Fiber Monday on Tuesday again - so many heddles

I actually have some things to share with you. The first is that I (finally) have a functioning 12-shaft loom! After a year and a half, waiting three months for the parts I needed, this past weekend I spend quite a bit of time threading heddles on to the shafts. That would be 1500 heddles. I got pretty fast by the time I was done. J. helped hang the shafts back in the loom last night. 


Those silver things are the heddles. It is what each end of the warp is threaded through.

I'm very excited to start trying it out. But first I'm on sampling attempt number two of this potential fabric I'm supposedly making. 


I also finished the winter hat I have been working on for months. (I'm the world's slowest knitter because I don't knit for very long at any one time.) Here's one side,


but it is reversible, so here is the other side.


It's made out of all handspun from batts I made myself. It fits and I like the way it looks, but... what I was hoping for was a hat that could have a bottom cuff turned up making four layers of fabric covering one's ears. This isn't nearly long enough to do that. It should still be pretty warm, though, because it's a fairly thick wool fabric. We'll see how it works once it gets cold. I may end up knitting another one but adding another eight inches or so to the length. 

The last thing I have accomplished is finally digging out my sewing area. Things had begun to pile up with little bits and bobs that either hadn't been put away because there was no where to put them. Then things start to get dusty and the mending starts to pile up because it's not a pleasant place to work and I so I was avoiding the whole area completely. 

I redid some of my storage so everything would fit, cleaned off surfaces, and tackled the mending (1 shirt, 5 sweaters, and 3 pairs of pants). Here is the clean and tidy version.



The box in the corner of the work surface hoods pins and needles and seam rippers, etc. All the little stuff that you need at hand to sew. And look! No hidden piles behind the sewing machine.

I feel as though I can now work on some projects that have been languishing with a few things finished. 



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