Monday, December 18, 2006

A Weaving Setback

By Leigh

I assigned myself a simple task for the weekend; finish beaming the warp for my next weaving project.

First things first. Number 1 is check on Catzee to make sure she's asleep. I don't need any “help” with this.

Great! She's sound asleep.

Now quick, get to the loom and get that warp wound on.

Wait a minute. What's this? The warp is wet!

And the floor is wet?

And what's this?? Teeth holes in my water jug weight???
Remember this incident?

Hmmm. Not so innocent looking after all.


Related Post:
Undulating Shadow Weave 1 - Weaving (Scroll down. You'll know when to stop)
What's Not on the Loom

11 comments:

Sue said...

Yeah, that kind of help you can do without!

Laritza said...

I solved the weights problem with dumbells. One gallon of water = 8 lbs. Dumbells come in different sizes and weights, there are not really expensive and with 2 8 lbs ones or 4 4 lbs ones you can make it work. I figures it is a one time expense that will save me wet warps and floors.

Leigh said...

I would like to see a photo of that. How do you tie them on?

Laritza said...

The dumb bells store easier you only need a few they will sit right by your loom on the floor without getting in your way. The milk jugs are a pain to store. There is also the added factor or "sour milk" and bugs and stuff around your house. Unless you replace them every single time you need them. I just tend to go for long term one time deal type of solution. I hang the dumb bells the same as the milk jugs a loop over and a craft ring or another loop over the warp. I love spinning silk too.

Anonymous said...

Bad kittie! :-)

Good Kharma Bunny said...

How cool is that!!
obviously not for your planned mission , but very funny.
sorry was in need of light relief and found it!
thanks al x

KC and the Giggleman Kitties said...

o, Catzee, hee-hee, u's such a biggie help to urs Mommie.

Madness, Trouble, Squish and Milkbone said...

Ha, ha, very funny.

Renee Nefe said...

I was going to suggest filling the jugs with sand, but that might throw off your weights. The dumbells is probably a better answer and would make a lovely Christmas gift (don'tcha think?)

We have Lilly trained to not bark at the neighbor dogs and she avoids the common fence(every time Lilly barks she has to come in the house...it's a pretty effective deterrent.) But the Lab just freaks out and continues barking and eating the fence.

I need to ask a knitting question. I'm really new at this knitting, on my first ever project. But now that I've got over a foot knitted it's getting heavy and hurting my wrists. I'm trying to make myself a wrap and I'm so tempted to try to figure out how to switch it to crochet. Any suggestions?

Cathy said...

Ahh, cats. The cat I had years ago found that the weaving that was under tension on the loom made a perfect scratching post (horizontal, of course). To make matters worse, I came into the room and found him clawing away, clapped my hands to my face and broke my glasses! Somehow, my weaving survived with no broken threads.

I'm going to have to try weighting the warp (guess it would be best for me to try cat-proof weights). When I learned to weave the instructor just told us to tug on the warp from time to time, but I'm sure the steady tension provided by weights works much better.

Leigh said...

Cathy, I too, was taught to tension by hand, the way you describe. Some weavers do well with this method, but after several frustrating years of tension problems, I decided to try some sort of weighting system. The milk jugs were my first idea (though perhaps I should try something else :). For me, I get much better tension using weights, and therefore a much more enjoyable weaving experience.