My Bargain Norwood Loom

A couple of days ago I was out running errands when I noticed a flyer for a yard sale tacked to a telephone pole. It was close to my home and I hadn't stopped at any sales yet this season, so I turned around and headed back. There were 2 small signs taped to a vehicle in front of the house. I almost missed it. Went inside and looked around. There wasn't much left in the home. It is being foreclosed and the owners are also divorcing. They seemed upbeat and still the best of friends. Anyway I am always looking for sewing items so asked the lady if she had any. No, those things went to her new apartment as she is keeping them. However she did have a loom. Well, I really don't need another loom. I have 2 floor looms already. But maybe it was a table loom? I sold my table loom and rather miss it. No, she informed me it was a floor loom. Curiosity got the better of me and I headed out to the garage to have a peek at it. I immediately recognized it to be an extremely well made loom, of nice solid cherry wood. It was very wide (50" weaving width) but folded up nicely. No, I don't need another loom. I just recently sold my lovely barn frame loom, Agda. Still, I had to ask the price. She thought about it a second and said she couldn't sell it for less than $100. $100!?!!??? Heck, you can't hardly buy a used rigid heddle loom for that. No, I didn't need another loom. But this was such a good deal. Too good, in fact. Rather like an offer I couldn't refuse. I thought if nothing else I would buy it, clean it up and re-sell it. I told the lady I would go home and ask the husband if he would mind another huge loom in the living room. I also needed his manly gorilla strength to get it home. There was no way I could stuff it in the Outback. It would have to be partially dismantled. Long story short, we had the thing in our home within the hour. We had to make 2 trips to bring it all home, but they lived just around the corner. Now I need to clean it up and get it put back together. Here are pictures of the loom from the lady's Craigslist ad. This is exactly how it looked when I found it.

Apparently this is a much sought after loom. Norwood looms are no longer made of cherry and this older style loom is much better made than the Norwood looms currently produced. It has a sectional back beam and chain tie ups. It came with the original manual, extra heddles, a Glimakra swift, warping board and 2 Leclerc shuttles with bobbins. This was my best yard sale find, ever.

What is it?

Can you guess what this is? 

Here's a hint: It's in my fiber studio. I'll let you think about it for a minute. Yesterday was a busy one. While the husband took our youngest to see the latest installment of 'Sherlock Holmes', I stayed home to catch up on some chores. It's amazing how quickly the dishes pile up, even though there are only 2 people to cook for. And then there's the laundry. There is a lot less of it, now that the kids have moved out on their own. We had a little bit of sun so I hung my shirts out in the yard. That apple tree gets a lot of use as a drying rack.

Of course the shirts didn't get completely dry but it was still nice to be out in the fresh air. I also had a large amount of beer bottles to clean. (I truly am the chief cook and bottle washer). The guest bath tub comes in handy for this task. I am very particular about the cleanliness of my bottles. I first soak them in bleach water, then wash them with PBW. Right before bottling they are disinfected in an Idophor bath.

There's no fabric to show off, today, but I did get a package containing the following items. These will be used in weaving.

I have been wanting a McMorran Yarn Balance for years but never found one in my local shops. I also bought a warping paddle and an OOP warping book from this same Craigslist seller. OK, are you ready to guess what that first picture was of? Did you guess "spinning wheel cozy"?

Singha says you are WRONG. It's a cat tent. And yes, it is very cozy.

Second Project Completed

The set of mats are done. I finished hemming them last night. I still need to wash them but thought it best to snap this photo before doing so, in case they fall apart.

I am fighting the urge to run out and buy more of this same yarn, to try again. I'd love to be able to correctly estimate warp but I'm not sure I can stand to weave the same project, back to back.

I bottled my first kombucha of the new year. This is strawberry booch, using frozen strawberries from my garden. The fruit is added during a secondary ferment. This is my favorite method for brewing kombucha. You remove the scoby after the first ferment, add the fruit and a little more sugar, then let it ferment once more. It will form a new scoby on top of the fruit bits.

That is my signal that it's ready for bottling. I bottle with a little more priming sugar and I have the tastiest booch in Tacoma.

It's All Coming Together

My dream of having a weaving studio and sewing room is realized. Now for the hard part, becoming proficient at both weaving and sewing. I've been a fair seamstress in the past. But that was the distant past. I haven't tried to operate a sewing machine in over 10 years. Yesterday I completed my second weaving project and was ready to free it from the loom. Was this project successful? I'd say so, although I did not meet all of my goals. A cool thing about weaving? There are no failures, just plan changes. Because of my woeful lack of math skills I did not estimate my warp or weft needs accurately. Instead of four 12 x 14" place mats I now have a set of 3 mats (2 smaller, one larger) suitable for use on either a coffee table and 2 end tables OR a dresser and 2 night stands. See? Plan change! Easy as that. I will not know the actual finished dimensions of the mats until they are hemmed and washed. But I'm fairly confident that the 2 smaller mats will NOT be 12 x 14". I did manage, however, to weave multiple items on the same warp. Rather sloppily, but I did it.

Now for the next step, hemming the mats. I've been putting it off, but it is time to get one of the sewing machines ready for action. I chose to start with the Singer 328 as it is already in the cabinet. This is my free machine and the first of my vintage Singers. I sat down with the manual, some oil and lube, and began the task of dismantling, cleaning, lubing, and reassembly. Not a big deal, you say? I am the least mechanically inclined female on the planet. Couple that with my intense fear of electricity and you realize just how badly I wanted to sew. The job was a breeze. The most difficult part was removing the dust bunnies from the bobbin area. The innards of these older sewing machines are so straight forward and well built.

(pardon the poor picture quality)

In no time at all I was ready to plug her in and see what she could do. Threading her was incredibly easy. I was expecting problems, as the previous owner had warned this machine was in the habit of breaking threads. She had inherited it from her mother-in-law and admitted she new next to nothing about sewing. I suspect her problem was incorrect tension on the upper thread. She had the dial set at 0 when it should have been somewhere near 4. I played around with the tension a bit, loosening the bobbin tension, and soon had her ready to go.

Her first official job?

Zig-zag the edges of my mats so they don't unravel.

This is a very loose weave and the threads are shifting like crazy. I need to anchor them (and fast) before hemming and washing the mats. In the future I will use the slats from mini blinds as spacers to hold everything in place until after sewing. Live and learn.

The first edge zig-zagged and trimmed. Ready for hemming. Dang it! I wish I could locate my magnetic pin cushion. It's got to be around here, somewhere. I haven't unearthed it yet. Must do more excavating.

J-Made 4 Harness Loom (no longer) For Sale.

On the way to a new home in Idaho. :-)

Now that I possess three 4 harness floor looms, it is time to cull the herd. My 4 Harness J-Made Conversion is available. This loom was built in the 70's by a fellow in Portland, Oregon. He is still around but no longer builds looms. I think he's now into building yachts or some such. I was able to track him down and he provided the original assembly documents. This is a well built loom which can do everything that more expensive floor looms can. The top half is a table loom with approx. 30" weaving width. The bottom half is the floor loom conversion stand which has 6 treadles and lamms. The 2 parts clamp securely together, but are easy to separate for transport. We brought it home in my husband's Subaru WRX Wagon. The treadle stand was bungeed to the roof while the loom rode inside the vehicle. The loom comes with a 27" 12 dent reed. I will include a couple of stick shuttles, 3 weaving books and the above mentioned documentation which includes detailed schematics and assembly instructions. Possible delivery in the Tacoma area. Otherwise must be picked up.

Note: I will consider bartering for a Bernina 830 or 730 Record sewing machine in very good condition.

Second Weaving Project: Placemats

Today I began my second weaving adventure. For this project I hope to accomplish 3 goals. One: correctly calculate the amount of yarn needed (both warp and weft). Two: weave multiple items on the same warp. Three: have those finished items be the desired dimensions (or at least close to it). I chose to weave place mats for this project. They are a simple plain weave hounds tooth pattern. I started with 4 skeins of an inexpensive cotton/acrylic blend yarn, Red Heart Eco-Cotton Blend, which I got on sale at Fred Meyer. 2 skeins in Green and 2 in white. My warp is 99" long and 126 ends (64 green, 62 white). I am using an 8 dent reed. I am shooting for a finished size of 14" x 12" per mat, with 1" hems at both ends.

After sleying the reed and threading the

heddles in a 1-2-3-4 sequence for tabby.

Getting ready to beam the warp.

Now to tie onto the front apron rod.

And away we go.

I managed to finish weaving one mat, today.

That red yarn is waste yarn which will be removed to make the hem easier to turn under. I'd better get one of my sewing machines ready. I'll need it for zigzagging the ends of the mats before I cut them apart.

So This Is Christmas?

Things feel a bit "off". For the past 12 years I had been working retail at this time of year. Bombarded with non-stop Christmas music and too busy working to enjoy home or family. This year is the polar opposite. I think I've only heard 2 carol's this season. We now have an empty nest. Instead of decorating a huge tree, and our entire home, we've downsized to a teeny 2 ft tree and a few strategically placed decorative items around the house. I feel out of sync with the rest of the world. It doesn't help that the husbeast has to work this weekend, as do many of our offspring. Instead, we'll be celebrating our family Christmas on the 27th. That means I will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with 2 of my favorite fellows, Reggie and Singha. I'm sure they'll occupy most of those days napping, leaving me to entertain myself. It sounds like the perfect opportunity to warp up Perrito, the Wolf Pup. He's been feeling ignored. There is a fresh warp ready and waiting, draped over his back beam.

Merry Christmas to all of my friends and readers.

Wishing you all a very happy New Year!

Weaving Windfall

Recently I drove to the Barnes & Noble Bookstore, in Lakewood, WA, seeking a copy of Handwoven Magazine. I searched all through the racks to no avail. They stock magazines for every other fiber art. But none for weaving. Unless I buy a subscription I am going to be out of luck. My mail person mangles my mail and I am not really excited about paying good money to receive bent and torn weaving magazines. I do have some older Handwovens in my magazine collection but nothing from the last 12 years. Then yesterday I was contacted by a fellow weaver who was purging some items from her studio. Books, yarn and some magazines. Did I want them? Heck yeah.

Much of the yarn looks to be from the 70's. Lots of rather drab earth tones. But I will perform burn tests on it, and if it's wool I can over dye it. There was also some thinner cottons to be used for dish towels. Here's what else was included. Be still me heart! Look at all these Handwovens. 39 of them!

That should keep me inspired for a while. There were also some copies of Shuttle Spindle and Dyepot and older Interweave magazines.

And books! There were a few that I already owned, but all of these are new to my fiber library.

And last but not least, a couple of rag shuttles. With bobbins.

Christmas came early for me. I am so thankful for the generosity of my benefactor. Now I will have to pay it forward by destashing some more items from my studio that I know I will never use.

My First Weaving Is Off The Loom

It's always been my habit to learn just enough to be dangerous, jump in head first, and sink or swim. My first foray into weaving on a multi-harness loom has followed that pattern. I tried to pick a project that wouldn't bore me but also wouldn't be so difficult that I'd get frustrated. This runner turned out to be a good first project for me. And I learned a lot.

There was only one really scary moment, when the warp decided to start untying itself from the warp beam before I was finished.  I managed to get it tied back on but had to unweave about 16 picks before I could get my fell line back to being almost even. It's not perfect but I am proud of it and will display it on my dining table. Now to think of what to weave next.

Let There Be Light!

I have the best husband, ever. I was mentioning I needed to find some kind of floor lamp to use when weaving, and look what he surprised me with.

It is full spectrum, and adjustable. I can aim it wherever needed. And it's a good thing, too. Now that I can "see", I've had to change my design once more. Seems I don't have enough of that honey colored gold, after all. But on the upside, I have 2 more skeins of the green. I've gone from plan B to plan C. 5" of green, 8" of gold, 34" of green, and then reverse. I believe I have enough yarn for that plan to work (fingers crossed). Do you see the piece of white paper, up to the left of the lamp? Wonder what it is? My super fancy, high tech treadle tracker. I should take it down. I memorized the treadling sequence almost immediately.

That's A Surprise

I realized I wasn't going to have enough of the green yarn to weave a 2 yard runner. Time to switch to Plan B. I have some brown yarn in my stash that would work with the green and gold. I was going to use it and have green and brown stripes. But then I thought I'd put in some narrow stripes of gold for contrast between the darker stripes. I didn't think the design would show up using both a gold warp and weft. I was surprised when the texture actually became more defined using the solid color. I've changed my mind again and will keep the 2 original colors. 5" green stripes and 8" gold stripes. I was weaving along, trying various techniques to keep my selvedges neat and even. I was paying so much attention to that, I neglected to keep my beating even and began beating too hard.

Oh well. I'm not ripping this back anymore. This merino is much too sticky and wants to felt and knot with little provocation. I am accepting that my first project will not be perfect and reminding myself that it's to "learn" on. It will be a runner, topped with family photos. No one is going to inspect it closely. Let it go, Roxi. If you agonize over it too much, you'll never get it finished.

And Away I Go

The day I've been waiting for, for 12 years, has finally arrived. I am weaving. But first I had to finish warping. The threads were through the reed and heddles, without a mistake. Now to tie on and beam the warp. First I had to tie it to the back apron rod.

Then the warp is wound over the back beam (the apron rod is sitting atop it) and then down and around the warp beam which is that fat beam you can see under the warp. Once the warp is beamed I move to the front of the loom and tie the warp to the front apron rod. This is a crucial step as you have to carefully adjust the tension.

I chose to tie on with bow knots to make it easier to remove. And also to untie and adjust if need be. Now I was ready to weave my header which serves to even out your warp. See how it is all in v-shaped clumps, above? Now look how even it is above the header I wove using Christmas colored dish cloth cotton.

Here is a view of the loom, warped and ready.

Drum roll, please! Only other weavers will understand the pure giddy joy of this moment. I was FINALLY weaving my first honest to goodness project on an actual floor loom. This weaving has a very loose sett (thread spacing) and at first I was beating too hard and the pattern wasn't showing up as I'd like. I started beating a bit gentler and the gorgeous twill pattern emerged, as if by magic.

And a close-up of the fabric.

I have always known I was a weaver.

Learning To Warp

I'm so glad I bought that 'Beginning Four Harness Loom' video. I would've had a heck of a time warping without it. I am able to watch the different steps, pause the video and preform them, then go back and watch the next step. The DVD has caused me a little bit of confusion, though. When the instructor says something to the effect of, "thread the warp in the same sequence as it went on the warping board", I took that literally. Meaning I thought it was important for that first thread on the board to be the first thread on the loom. But my warp would've been less twisted if I'd made the last on the board, the first on the loom. Also, in her video (and  book) she reads her threading chart from left to right, but in my older books the chart is read right to left. For some reason I believed this was standard but apparently not? I'm still confused on this. Also in the video she ties the entire warp to the breast beam, in one bundle, before sleying the reed. This causes quite a bit of distortion to the lengths of threads as they are warped, In the future I will wind at least 2 separate warp bundles. All in all my warping process has gone smoothly. I managed to get one end per dent with no skips. As I was threading the heddles I would stop after every repeat of the draft and double check my threading order. I did make a mistake near the end of my threading but easily caught and corrected it. As long as I don't have any surprise crossed threads I should be good to go. Thus far my only warping emergency has been a broken warp thread. I think I manhandled it a bit too hard. To correct this I measured another warp thread and added it to that dent and heddle and will remove the snapped thread when I tie onto the cloth beam.

I wonder if it's true and I'll always remember my first.

Warp, that is.

The husbeast rigged this fancy set of hooks for hanging the

warping board. It stays put but is easily removed.

Reed sleyed, front view.

Back view. See the sley hook? You use it to pull

the threads through the reed dents (slots).

Now for the fun (?) part. Threading the heddles. My back was killing me after threading all 216 of them. I understand that some weavers grow to love the warping process. I don't know if I'll ever be one of them. But I appreciate that it's a very important and necessary step.

Heddles all threaded and double checked.

And here is my broken warp thread.

Next step? Beaming.

What To Weave First?

The 'Beginning Four Harness Weaving' video recommends a sampler but I just can't get excited about that. I think it would be a waste of my time (and precious yarn). I want to weave useful items in interesting patterns. I've decided I could really use a new runner for the top of my buffet. This morning I sat down with a pile of my weaving books, to search for my first weaving pattern. I swear, I have no idea what treasures lurk in my fiber studio. For example, I have been packing this book around for at least 12 years. I'm sure I found it at a thrift store. It was printed in 1947. Although the pictures are dated (but fun to look at) weaving is timeless. This book is packed with useful information and focuses on the counterbalance loom. That will be very useful if I ever find myself with one of those in my possession.

This book also includes a nice assortment of 4 harness weaving patterns. I was looking for an interesting twill that I could use with a contrasting warp and weft. Something that would hold my interest and also produce a fabric that I will be proud to display in my living room. I think this one will fill the bill.

It doesn't look too difficult. Now that I've decided on my pattern I need some yarn. I want something in a fingering weight wool, but not superwash as I want to be able to full it. And it has to be colors that won't clash with the rest of my furnishings. I searched my stash and came up with this.

I will use the lighter greenish gold for the warp and the darker green for the weft. The yarn is Jezebel, a hand dyed fingering weight merino from SWTC. This is my actual loom, who I have named Perrito (Spanish for pup).

I need to remove the warp and project that is on him. It's not mine, but came with the loom. Then, as soon as I can get the husbeast to hang my warping board, I'll get busy.