Yesterday...I wove a Sunrise...It made me smile

A pictoral trip through my yesterday.

I call this pattern "Woven Sunrise." I thought it was a fitting craft for Imbolc.

I finally made a home for all the canning jars I've been collecting at the thrift stores this winter. I figure if I pick them up a few at a time when I can find them at the thrift stores, I'll be able to build my collection for .10 to .25 cents a jar instead of about .75 a jar like they are new. Hopefully I'll have enough jars by the time canning season comes along.

The cutest "green" shirt ever. Picked it up at the thrift store for my niece (who isn't born yet).

Meet my lovely looms

You've already met my favorite loom. But I have a few others that were feeling left out.

The reigning favorite. I can both inkle and card weave on it.

The box loom I picked up from Lynn the Weaver as Estrella War.

The last of the looms hubby made for my class. He made a loom for each student and this was my demo loom. My honey is awesome.

Ashford Inklett with an altered stand. When I first bought this loom, I hated it. It was always tipping over during warping and while I was weaving it. A wonderful woodworker in the SCA made a new support for me and once I added that, it worked great and had a perfect handle to boot. This loom is the one I take to camping events and feasts.

The full size Ashford is not my favorite loom. It tends to twist as you warp it and put tension on it. You have to do a lot of extra steps to get the warp even. It does however have a nice long warp so sometimes I'm willing to jump through the hoops to get the extra length.

The copper loom I made for card weaving based on the directions I found at the WormSpit Blog. It is an awesome loom for card weaving a continuous warp. It's especially useful for two-way turning or double face weaving.

The 4 harness loom I bought on Craigslist. It needs a little repair work but we moved not to long after I got the loom and I haven't really had the time since. Hopefully I can get in touch with the local weavers guild soon and find someone to teach me how to warp it.

My last loom is my 7yd inkle loom. It looks like the one below from Thomas Creations. Unfortunately, it's not a very sturdy loom. When I warp it, it tends to bow extreemly bad unless I leave the tension so loose as to be almost non-existant. The Oak is only 3/4" and only half that at the joins so it just doesn't have the strength to handle a lot of tension. This last army move the loom was broken and I haven't had a chance to fix it yet. Honestly I'm going to try and reinforce it so it doesn't bow otherwise it's just not worth it to use it.

Back to my first love

I'd forgotten how much I love weaving. This summer I promised a set of Medieval garb as a wedding present to our best friend and her new hubby. Over Christmas they finally decided what kind of garb they wanted (Norse) and in what colors (pretty much blue and earth tones). Since I want it to be a really nice set of garb I'm going to weave all the trim. Last night I warped up my favorite inkle loom with the pattern I'd designed to use for their garb. (I'd forgotten how much I disliked working with wool). Since I need quite a few yards of trim for the outfits I'll be keeping this loom warped and weaving a couple hours a night while I watch TV until I have enough trim. There's something really relaxing about sitting in a cozy chair, passing a shuttle back and forth between the warp and watching cloth (really thin cloth in this case) appear.

(My favorite loom. It was my first loom that I picked up at a thrift store for $15 and I've never found one I liked better. I have looms that will take a longer warp but none that is so portable and easy to work with. I used to have an inkle loom with a 7yd warp but the Army movers broke it on the way to Alaska and I haven't been able to replace it yet)

(A bad picture of the design I charted out for this trim. I use an offset brick pattern for charting designs that best reproduces how the threads really line up. I get my graph paper from a free website that allows you to design your own.)

(The hopeful end product. Norse male and female garb. I usually wear Norse garb to medieval reenactment events. I know the male garb is not completely accurate but sometimes we have to make compromises to meet the needs of the recipient.)