The Downside of Having Looms in Two Places

It isn’t that easy to have looms in two places unless you are willing to create two weaving studios. Case in point: I currently have warps on three looms. The dobby loom in California has a shawl warp on it; the 8-shaft loom in Fort Collins, Colorado, has a warp for 10 napkins (what was I thinking?) on it; and my rigid-heddle loom, also in Fort Collins, has an experimental sample warp on it. Doesn’t sound like a problem unless you know that both of the multi-shaft looms have broken warp threads on them but the warp yarns for both projects are in the other “studio.”

I have been stopped three times in the TSA screening line at the airport because I have large cones of yarn in my carry-on. As far as I know, a cone of yarn isn’t considered dangerous, but the screeners don’t recognize the shape. One screener asked me if I was carrying a paint roller (is that a thing?) and then laughed when he saw the cones of yarn and joked that yarn was prohibited. Large cones are also heavy, so I try not to carry too many at once to avoid those awkward “this is too heavy for me to lift over my head” moments on the plane.

If this was all the yarn I had to transport it wouldn’t be a problem. Photo by George Boe.

Beyond moving small equipment and yarn back and forth I also have the issue of where the yarn swift, bobbin winder, ball winder, and cone winder should live. I really don’t want to buy new ones and I don’t want to carry them with me. I have learned to wind weft onto bobbins and skeins into balls when I’m in California. If I forget to do the winding, or run low on wound yarn, I wind by hand, a tedious process at best for thin threads but one that makes you remember how useful tools can be.

Weaving has come to a standstill for the moment. I forgot to grab the cone of avocado-green 10/2 cotton before I left California yesterday, so I have to wait for my ever-understanding husband to bring it Friday. I’ll take the slow-striping wool warp thread home next week for the shawl.

As an experiment, I’m weaving wool that fulls with cotton that doesn’t full to see if it will make some kind of fringy “chenille”. Photo by George Boe

In the meantime, I can work on my weaving “chenille” experiment on the rigid heddle. Just wish I was still interested in it—but that’s another weaving problem for another day.

Weave well, Susan