Warping the inkle loom

Did I tell you about the new loom I got for Christmas?  I think I did. We scored a deal at the local thrift store and got a Nilus Leclerc inkle loom from the early 70s.  It's in perfect shape.  Last night I got out some yarns I'd had for a long time to practice on the new loom. It came with the original instruction book and also an Inkle Weaving book.
First you have to make the heddles.

I used some big size crochet cotten I had in my stash and made 50 heddles.  You only have to do this part once unless you are needing more heddles for a bigger project.  Here's the heddles made on the loom because they need to be all the same size.  Square knots are essential or it will pull out when you put pressure on it.

Then the heddles are attached to a slit peg and you can start warping.  I'm doing the first simple project in the book.  A three color belt.

You just wind the yarn around however many pegs to get the length you want.  You alternate round, one without going through the heddle, next one through the heddle.

Then I was set to weave.  You just open the shed with your hand and use the shuttle to beat.  Here's a good source for terms you don't know (for me that's a lot). Weaving glossary

Thoughts on this weaving.
The black yarn is just slightly thinner than the other colors and so I'm getting a fatter weave down the middle and the edges are too loose.
I'm not very good with making the edges even.  Practice, practice.
The yarn itself is not as strong as I'd like so I'm being very careful with this.
The weaving goes pretty fast and that's fun.
The loom is tall enough that I'm not having to bend too much at the waist to weave.  This is an issue because my muscle core is very weak and I can't tolerate bending too much now.
I like doing this.  I tend to be a process person so I like the handling of the yarn and the process of weaving.  I'm the same with knitting and spinning.  I like the making of the yarn and the knitting process.  Once I'm done, I usually give things away and am not too attached to the finished product.  That must be why I don't have a lot of the things I've made.  Mostly socks I've knit.
Well, that's it for today.  This weekend I will have some time to work on this more.
Happy weekend!

Bullet Journaling

In the spirit of the new I'm going to talk a little about bullet journaling.  I've been sick with an autoimmune disease and it has caused me a considerable amount of brain fog.  Whether it's the disease or the drugs I'm taking I'm not sure but I stumbled across this technique and it actually seems to be working for me.  At first I used it in the middle of the night when I'd wake up and my brain would just start buzzing with all the things I needed to do or wanted to do.  So I'd finally get up and write down everything that was bouncing around and I was actually able to get back to sleep because I knew things were written down and I wouldn't forget them.
There are some great you tube videos from the guy that came up with the basic idea.
Bullet Journal

This first picture is the future log where you write down ideas or tasks that will be in future months.  When you get to that month, you can transfer things to your daily task log.

This next picture is my daily log.  Every morning I transfer items that weren't completed from the day before and any new ones I need to do.  Also, during the day I write down any thoughts or new tasks that come to mind.  At the end of the day you can transfer thoughts to project pages.

To get started I just bought a dotted journal from Walmart for $6. You can buy them on Amazon and from the Bullet journal website.
If you watch the video, he explains exactly how to set it up in very simple fashion.
I really like it because I actually continue to use it every day.  That's amazing for me because I don't follow through on a lot of things like that.    I will say that I do still keep a calendar because I need the days and weeks laid out in a normal fashion but otherwise I'm really using it.

A tip I ran across from another blog is even though you can use this as sort of a journal as well, don't get hung up on making it pretty as sort of a showpiece.  I've seen a lot of journals and planners online that are pretty much works of art.  You can make it pretty or whatever but this is a working record, not just for pretty and not to impress anyone.
I hope you check into it and find it useful.  Use whatever works for you and make it great!
Happy New Year!

A made up hat

Lately I've been watching the video podcast by Sweetgeorgia yarns (on youtube).  I'm always looking for new ideas and wisdom.  She was talking about ideas she has and ideas the other people that are part of the yarn company have as well.  They were at the time selling sock yarn blanks.  If you haven't heard of that before, it's yarn that's been machine knit into a square or rectangle and then dyed after it's knit.  Then you unravel this yarn and knit it into socks or whatever.  Well, a person did a single chain of the sock yarn and then knit the chain into a hat.  I have too much sock yarn and it seems although I like to knit socks, I don't wear them much because my feet are generally too hot and wool socks make that worse.  So why not knit the yarn into a hat.  So I'm trying it and it seems to be going fairly fast.  The chain crochet is so easy and so I take it for when I'm waiting at restaurants or appointments because I don't really have to think about what I'm doing.  So here's the progress picture.  I makes the repeats of color much shorter and so gives a different effect to the mixing of colors.  I like it.  I will post when I finish again.  The yarn is Mama Llama perfect sock that I've had for years and I don't remember where I bought it. It's 100% superwash and the colorway is Grand.  I'm using size 10 needles and a size E crochet hook.  I've cast on 72 stitches for the hat and the knitting is dense so it should be very warm. I'll have to find a generic hat pattern when I get ready to decrease. 

Hope you are inspired!

Almost a year has passed.  Wow, time goes fast.  I'm thinking that this blog will be some of my musings as well and I hope to see my writing get better.  Join me!

Musings first.  I recently posted on another forum some of my resolutions for 2019.  While I wont get into my health issues right now, I will copy this part.

Start working towards your dreams, even if you can only do it a little at a time.  I've spent too much of my life waiting for things to happen or finish happening so I can get on with things.  There is never going to be the right time.  You can't let life just happen to you. 

This has been a huge thing it's taken me ages to learn.  I hope it will encourage you as well.


I have lots of ideas percolating in my head right now but I've been trying to finish things so I don't feel too guilty about starting new things.  Right now I've been knitting and doing embroidery but I want to do more spinning and weaving.  I'll introduce you to some of my current projects in the next few blog posts and slowly let you in on some of my ideas. 
This is my latest new thing.

A Nilus Leclerc inkle loom.  The instruction book is dated 1971.  I can't wait to get started and I hope to get working on it tomorrow.  I have some ideas about what to do with the product of this loom. Wish me luck!

A new blog, a new year

Happy new year! 
I intend this to be a blog about my upcoming store.  I want to include my processes and ways of coming up with ideas and also a promotion of sorts.  So watch this space for what's coming up.  I love mid-century and vintage items so the things I will make will focus on that.  Also, anything else I come up with will be, well, you know, unexpected.
Welcome and I hope you will join me on this journey.