Tuesday, October 6, 2009

New to Me Adventure

Saturday, James, Shadow and I went on a road trip over to Georgia.  It was about a two hour drive one way which is not bad, but is certainly the longest that Shadow has had to go in the car with us.  I was proud that he handled it just fine.  In fact, the ride back he generally slept – but I get ahead of myself.  imageWe were heading over to pick up my new-to-me Leclerc 45” Tissart tapestry loom.  James had seen it in a guild newsletter.  I measured the space in the room of strings and it would fit.  I made an offer, she accepted and so we went to pick it up!  We took the van, but the loom still needed to be disassembled since we only took out one of the bench seats.  It all fit and a couple of baby gates kept Shadow out of the parts.
So here are all the parts once we got home – and the assembly process – and the new-to-me loom in it’s new home!image image imageI’m excited and overwhelmed at the same time.  If you remember from last March at my class in John C Campbell, that class was the first and only time that I have warped a floor loom.  Now this isn’t a floor loom, but there basically the same principles – it’s just vertical and I only have two harnesses.  I’ve been offered much help and instructions.  I’m not worried and I’m just giving myself some space and time to do it right.  First step – I don’t have a warp board or rattle – so we’re starting there with building some!
In other areas, I want to give an update on the blogging advice.  I’ve receive a great deal of good tips and I wanted to share what’s working for me.  I’m using the free Picasa from Google for the processing pictures.  There is an automatic export function that resaves the pictures in a web-friendly size into another folder.  I immediately export and work with those.  Then, the second software is also free and is Windows Live Writer (Thanks Lyn and Janet!)  It’s part of an entire Microsoft suite and allows easy creation and editing on my computer.  In fact, I simply cut and paste the pictures from Picasa.  When I’m finished, I upload the entire entry at once.  This entry took 30 minutes – including the upload of the pictures from my camera.  The actual blogging time is about 10 minutes once the pictures are on the drive!  Loving it!
One last thing – a Shadow update – he hounded me for a baby carrot when I was munching on them in the kitchen.  I gave him one.  He sort of ate it – but actually treated it like a chew toy.  So since he LOVES sticks in the backyard, I bought him a pound of carrot sticks.  A little wiggle and he sits right down to chew it up tail wagging to beat the band.  He eats about 2 bites and shreds the rest – which do end up in his food bowl later.  Is that not funny???image

11 comments:

Theresa said...

Okay, I'm jumping up and down in excitement for you! Congratulations on the lovely loom! My first ( and only ) foray( so far) into tapestry weaving was on the two frames the Barbara has that can mount vertically specifically to use that way. Without going to the website ad checking, I'm assuming you have two treadles. You'll like it. Had I not been so impatient to get the rest of the fabric weaving frames onto Barbara I might have stuck with it. I'll bet you've jumped way beyond the warping part and have sorts of ideas swirling around for a first piece. :-)
Shadow is just way too cute. My guys like carrots but eat them all up right away. The horses of course will do almost anything for a piece of carrot...

kaiteM said...

Carrot sticks are a lot safer for Shadow than tree sticks, a Vet told me once that a lot of dogs impale themselves ie their throats on sticks when they run with them. Sorry to be a party pooper!

The loom looks good, you'll have a lot of fun with that. cheers, K.

Jennifer said...

K - thanks for the info!

Theresa, thanks for the excitement! I do already have many ideas of what I will do on it. I have decided what would be first, but I've recently been distracted with another idea. They two don't work with the same dents on the warp - so which comes first!!! I'm hoping Shadow will take more and more to the carrots and it will become more of a chew toy that he eats rather than a stick he destroys. It's funny how compartmentalized he about his stuff!!!

Diane Horowitz said...

I love the new addition to your room of strings. I can't wait to see what comes next.

Thanks for the blogging advice. I also have problems putting pictures and text together in a timely fashion. I usually just give up in frustration. I already have both Picasa and Live Writer on my computer and will try to publish something today.

charlotte said...

Congratulations on the new loom! I guess I should try your method of blogging, publishing a post takes too much of my time as well.

Life Looms Large said...

Congrats on your new tapestry loom!! That's great!! Glad there was space for it in the room of strings.

It's also great that Shadow is good in the car.

Too funny about the carrot sticks. I used to feed Bailey baby carrots when I needed him to be good as a puppy. But now if I give him one, he chews it into bits and leaves it all over the floor. I guess now that teething is over, carrots have lost their allure for him.

I'm glad you found a solution to your photo/blogging questions. I've tried LiveWriter - and certainly heard the rave reviews about it from other bloggers. Might have to look at it again!

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this new loom! (No pressure though....sometimes a loom arrives before you're exactly ready for it! says Sue with her naked Toika loom idling since April.)

Sue

Jennifer said...

Thanks for celebrating with me about the new to me loom! I look forward to seeing what comes off of it, but I also know what I've got a lot to learn! So part of that will just be me taking the time to do it all!

Sue - Shadow does make quite a mess with the carrot sticks, but I do put them in his bowl and they get eaten over the next two meals. I think this loom has arrived before I'm complete ready for it! But it was too good of a deal to pass up - so while it may be a while before I'm inthe full swing with it - I think it will be well worth it in the long run!

Theresa said...

I forgot to mention, if you want Shadow to get the full nutritional benefit from carrots they need to be cooked Raw carrots are hard for dogs to digest, I think they travel right on through before breaking down completely since dogs have a pretty fast digestive tract. I often cook carrots or pumpkin for the dgs as a special treat in their food and for a sick dog who needs to eat something especially if getting meds, baby food is life saver. Bland, well cooked and they will usually eat at least a little of it.

Jennifer said...

Theresa - Thanks for the info - I did not know that. Really I was hoping to get fiber in him to hopefully help him not need to eat grass so much. There is an IAMS product that is essentially vege juice that's favored in dog friendly ways. I'll consider the cooked and puree...

lyn said...

Wow, Jennifer, congrats on the new loom! This must be the season for new-to-us loom acquisitions... I had my old 45" Tissart sold before the new-to-me 6 ft Shannock arrived & shortly after that sold a 7 ft triangle loom I am no longer going to use.

Here's a couple of hints for using your Tissart the first time (sharing from what I learned about mine). When warping, get a sturdy step stool to stand on & instead of using a hook to pull the warp through the reed, use an old credit card to push a loop of warp up through the reed. Much easier on the wrist. And, watch out for that beater... the first time I wove on mine, I discovered that the metal arms that control the beater aren't quite stable enough to keep the beater moving in a vertical plane without wobbling side to side. When I tried using it to beat my header, before the header was even an inch high it shredded 6 warps clean through until I finally realized what was going on. So I tied the beater assembly up permanently & the reed functioned as a warp spacer.

A great resource person for Tissarts is Tommye. She has a Tissart that she has woven on for a long time & she was so helpful when I had questions about mine.

Thanks for posting the info about Picasa. I have it, but didn't know it could do those things. This will make my posting easier, too. Don't you just love symbiotic relationships?

And, about those carrot sticks... our dogs have a tradition of doing the same thing with broccoli stalks! I gave a stalk to our first dog, a Rottie named Bear, when he was teething. I was cutting the broccoli up for dinner & he was watching with such fascination... I could see his puffy little red gums & thought that the nice cold broccoli stalk might feel really good, so I handed him the stalk & the rest is history! Heck, a little fiber never hurt anyone!

Lyn

Jennifer said...

Oh Lyn Thank you for the tips!!! I've heard from Tommye and I'll keep it all in mind. I've got a simple weaving that I think I'm going to do just to practice warping. I've just had to get some accessories made - i.e. warping board, etc.

Glad that Picasa may be of use to you. If you find something interesting on there, let us know!

Broccoli stalks... Hmmm... I'm not one who likes to eat the stalks so I've generally bought broccoli without them - if I did I felt like I was throwing away too much. But if Shadow will eat them... I'll try that soon! The fiber is actually why I'm doing it! Thanks again!