Meanderings of a Mermaid

 Starting off, here is a shot of the Rio Grande Kit Loom with stabilizer feet added to it. Much better! I got all the cords on and the sectional beaming rakes as well.  So then it was time to test out the loom.   Using knit cotton rag strips I am weaving some twill placemats.  I think the walking of the treadles is fun and easy to get used to.  As I practise I see that some improvements to the cords can be made. And I may have to hit the rollers with sand paper.  The not-so-elegant tie up of the treadles could definitely be improved.   In my haste to try out the loom I left the white cords in from previous owner's. They seemed too short so I added a jumper cord.  But I will maybe try the tie up without the jumper and see how it goes.  It could be that some knots are catching on one another and preventing the shafts from always rising nicely. .    In the knitting basket is a project I am calling Kilauea.  Last winter...

A sunrise is a beautiful thing, and recently they have been on my mind a lot. While at camp I easily see the sunrise each day. As the time to head back home approaches, I really miss my sunrise time. The above image is from the Arizona desert, but the colours really impressed me.  An early season sunrise is portrayed in this photo taken at camp. You can see snow on the ground. And there is always a difficulty in taking good sunrise photos there, because the forest is still dark and the pictures generally come out underexposed. But you will find some nicer sunrise pictures on this blog if you search for them. When it came time to think about what to do with the very plain wood of this new-to-me loom, I still had sunrise on the brain . This is the Rio Grande Kit Loom, or Rio Grande Walking Loom. Since I bought it I have sanded it twice and stained it twice with the two shades of aniline dyes. There is one coat of a clear polyurethane on top. I used a shade called ...

This week has seen a lot of fibre equipment shifting around throughout the Hill Country. Just my part in this was considerable. First of all I facilitated the selling of a spinning wheel with a large amount of associated gear. Plus the same buyer took a motorized drum carder, with three drums! And there were nice Russian paddle combs in the kit too. I had the pleasure of delivering this full truck load from my home town to San Angelo. She maintains a spinner's flock of fibre animals and it was really fun to see the variety. And great to visit with three spinner friends in that city. A great day was had. And just today I returned from a double header. I purchased a used Rio Grande Kit Loom, which is a type of walking loom. It is a loom that was designed by Rachel Brown and Ron Moore in New Mexico. The original owner may have bought it in 1991. And the second owner bought it in '96. Here is what it looked like in the seller's home. In this photo the back warp beam...