Other Hobbies and Interests

I used to play it. a local county park here has course. I used to play frisbee all the time. I won first place way back in Junior High School
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This is for TJ...World Wide Knit in Public Day!

got them set up and planted.

I need to do something like that for my asparagus.

Where/how did you get all the barrels ?
Maybe more important, what was in the barrels originally?

Got the barrels off Craig's list. They are food grade and held organic soy sauce. They were $20 each and the guy deliver them.

Wow, that's a lot of soy sauce!

I finally made some progress identifying the choking vines that try to take over my yard and neighborhood every hear. The three main ones are:

Cynanchum louiseae - black swallow-wort
Vincetoxicum rossicum - Dog Strangling Vine
Celastrus orbiculatus - Oriental Bittersweet

I'm just happy that the japanese knotweed and barberry seems to end at the railroad tracks down the road.

Just be thankful it is not poison ivy.

Got that too, I don't count it because it's native. Fortunately I barely react to it, though I also don't push my luck.

That is the way I was for around 50 years. Evidently you become less immune over time.

Be glad you don't have kudzu.

Yes I too have had more poison ivy outbreaks recently. We have a dumpster for yard waste provided by are waste disposal service. The previous owners must have loaded it up with poison ivy because every year I get a bit of a rash during the spring clean up season after loading up the cart. I'm pretty sure we don't have any in our yard so I think that's where I'm getting it, even though we've had that card for many years. Last year was bad. This year, not so much.

It's taken me about an 1 1/2 hours to warp my foot stool loom...a work in progress. This is just about 1/4 of what's there now. I'm thinking the weft will be a twill, 2 under 2 over, but I'm not using a heddle...so it's gonna take a while.

I doubt I'll ever be decent on the fiddle but the satisfaction is in trying. Plus, it's humbling to do something that you're not good at.

(I do lots of things I'm not good at)

uncle meat wrote:

It's taken me about an 1 1/2 hours to warp my foot stool loom...a work in progress. This is just about 1/4 of what's there now. I'm thinking the weft will be a twill, 2 under 2 over, but I'm not using a heddle...so it's gonna take a while.

Love it...makes my heart happy!

I think what you're doing is called picking? I've seen people do it and the proficient ones are super fast and accurate.

If you rigged up some string heddles and threaded every third and fourth heddle, all you have to do is alternate lifting up and pushing down on the heddles with your hands to create the shed.

TrafficJam wrote:

uncle meat wrote:

It's taken me about an 1 1/2 hours to warp my foot stool loom...a work in progress. This is just about 1/4 of what's there now. I'm thinking the weft will be a twill, 2 under 2 over, but I'm not using a heddle...so it's gonna take a while.

Love it...makes my heart happy!
I think what you're doing is called picking? I've seen people do it and the proficient ones are super fast and accurate.

If you rigged up some string heddles and threaded every third and fourth heddle, all you have to do is alternate lifting up and pushing down on the heddles with your hands to create the shed.

Excellent! I may just make a heddle, cause this is gonna take a while.

I canabalized a canvas frame so I could give my wife back her foot stool.

uncle meat wrote:

It's taken me about an 1 1/2 hours to warp my foot stool loom...a work in progress. This is just about 1/4 of what's there now. I'm thinking the weft will be a twill, 2 under 2 over, but I'm not using a heddle...so it's gonna take a while.

Too much tension or humidity must have made it warp. I hope you can fix it.

uncle meat wrote:

I canabalized a canvas frame so I could give my wife back her foot stool.

Isn't it amazing how you can create a loom with the most basic things...even trees and sticks?

That is like a navajo loom. You could spread the warp out which will make it easier to pick up every third and fourth warp thread but will create a weft-faced weave...not sure you want to do that though, your warp stripes are great.

It may be slow, but the best things in life take a while.

Can't remember if I mentioned this...

I read about a lady who harvests kudzu vines in the winter and weaves baskets. I've been thinking about doing it but using the vines as weft to make sturdy floor mats. The lady said she dries the vines but when weaving with them, they have to be wet for pliability.

I bought this beautiful, drop spindle at Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. It has a walnut shaft, is perfectly balanced and spins like a dream. It was pricey but so worth it.

Since Y'all are talking weaving, I spent the weekend in Eastern Maryland for my wife's cousin's wedding. The bride owns a yarn shop in Frostberg that we finally got to see in person.

TrafficJam wrote:

Can't remember if I mentioned this...

I read about a lady who harvests kudzu vines in the winter and weaves baskets. I've been thinking about doing it but using the vines as weft to make sturdy floor mats. The lady said she dries the vines but when weaving with them, they have to be wet for pliability.

Best and only use (other than soil retention) of kudzu I've heard.

We don't have much kudzu up here, but we do have a lot of littered plastic bags which I hear tell folks cut in strips and weave...but the colors are limited to yellow and white mostly.

TrafficJam wrote:

uncle meat wrote:

I canabalized a canvas frame so I could give my wife back her foot stool.

Isn't it amazing how you can create a loom with the most basic things...even trees and sticks?
That is like a navajo loom. You could spread the warp out which will make it easier to pick up every third and fourth warp thread but will create a weft-faced weave...not sure you want to do that though, your warp stripes are great.

It may be slow, but the best things in life take a while.

I'm all about biding my time and scrounging discarded material to build stuff, so I'll likely build a heddle of sorts when I get to it, there's never less than 10 irons in my fire at once, so not in a real rush to finish, all about the journey. I likes your walnut spinning wheel, that looks a bit tricky to master.

Cool! I will stop by if I'm ever in the area.

uncle meat wrote:

TrafficJam wrote:

uncle meat wrote:

I canabalized a canvas frame so I could give my wife back her foot stool.

Isn't it amazing how you can create a loom with the most basic things...even trees and sticks?That is like a navajo loom. You could spread the warp out which will make it easier to pick up every third and fourth warp thread but will create a weft-faced weave...not sure you want to do that though, your warp stripes are great.

It may be slow, but the best things in life take a while.

I'm all about biding my time and scrounging discarded material to build stuff, so I'll likely build a heddle of sorts when I get to it, there's never less than 10 irons in my fire at once, so not in a real rush to finish, all about the journey. I likes your walnut spinning wheel, that looks a bit tricky to master.

I was thinking about string heddles like on my inkle loom.



Wasn't sure how that would work on a frame loom and found this ... backstrapweaving.wordpress.com…ontinuous-string-heddles/

Again...want to point out that's a weft-faced weave which is prevalent in Native American weaving/tapestry weaving. Which is why NA looms are frame-type looks like you have made.

Function follows form or form follows function?

TrafficJam wrote:

SarcasmTheElf wrote:

Since Y'all are talking weaving, I spent the weekend in Eastern Maryland for my wife's cousin's wedding. The bride owns a yarn shop in Frostberg that we finally got to see in person.

Cool! I will stop by if I'm ever in the area.

Check out the Great Allegheny Passage if you go.

And there is a steam train that runs from Cumberland to Frostburg. One time I took my husband and our bikes and didn't tell him where I was taking him. We rode the train with bikes to Frostburg, peddled up Big Savage Mountain, rode thru the tunnel up there, then turned around, went back thru the tunnel and coasted the 16 miles back to Cumberland. A wonderful day out!

We've been to Frostburg, when we hiked the GAP.
It seems like a nice town.
Taking the train was probably a smart idea Sandy cause it's a long uphill from Cumberland.

TrafficJam wrote:

uncle meat wrote:

TrafficJam wrote:

uncle meat wrote:

I canabalized a canvas frame so I could give my wife back her foot stool.

Isn't it amazing how you can create a loom with the most basic things...even trees and sticks?That is like a navajo loom. You could spread the warp out which will make it easier to pick up every third and fourth warp thread but will create a weft-faced weave...not sure you want to do that though, your warp stripes are great.
It may be slow, but the best things in life take a while.

I'm all about biding my time and scrounging discarded material to build stuff, so I'll likely build a heddle of sorts when I get to it, there's never less than 10 irons in my fire at once, so not in a real rush to finish, all about the journey. I likes your walnut spinning wheel, that looks a bit tricky to master.

I was thinking about string heddles like on my inkle loom.


Wasn't sure how that would work on a frame loom and found this ... backstrapweaving.wordpress.com…ontinuous-string-heddles/

Again...want to point out that's a weft-faced weave which is prevalent in Native American weaving/tapestry weaving. Which is why NA looms are frame-type looks like you have made.

Function follows form or form follows function?

so I started making string heddles today...only a hundred and five to go

just looked at your link, beautiful, that looks very helpful, thanks TJ!

Wrap the string around angle iron, molding, or a corner protector and run scissors up the trough for consistent size. Or use a cardboard core you can easily slice through.

I made a little wood template, but now I'm liking the 'continuous string heddle' in TJ's link, that's slick!
think that's the direction for todays test.

Anyone else into genealogy? To prepare for my recent trip to Sweden I did a lot of family history research. Ultimately I was able to identify 168 direct ancestors. Of these 8 were born in the US and 160 were born in Sweden. On our trip we visited many ancestral farms. We also met dozens of relatives (3rd, 4th, 5th, cousins). It was a very different kind of trip.

Yup, been doing it off and on for 20 years. Did one of the DNA test this past year and am having much success and am considering a couple DNA projects once I figure out how to transfer the data. Neato burrito!

Finally started the weft after fixing a bunch of Oopsies. I really needed to use a smaller thread, not crazy about the weave at this point, but I'll finish it out, I think I invisioned a much tighter weave. Oh well, been fun scratchin' this itch. Still wanna build a loom one day.

Ugh, I see now what I did wrong, I was shootin' for an unbalanced 2/2 twill, but I blew the shift, oh well, I'm not changing it. This frame loom is at it limits of forgivability, a real table top heddle loom would be the way to go. But the continuous string heddle worked great.