, research, photocopying and Frosties with reneekytokorpi , and then more research until late.

Today, I worthless as I have the beginnings of a horrid cold AGAIN. >:/  I am not usually this persistently ill and it is starting to annoy me. (I know, I know, my own fault with the late nights, yadda, yadda, yadda... I'm still cranky.) Soooo much to do... sooooo little time to do it in.....

So off I go to get done what I may, although I am becoming concerned that I may not have the smack down things done in time. :/ *sigh* Here goes nuthin'