Stash aquisition and goodies!!

When your friends say they're working on cleaning up the clutter of craft supplies they have at home, and mention they have a few boxes packed up for you that you might be interested in, what do you say??  YES!!

Jocelyne, my quilting-roadtrip friend, emailed me during the week to say she thought she had some weaving supplies I might be able to use, and would it be okay if during her travels on Saturday could she stop by.  Hell YES! :)

Now, I didn't really know what to expect.  She had said that years ago she had acquired a loom but had never used it and had given it to a lady she knew who would.  Along that same line, she had purchased at an auction, what looked to be the stash and tools from someone who obviously had done tapestry weaving.

She mentioned that even the tapestry loom, if not an actual tapestry as well was at the auction - she didn't buy it, and wasn't sure if anyone did.

Anyways, yesterday she arrives, and lo and behold, there were 5 boxes and a huge rubbermaid tub!

Four of the boxes and the rubbermaid tub were FILLED, I mean FILLED with wool.  On first touch, it reminded me of Briggs & Little worsted weight wool.  Beautiful heavy duty wool, and most had been wound into cakes (center-pull balls).  There are a dozen or so that are still in skeins.  Some still have the tags on them.  They're from Condon's Yarns, a store/mill that operated out of Charlottetown, PEI from 1931 through 1989.  These have been around for a while.  And that's apparent by the somewhat musty odour of them.  But that's nothing that won't wash out once they're made into something.

This morning I had to pull them all out to see how much and what colours were buried in these boxes.  Drool over these!!

skeins

sorted by colour on my 6' by 3' table in my quilting room

and this rag-tag box of wound balls in a variety of colours

I haven't counted how many there are... yet. (edit: approximately 132 balls)  But the range of colours is wonderful, and for the most part they're all the same type of wool.  I could tell by the feel of a couple of the balls there was an acrylic or acrylic mix there, but only a couple.

The other box, was a treasure trove of weaving tools!

There are 2 beautiful boat shuttles, a manual bobbin winder, 3 warping paddles, some warping pegs that you can clamp to a table, and more than a dozen tapestry/wool bobbins, most of which all have the Leclerc name on them.  And in the paper bag, 6 packages of plastic tatting shuttles, 2 per package.

I'll have to lay them all out and take better pictures.  Plus there are a few pieces I don't know what they are.  

We sat, had coffee, chatted, and she didn't want a cent for any of it.  I'm so thrilled!  Plus I wasn't expecting that there would be boat shuttles, I only have one, so this will make things much easier for changing colours when I weave.

One of Jim's friends had asked a few weeks ago if I could weave him some wool fabric so he can make himself a new vest.  I'm sure I can do that now!!

I also see quite a few wool blankets in my near future.  I'm sure the homeless shelters could use them.

Also makes me wonder what other treasures she has at home *wink*.

What a great friend!!

Weaving project #2

It's really amazing how much time it takes to warp the loom for a project.

For this one, I used a cone of cotton and a cone of cottolin, warped together.

For the weft, I'm using some dk cotton I have in my stash.

It's a simple set of placemats called "Elegant Placemats" from the Weaving Today website.  It's a free e-book.

The pattern on the blue is called huck.  The pattern on the yellow is called huck lace.

Unfortunately, while I was just getting into the yellow one, I went to advance the warp, and the ratchet pawl snapped and broke off.  UGH!!

It goes on that pin there on the metal bar, below the cog

Just snapped.

And I just about snapped!!  I've emailed Camilla Valley Farms to see if there is a way I can replace it, or the entire part (with the metal rod). *crosses fingers*

If I can just replace the pawl, great!, otherwise, I'll probably have to cut my project off the loom and restart the yellow one.  One placemat done, 3 to go.

Weaving project #1

To get started and practice using the loom, I pulled out some Briggs & Little wool I had and got to it.

I've now woven a piece of fabric I can use to make a new purse!  The extra red section at the end was just to use up the rest of the warp on the loom, but I'm thinking I can use it for the saddle bags I want to make for my spinning wheel.

Not a bad start.

This is a rosepath pattern.

And yes I did make errors, I found one treadling error in the red section.  I'll need to figure out how I did it, because I actually like the effect.  Therefore, it's not an error, it's a "design element" :)

A loom lives!

The loom lives!

Backstory:   A couple weeks ago, through our guild (OVWSG), an offer was made for a Leclerc Inca Loom, for free. Since I was the first one to respond to the offer, I was able to obtain it… 2 days before my 47th birthday! Happy Birthday to me! 

The lady who owned it thought she might like to get into weaving a few years ago, so her husband had purchased it from an acquaintance of theirs. Needless to say, it was never set up/assembled. She didn’t get around to it. The 2 side frames are assembled, but all the other pieces are in a box.

It looks like it’s in beautiful shape, finished nicely with a light stain and varnish. The husband had even gone to Leclerc’s site for his wife and printed out all the instructions and specs on the loom and put them in a binder.

Unfortunately, the last couple weeks I’ve been so busy with guild events and demos and personal life that I haven’t had time to set it up… that is, until tomorrow 

I’m sure I’ll be up super early to get started on putting this together.

I’ve read through all the documentation I can find on this loom, it’s 36”, 4 shafts, 6 treadles, it's a counterbalance set up.

I believe these were made in the 80's and were sold as a "kit" loom.  Sold unassembled and unfinished, in order to provide people with a more affordable option.

UPDATE:

It took approximately 3.5 hours and numerous trips up and down the stairs, back and forth from the garage - that's where the box was with all the pieces, and it was too damn heavy for one person to haul up to the spare room (Jim was at work), and I was determined to get this assembled today. (I'm going to be sore tonight) 

She's missing a couple minor pieces.  One of the strings for the top counterbalance roller (I substituted with a piece of rope tied the same length) and a hook for one of the treadles - it was supposed to have 6, only 5 were attached to the treadles.... not sure how when they packed it up they didn't realize one wasn't there. Oh well. I'll contact Camilla Valley Farm - from all reports, they are excellent to deal with and have all the parts available.

UNVEILING:

See, missing one hook on the far right treadle.

I'm sure I can still use her without the hook for now.

Nest job is to sort out the apron/beam strings in the front and back, they're a bit of a mess.  

And then dig through some of my yarn to see if I have anything I can use as a warp to start playing. :)