The Woolen Rabbit

When birds fly too high.
They sing out of tune.

There are times when we feel out of harmony with our surroundings and feel confused and disoriented.  Sometimes these moments will last a day, sometimes they may last for weeks.
Deng Ming~Dao

Last week was my week to feel like that.  No matter what I touched, it just didn't seem to click for me.  My dyeing was flat, I wasn't happy with the way the front band went on my vest and weaving on that old loom........just not happening.  Sometimes I try to do too many things at once and end up not doing any of them well.  When that happens, I need to take a breath, write a few lists and then focus. (learning to live with ADD 101...LOL)

After taking a look at Judy's blog Friday, I realized that I needed to get my butt in gear and focus on getting this sock yarn and fiber dyed.  We are sharing vending space at the NETA spa in a few weeks, so this weekend, I took a breath, fired up the dyepots again and finally......that mojo came back.  In between batches, I played with the new loom.....what a difference!  Fussing as much as I did with the old loom, really taught me a lot about how a loom works, so once I managed to get this new one set up, I felt very comfortable with the way it was working.  This tencel/rayon warp has been a pleasure to weave.

I even managed to seam up the cabled vest during the superbowl. My fiber work combined with the 7 inches of fresh snow made for a nice weekend :-).  I hope you enjoyed yours as much as I enjoyed mine!

Tale of Two Looms

Some of you may remember those "Amazing threads" that I posted of back in October and then again in December.  You may also have remembered my grumblings about the Baby Macomber loom that I was using.

Normally I am a huge Macomber fan, as I have the big 48 inch version and love it, but the baby mac...."not so much"

As much as it pained me, I ended up having to cut off the pinwheel dishtowels that I had been working on.  Seven yards of cottolin,that was rendered unusable.....ouch.  I will take the above sample and make a placemat to put a bowl on, but to say that I was bummed to say goodbye to the rest of it would be an understatement.  No matter how much I wrestled with that loom, the karma was not good and I finally said enough is enough.   

The man who I purchased the Baby Mac from was kind enough to work with me on getting another loom that was a better fit for the type of weaving I would be doing.  So Wednesday, I took the long trek to Westfield, Mass and picked up this new 8 harness Leclerc Compact loom. 

All of the heddles are finally on, the treadles are tied up and this afternoon I will wind the Tencel/Rayon warp that I had purchased earlier this year at The Mannings.  I figure that I will weave something a little less demanding to get familiar with the loom this time around :-)

What's missing you might ask?  Hmmmm........that cabled vest?  I'm having some trouble finding my MoJo this week.........more about that this weekend :-)