love to love you

I love to learn new things and at the same time completely hate the learning curve. Jason bought me a loom for Christmas, I had been talking about one and just never got around to looking into it. I had been thinking what a great way to use up stash ..why is it, every weaver I have said this to laughs at me?!?  Like most things in this house that have a skill set that isn’t straight out of the box, I was overwhelmed & nervous and in being overwhelmed & nervous I let it sit and sit and sit. I didn’t even open the box to peek in, I knew it was a put together kinda thing, with instructions, wooden bits and bolts ..so there it sat on the dining room table for over a month. “I know it is in the way, just push it over and make room.” (P.S I did finally use the last years birthday stand mixer for the first time a few weeks back to make a cake!)

Last week I just woke up and decided to make my mom a birthday scarf and I was going to make it on my dang loom. I knew a few things (nothing about looming though) ..I knew I didn’t want to start with a practice piece, I knew I didn’t want to use the weird yarn the thing came with, I knew I had zero skills but was filled with unconfident excitement!

Doing it in stages so I don’t explode. Day 1: Put it together, about an hour. Day 2: Read the instructions and you tubed a few videos for warping (warped in about 3hrs), I hope this gets faster because it was kind of enjoyably sucky. Must improve my set up. Day 2 Part 2: Actual weaving and obsessing on the edges and straightness and not beating the crap out it so it stays supple and soft like a scarf (beating is the term used for bring the heddle reed down the threads and tamping the newly wefted yarn into place and apparently if you beat it too much it will turn into a stiff carpet). Day 3: More weaving, it’s quicker than I thought, but also slower than I imagined, I’ve seen the cultural documentaries on PBS, shuttles whipping across the warp threads like lightening, feet and arms all moving together yet independently. This was poky-ish, this was initially awkward and floppy and cumbersome, this little loom was more manual. Learning curve underway, I realize I like that it is small & portable,  it’s good at keeping me unhurried and conscientious. Now I just need to figure out a way I can lazily do this sitting on the couch! Day 3 Part 2: Cut it off the loom, it looked like a scarf, I am impressed! Soaked it (because you do, right?) didn’t need too, but did anyways and laid it out to dry, no pins no nothing it was spectacularly rectangular!

♥ loom love

♥

♥ junk love!

This might get interesting because we’ve been reading “The life changing magic of tiding up”. (Not totally committed to reading it cover to cover yet, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the ideas in there, I skipped around the chapters, which completely shows my emotional unreadiness and how much value and feeling I actually put into stuff ..blah!) I 100% agree with the paperwork and files as recycling and I do have lots of art supplies I will never use again (hello rubber stamps), antiques and auctions finds that are just mental and physical space eaters ..maybe a summer rummage sale should be slated. Just noticing “HO” ..this might be true, I am a total junk ho.

A.O + J.O

..aww yes this ♥ love to love you