Sewing and Weaving

The weather here in Yuma has finally improved, with tempatures rising daily to the high 70s. Beautiful weather in which to be outdoors! I'm enjoying biking and walking daily in the sunshine.

Besides being outdoors, I have also started weaving a new band with my Seidel card loom and Sunna heddle from Stoorstalka, which enables me to more easily do pickup pattern designs. I figured out how to quickly direct-warp this loom and heddle combination.

First I clamp the loom to the table, angled towards the counter where I have a large bar clamp fixed to act as a warping peg (my warping peg clamp is not long enough to attach to my counters.) I then thread the doubled threads through all the non-pattern slots. One of each of those pairs of threads is later moved to a hole, after I've wound onto the warp beam. I thread every other pattern thread doubled through the pattern slots, which are shorter than the regular slots. One of each pair is later moved to the empty pattern slot next to it. I'm supporting the heddle with a spring clamp on each side.

This is my band, and I'm loving it. I have 8/2 cotton as background threads and weft, and a Norwegian yarn called Áhkko as pattern thread, used double.

I've also done a little sewing in the last few days. The sewing machine that I bought for daughter Catherine did not come with a cover or a case, so I decided to make one to help keep dust out and to prevent my granddaughter, Jillian, from messing with the dials. I had this lovely Asian-inspired fabric in my stash plus a faux bois fabric that I love. I found a quilted pad from a thrift store ($3) that was perfect for a lining. I measured the machine's height, width, and length and cut out panels to make a simple five-sided box shape. A little piecing of the two front fabrics and there you have it--a new cover. I'm quite pleased with it.

Today (Thursday) we are planning to do some sightseeing. More to come!