Who ever thought joining a social networking website would bring out a profound change in your life? Back near the beginning of June, I joined the social networking website Plurk. It seems that a lot of knitters that I know are over there also. In using the service and talking with all the lovely knitters there, Miss Violet posted about a thing she was starting called the “Plurkette Farmgirl Hencircle.” I was intrigued and went to the site to look. After reading what she’d posted on the site and following the links to Mary Janes Farm I joined up. (I also went out and ordered the books and went to the store and got some plants to plant a container garden – see one photo above).

So…Our first project is to post a bit about ourselves. I am a late 30’s mother of three. I grew up in a large-ish city in Texas, but my grandparents lived in a smaller town nearby and I spent a lot of time there. My grandmother taught me to crochet and to hand sew and other things from a pretty young age. I used to watch her cook all the wonderful home cooked country meals. (See previous hotwater cornbread recipe). My grandfather had a pecan orchard and I remember helping him harvest pecans and getting rid of infestations of web worms (ewww). I once chased a chicken around their yard that had escaped from a neighbor’s house. I realized when I read the things on MJF that I was missing those things. The things that I remember from my grandmother’s house and from my childhood. I have found my inner farmgirl. I have been to the farmers market. I’ve made a homemade pinkeep

and from scratch zucchini bread. I wear an APRON for deity’s sake!! (and have fabric and pattern to make another one) As I type this, I have a piece of freehand embroidery on a dishtowel on my lap.

THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN MISSING!!

I’ve been helping MissV get the website in order and will be writing a few columns over there hopefully. (I have a cookbook review planned.) I can’t wait to see what all we come up with and do. I will still be knitting and weaving and all that other stuff, but expect to see more from me of a different crafty nature.

(btw…Fiona apologizes that she didn’t post this Friday. She and I both were not feeling well)

When I left off last week, I had just finished sleying the reed on the loom. This week we’ll pick up at the next step, threading the heddles.

I now move around to the back part of the loom. My loom has bars that allow me to take out a couple of screws and I can drop the back beam to the floor. I can then sit basically “in” the loom and very close to the heddles so that its not uncomfortable.

This is my view from my seat at the back of the loom. For this project, since it’s plain weave, you thread one thread through each heddle starting with the first shaft, then the second, third and fourth. Then you start back over at one. (I hope that makes sense)

The heddle hook is used to help pull the yarn through each heddle eye. 

Once I thread 12 heddles I knot that bunch behind the heddles to keep them from pulling out and move on to the next bunch. I always start threading from the center and do one on each side until its all done.

When the threading is done, it’s time to start beaming the warp. Starting in the middle of the warp, I take a knotted bundle and tie it on to the apron rod.

When all the ends are tied on, its time to start cranking. I untie all the warp chains at the front and spread out the warp as best I can, and pull the beater bar forward. I then turn the crank on the back beam until the beater bar falls back.

This is where you need help the most. Since the yarns will stick together if there’s nothing between them, someone needs to insert paper, or sticks or something in the warp as it’s wound on the back beam. I have sheets of brown wrapping paper.(I’m sorry I didn’t get any photos of this as it took the both of us to do it.)

I keep cranking and adjusting the warp until its all wound onto the back and the knots from the front end of the warp are at the beater bar. Then I tie onto the front apron rod.

When its all tied on in the front…the Loom is WARPED!

Next time we’ll talk a bit about weaving and show how important it is to check the threading of your heddles for mistakes (I’m calling it a design element thankyouverymuch!)

We were discussing grits on Plurk and that went around to cornbread and I mentioned hot water cornbread. Someone suggested that I post the recipe.  My grandmother made this all the time and this is her recipe.

Sorry this is a bit late folks, but mom was busy and we only got on the computer just now. I hope you enjoy the blog that I’m going to take you to today.

This week we’ll take a trip too Abby’s Yarns! Abby is an excellent fiber artist and a wonderful blogger. Mom and I enjoy reading her blog every time she updates.  This post she made about a book and her life in Peru and the women fiber artists there just makes mom tear up every time she reads it.  Right now Abby is having her Summer Q&A where you can write in and ask her questions.

Here’s how it works (this week, at least). On Monday, I’m going to name a topic or pose a question or something of that ilk. That’s where you come in. You leave a comment, asking a question relating to the topic of the week, or heck, any question at all, really. Throughout the week, in fits and starts, with bursts here and there, I’ll answer these questions. Sometimes it may be multiple answer posts throughout the week; other times, a big cohesive one on Friday. We’ll see how this goes and how it evolves, and perhaps it’ll be the answer to the fractured summer schedule.

I’m sorry this is so short, but I want you to go read her blog now!

Love and Kisses

Fiona

(No ..that’s not a typo. Read further to find out why) This post is probably going to be pretty photo intensive (You’ll need to click them all to enlarge them to get the full effect).

For the second installment of Warped Wednesdays we’re going to talk about sleying the reed. Sleying the reed is when you thread each of the ends of yarn you warped on the warping board, through the reed. The reed is the metal peice inserted in the beater bar of the loom. It has spaces set certain distances apart. The reed that I am using for this project is called a 12 dent reed. That is because the spaces are set at 12 ends per inch (epi).

But first….here’s what you need to get started warping the loom.

(click to embiggen and read the caption)

Remember I showed you my yarn on the warping board? Well, the next step is to take it off the loom and make warp chains.  This are my warp chains wrapped around the cloth beam and ready to be sleyed.

The next thing to do is to get one of the chains and start in the middle of the loom and start sleying the reed. When you wind the warp on the warping board you create what is called a cross. This is to help in sleying the reed and keeping the yarn neat and tidy. This photo shows the cross pretty well. 

At this point, I’ve not cut the ends of the yarn yet. To me, this is the scariest part of warping a loom.

Next up, after cutting the loop end of the warp chain is to begin sleying. I reach over my beater bar and pull the yarn through from the back with my sley hook.

You use the cross and take the first thread from the stack and pull it through the reed.

(yeah…we had fun with the macro setting on the camera!)

Anywho, this is repeated the width of the project (in this case the full width of the reed). I knot the back of mine so that they don’t pull back out of the reed before I’m ready to thread the heddles. Well.. in this case I had a helper.

She helped me speed this up by knotting after I had done a bit so that I could keep on going.

Here is a shot of the loom with the reed sleyed.

I think since this is so photo heavy, I’ll just stop here for this week and next week I’ll tell you about threading the heddles and finishing up the warp.  I hope you’re enjoying this new feature on my blog. I’m a fairly new weaver and writing this all out helps with my learning process as well as informing non-weavers of a really fun craft! (come on…you know you wanna. I can help you get started!)

See you next time!

I hope everyone enjoyed fiona’s blog post on Friday. She’s been busy reading blogs and things for her next guest spot. She says thanks to everyone who commented. Your comments just made her smile!

I know she said I was going to post on Sunday, but we got kind of busy with family things so I never got around to it …and lookie here..its Tuesday already! So..kind of late, but here we go.

Yes. I crochet. My grandmother taught me when I was very young (maybe around 4 years old) so that I’d have something to keep my busy and help me sit still. I wonder if that’s why I can’t sit still now if I don’t have anything in my hands to work on? hmm… Anyway, I love to crochet, but it sometimes hurts my wrists so I can’t do a whole lot of it.  Occasionally I get the bug to crochet and try to find something that won’t kill me to work on.  I searched around on Ravelry and found the pattern for Juggling Hex’s by Wendy Harbaugh. I’m using leftover sock yarns and I’m using it doubled. (only because I didn’t have the right size hook and I was too lazy to go look for one) I figure this way I’ll use up all my leftover bits and bobs of sock yarn and eventually end up with a blanket.

So yeah…two hexagons done…a gazillion more to go.

So I’ve always been a big fan of goddessknit’s patterns. She’s doing an anniversary mystery shawl and of course I signed up. Who doesn’t need another project right?

She released the first clue on Friday and I had that done pretty soon after dinner.

I’m using the 100purewool.com lace yarn that I showed a while back. LOVE THIS YARN! Sorry I couldn’t get a better photo, but I am NOT taking it off the needles to block it for a photo. I did chart B (there is an option of 4 charts to pick from)  Hopefully I’ll have another lovely picture of my progress on the shawl after this next weekend. I can’t wait for the clue to come out.

In other news, I’ve gotten all of the warp wound and chained for the loom and actually have started the warping process. I hope to have photos and a description of loom warping tomorrow. (If I can pull Geebaloo off her new laptop long enough to take pics for me)

Until then….

Live to Learn