What have I been getting up to in May? I'm still unemployed so mostly I've been hanging out with Spoh and helping to refurbish our tent. I did a little bit of blacksmithing to make hooks to hang from the spokes of the tent. Spoh did most of the work and I acted as third hand and did some twisting of metal which was cool. We also added some extra bits of fabric to the socks that the spokes slot into. That was a bit tedious, sitting with a pile of canvas and pulling out each sock to cut it open and hand stitch extra fabric onto it. But it was worth it because the spokes now sit in the correct spot. The canvas has stretched a little in weird places so it's a little wibbly, but not really that noticeable. We also did some more painting on the valance, and now it looks FIVE HUNDRED MILLIONTY times better, and more like the pictures. Last weekend my Dad left us unsupervised in his shed and we used POWER TOOLS and stuff to clean up all the wooden poles and make some toggles for the door. We also oiled all the wood so it's all nice and won't go crazy if it gets wet. We can now put up the tent in about 15 minutes, but it does take both of us to get the centre pole up. We haven't waterproofed it yet because the weather has been sunny but cold with about 50% humidity and patches of cloud that sometimes rain, and the waterproofing stuff says it needs 12 hours to dry in warmer than 20 degrees with low humidity. We want to do this properly, so we decided not to just wing it and hope it turns out alright. Hopefully when Spoh gets back from skiing again the weather will be a bit better and we can waterproof it then. Spoh was also very industrious and sewed up bags for all the wooden bits and the tent itself, and made a bunch of curtains and chair covers and things. She also made a cushion and table runner that need some trim, so I think I'll make up some doubleface tablet weaving in one of Anna Neuper's patterns. I tried to buy some size 10 DMC balls from the Embroidery Den, but their website's broken and they haven't answered my email or fixed it yet.
BUT BUT I don't care anymore because yesterday was my birthday and Nathan and Catherine got me THIS:
OMG MY VERY OWN LOOM! Catherine's Dad MADE it when he was doing weavy type things and it's pretty awesome. It's been sitting in storage for some time now apparently, so now it's ALL MINE. It's got ten shafts. TEN. Count them. I'M SO EXCITED. I had to just stare at it for ages because I had no idea where to even start, or what to do with TEN SHAFTS. I think I might just ignore eight of the shafts and try dressing it for a plain tabby weave. I hunted all over the Googles for shops in Perth that sell cones or skeins of yarn for weaving, and eventually found one place that sells cones for knitting machines. For a while there I thought I'd have to order some yarn online and then WAIT UNTIL FOREVER for it to arrive so I could play with my loom.
I also had a brilliant idea. Back in January I left a bunch of old textbooks and stuff at the UWA secondhand bookstore, so I decided it was about time to see if any of them had sold. All the expensive ones sold and I got $103.50 to by ALL the yarn! Then I went adventuring out to the yarn shop, which is actually the bottom floor of a house and it looked like it wasn't a shop but then it was! The owner guy was fabulous and very helpful. I wanted to get some cotton or cottolin to start with, and they had this great mercerized cotton that was all shiny and looked like it'd be really easy to manage, but it only came in cream or baby pink. So I went looking and then there was some TEAL and it was 100% WOOL and then I'd bought it along with some brown AND I'M SO EXCITED IT WILL LOOK AMAZING but it's felting wool so will probably be an absolute pain in the butt and there will be tears and tantrums. It was fairly cheap too, only $33 for a 350g cone. They also had some polyester stuff that came in ALL THE COLOURS which would've been my second choice because there was also teal, but it was about the same price as the wool, so wool won.
Last Friday I went to the craft fair and bought some small 25g skeins of silk because they were shiny and I couldn't resist. But there was also a display from the Weavers and Spinners Guild of WA, so I got talking to the ladies there and I think I'll go along to their next weaving meeting in a couple of weeks, and see if I can do some workshops to learn some stuff instead of trying to muddle along completely on my own. I don't think my loom will be going with me though, there's no way it'll fit into my car.
Stay tuned for my next entry, which will undoubtedly be about how evil string is and whaaa whaaa whine whine warping is tedious :)
BUT BUT I don't care anymore because yesterday was my birthday and Nathan and Catherine got me THIS:
OMG MY VERY OWN LOOM! Catherine's Dad MADE it when he was doing weavy type things and it's pretty awesome. It's been sitting in storage for some time now apparently, so now it's ALL MINE. It's got ten shafts. TEN. Count them. I'M SO EXCITED. I had to just stare at it for ages because I had no idea where to even start, or what to do with TEN SHAFTS. I think I might just ignore eight of the shafts and try dressing it for a plain tabby weave. I hunted all over the Googles for shops in Perth that sell cones or skeins of yarn for weaving, and eventually found one place that sells cones for knitting machines. For a while there I thought I'd have to order some yarn online and then WAIT UNTIL FOREVER for it to arrive so I could play with my loom.
I also had a brilliant idea. Back in January I left a bunch of old textbooks and stuff at the UWA secondhand bookstore, so I decided it was about time to see if any of them had sold. All the expensive ones sold and I got $103.50 to by ALL the yarn! Then I went adventuring out to the yarn shop, which is actually the bottom floor of a house and it looked like it wasn't a shop but then it was! The owner guy was fabulous and very helpful. I wanted to get some cotton or cottolin to start with, and they had this great mercerized cotton that was all shiny and looked like it'd be really easy to manage, but it only came in cream or baby pink. So I went looking and then there was some TEAL and it was 100% WOOL and then I'd bought it along with some brown AND I'M SO EXCITED IT WILL LOOK AMAZING but it's felting wool so will probably be an absolute pain in the butt and there will be tears and tantrums. It was fairly cheap too, only $33 for a 350g cone. They also had some polyester stuff that came in ALL THE COLOURS which would've been my second choice because there was also teal, but it was about the same price as the wool, so wool won.
Last Friday I went to the craft fair and bought some small 25g skeins of silk because they were shiny and I couldn't resist. But there was also a display from the Weavers and Spinners Guild of WA, so I got talking to the ladies there and I think I'll go along to their next weaving meeting in a couple of weeks, and see if I can do some workshops to learn some stuff instead of trying to muddle along completely on my own. I don't think my loom will be going with me though, there's no way it'll fit into my car.
Stay tuned for my next entry, which will undoubtedly be about how evil string is and whaaa whaaa whine whine warping is tedious :)
