From 28 to 82 – part 1

When I arrived at the Folkschool Sunday it was 28 F and when I arrived home Saturday it was 82 F! I asked my husband when did Spring happen this week? I made it through without a snow sighting, but heard many stories about other’s traveling through. It seems it snowed everywhere around but not at the Folkschool. My husband actually made a snowman as large as he is. I can’t remember when we had enough snow to play in. Here’s his snowman – and here’s the view from my room!

It was a wonderful week as always at the Folkschool. Sunday at school, we began with introductions and learning the basic wedge weave technique on a piece of cardboard with acrylic yarns. Then we talked a bit about how we’d start the next day. There were only 5 of us in the class, so the instructor offered to help me warp the floor loom if I’d like. I jumped at that. I decided to only make a 4” wide piece on the floor loom that would complement the 16” wide piece on my tapestry loom. The Folkschool has a number of looms and have named each one to differentiate - and so much more creative than a number! Mine was "Norman" - He was the only "male" Macomber in the room! Being an engineer I thought I could handle it! Norman taught me all sorts of new vocabulary words - like rattle, leases, heddles, harnesses, reeds... I don't know that I could warp a loom on my own, but I do think I could at least ask intelligent questions the next time.

My walk back from lunch was accompanied by the rapping of Woody the Woodpecker. The birds were quite vocal with the end of the rain and didn't seem hindered by the cold in the least. I was glad for the warmth of my down vest - I think I understand why they can stay out in it.
We warped the loom from back to front and tied off to the front rod. From there we used sticks to space the warp back out evenly rather than waste yarn. The main reason was not just using something besides waste yarn, but to avoid starting out with a header whose corners frown or smile. The stick always gives a straight hard surface to pack against. I thought it was clever. From there we put in twining and were ready to weave. I was able to put in a wedge and begin the second one the first day on the 4" piece on the floor loom. I was pleased to see that the wedge was actually starting to make the selvedge undulate or scallop! More later....