Fiber Monday - spinning and mending and heddles

It's been a couple of weeks since I've shared fiber-y stuff, so there's a bit to look at. I guess I'll go in chronological order. 

First, I was able to do a bit of spinning in December. Some days R. was able to sit with me and the whole thing was a brief respite from the disregulation. I know I showed you some of this yarn,

but I was able to finish spinning the whole batt. I think I ended up with close to 200 yards of some pretty consistent DK weight yarn. I thought it might be fun to show the three different forms of the wool. On the left is the batt, center is the bobbin with the singles yarn, on the right is the chain plied yarn. 

I have yet to wash the three skeins despite the fact I put it on my bathroom counter to remind me to do so.

Next, I have decided that I am going to be better about repairing things when they need it instead of throwing it out and going to the thrift store. First up was a blanket that has already been repaired once. At some point it might be more repairs than actual blanket, but we're not there yet. I discovered this on the bed of a child who seems to have been oblivious to its tattered state. (It also was in need of a good washing, but it definitely needed the repair first.)

Here's a better view so you can see how long the rip actually was.

I was happy to discover I still had a good amount of the bias tape I had made to repair it the first time.

Here is the front with the bias tape laid down the length of the tear and stitched around the entire edge.

Here is the other side where you can see the zigzagging around the edges of the tear.

After the blanket came a couple of pairs of jeans. One is H.'s. It's difficult to find pants that fit her so I really need to keep what she has wearable. They were a bit worn on the seat.

I put some fun fabric (but not too dissimilar to the denim because H. didn't want it to be noticable) behind the hole and stitched around. 

R. had a pair of jeans with a similar issue. She hasn't grown an inch since she's been home, so her clothes don't get outgrown. I did the same type of repair.

Finally, let's talk looms! Or more specifically my new loom. You might remember that when I bought it that we weren't sure that all the pieces were there. It was such a good price that even if I did have to replace some missing parts, it would still be a very, very good bargain. Well, right before New Years, my weaving teacher and her husband (who's known around the arts center as "The Loom Guy") came over to help me with it. Guess what! There are no missing parts!! Can you believe it? Well, there are a few things which are easily replaced at the hardware store, but no major items. 

So I've been working on doing all the bits that need to be done in order to start to weave. Depending on how my time plays out, I expect to be able to try actually weaving on it by the end of the month. 

I pretty much spent all weekend putting heddles onto the shafts. Now I know that for most of you I've just started writing in a different language, so let me show you.

These are heddles.

They are long pieces of metal with a hole in the center. When the loom is warped, one thread goes through one hole in a heddle.

The heddles are on the shafts which move up and down. But to get them on the shafts, you have to slide those metal bars through the top and bottom making sure the heddle is the right way up.

Here are the bars with a few heddles threaded on.

Here are the shafts with the heddles. If you're curious that is well over 1000 heddles combined on those shafts. It was tedious. 

Then yesterday J. helped me hang the shafts in the loom. This is a major step forward!

I can now really start to experience how this loom will be to weave on. Those shafts are heavy and long. I wasn't sure how difficult it was going to be to raise and lower them with the foot treadles. I'm very happy to report that the way the loom is designed makes it pretty effortless to raise them even if more than one shaft is connected at a time. 

I am so excited to get this loom working. It's taking a lot of will power to not work on it every single moment of the day and instead take care of all the other things around here which need to be done.