Technically, it's threading heddles and sleying reeds. And yes... it is as violent as it sounds. To my eyes. They better invent a seeing-eye dog who can do this for me when I'm 80. However, this isn't the cause for concern. (I've spent hours squinting at ginormous budget spreadsheets at work and did more damage to my eyes in two years than in four years of undergrad. This is nothing.) After a few hours fussing with the warp; trying to get the tension even - simultaneously trying to figure out how this loom works - I was ready to thread the heddles.
It only took me a few hours to go from this:
To this:
Yessiree! That's over 400 threads! One through each of those little metal loops in a specific order according to pattern. After I was about halfway over, I realized I was left heavy. And nope, wasn't worried about that either. I just figured out how to remove the extra heddles on the left side of the loom on each of the harnesses. Probably wasn't supposed to do it that way, but oh well. Call me smug.
Once the threads were through the heddles, each and every one of them had to go through one of these little spaces in the reed. I had a special hook that would catch the thread and help me pull it through. My OCD? I couldn't just do one thread and leave it. Nope. I was compelled to sit there and keep going until my bladder was making major threats about emptying itself on the spot and my blood sugar dropped to the point where my hands were shaking and I couldn't effectively use them to thread anymore.
Seriously, I was so obsessed with doing this over the weekend, I completely neglected everything. If it weren't for R having people over, I probably wouldn't have bathed my person either. I stumbled into the netherworld of warping looms and I LOVED it. Thankfully, R understood and just let me WALLOW in it. He helped me when I needed another pair of hands. He walked Nori without me. He celebrated my successes and listened when I needed to think out loud. This couldn't have happened without him.
My beginner class was fantastic and everything she showed me how to do on a table loom, translated into how I would work a floor loom. But there are still significant differences that I needed to figure out by myself. All in all, I'm happy I didn't end up with the world's largest knot on my hands. But that wasn't the worrisome part either.
On Monday, my sister and I had this conversation over our blackberry's.
Mel: Mom and dad were SO worried that you bought yourself a loom. For some reason. They're so weird. haha
N: What? What did they say?
Mel: Nothing. They just asked about whether that loom was YOURS and if you bought one. In that stupid, panicked way of theirs.
N: I don't get it.
Mel: Yeah, maybe that's just their natural panicked faces.
Now really, what could they possibly come up with to freak out about? They already know I'm living in sin and they've got their coping mechanism in place for that. What else is there?
Just for fun - and to make sure my parents KNEW what a "loom" actually was and what it was FOR... I sent them a picture of it and all my dad said was:
"It is neat. Did you set it up?"
OY.
On an unrelated note, this is how the spinning went! My first skein!
My beginner class was fantastic and everything she showed me how to do on a table loom, translated into how I would work a floor loom. But there are still significant differences that I needed to figure out by myself. All in all, I'm happy I didn't end up with the world's largest knot on my hands. But that wasn't the worrisome part either.
On Monday, my sister and I had this conversation over our blackberry's.
Mel: Mom and dad were SO worried that you bought yourself a loom. For some reason. They're so weird. haha
N: What? What did they say?
Mel: Nothing. They just asked about whether that loom was YOURS and if you bought one. In that stupid, panicked way of theirs.
N: I don't get it.
Mel: Yeah, maybe that's just their natural panicked faces.
Now really, what could they possibly come up with to freak out about? They already know I'm living in sin and they've got their coping mechanism in place for that. What else is there?
Just for fun - and to make sure my parents KNEW what a "loom" actually was and what it was FOR... I sent them a picture of it and all my dad said was:
"It is neat. Did you set it up?"
OY.
On an unrelated note, this is how the spinning went! My first skein!
I'm totally impressed with you! Spinning AND weaving?? That's awesome. Do you figure your parents thought a loom was an opiate-smoking device?
ReplyDeleteOMG, I wish I had room for a loom!!! I am so jealous. It looks huge. But seriously, I need one more hobby like I need another hole in my head. I barely have anytime as it is.
ReplyDeleteSpinning has taken over my life. I love it.