At the studio.

Remember the mess in the barn....in the looper room?
My daughter helped me clean it on Sunday.

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So I am ready for the shipment that I am getting in a few days.....so it won't look this bare for long.

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I tried to get some computer work done today. I had help.

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Finished an order......

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When a customer came in today and was looking at rugs, Sydney insisted on helping...........again.

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Everywhere you turn, there are "Hip to Be Square Looper Looms".......not quite ready. I am waiting for hooks, packaging, my brander......This has turned into a lot of work, folks. But I am still thinking positive. And I will email everyone on my list, as soon as they are ready to ship.

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I like to sit at the kitchen table in the evening, with my sewing machine.
This one is for the girl in the summer dress. She doesn't like pink.

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My loom arrived today. It is in pieces and parts, and putting it together will be an experience.
Here is the bench, you can see that it is well crafted.

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I am so busy this summer. The days fly by. I have no idea how I ever worked all those years as a nurse. I absolutely do not have time for it.

Summer fun.

Summer is for fun.

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For not worrying about anything.

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Flip flops and sundresses.

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Laughing with people you love.

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Aren't friends wonderful?

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Do you remember those days....

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Does anything ever compare to this?

Happy Birthday

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Friday was my middle daughter's birthday, but we didn't celebrate it until Saturday.
And we opted for simple.
Family. Potato Salad. Macaroni salad. Homemade guacamole. Tossed salad. Corn on the cob.
A ginger edamame salad made by Morgan, that was to die for.
I'll have to get her to give me the recipe....she made it up, I hope she remembers!

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Burgers. Hot dogs. A white cake with peanut butter frosting, made by Mom, and ordered by the birthday girl herself.
And presents, of course.
Some people were beside themselves with excitement.

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In fact, some people remind the rest of us what is the most important. Loving each other. Being together. Laughing. Talking. Celebrating family, feelings that last.

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After the hectic week, it was joyful to be with them.
When my daughters were growing up, three of them almost 7 years apart, people used to say....."oh, they won't be close when they grow up, too many years between them."
Well, that is so not true.
They are as close as any sisters you have ever known.
When they talk, they anticipate what the other is going to say next. The way they look at each other, their secret little jokes, their nitpicking, their genuine emotion.....they are three peas in a pod, even grown up. In fact, more so, than when they were growing up.
Sometimes I look in the mirror, and say good GAWD, how did I get this old??? Where DID my looks go???
But then......I look at these faces I love so much.......

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and I don't care one whit about how I look.
It took me all these years to get here, to get them.
Success has many faces.
I love the face of mine.

In the groove

Oh, to be back to normal. This has been a busy summer, makes me long for October.

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I love these rugs. The colors are so soft and soothing.

While I was gone, my basil was going to seed. So when you are about to lose your basil, you make pesto. I washed it, and had it sitting in the colander in the sink. My husband warned me that I needed to do something with it fast. He hates basil, and the smell was making him crazy.
It isn't pretty, but oh, it is marvelous.

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It is so easy to make. I just threw the basil and some olive oil, some pine nuts, some parmesan cheese, and big, fresh cloves of garlic into the blender.
Then I pour it into ice cube trays, and as soon as it is frozen solid, I popped them out, and put the pesto cubes into a gallon zip lock bag.

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Now I know I don't need another loom, but seriously, folks, when did that ever stop me?
And this time, it isn't my fault. I didn't search the loom out, it found me.
I was about to leave the studio today, and the phone rang. It was an amazing call. An offer for a loom, a FREE loom.
OMG, heart be still.
So tonight, after dinner, my husband and I went to look at it, only 12 miles away. The gentleman on the phone had told me that his father had made the loom 30 years ago. So I was kind of expecting a somewhat primitive loom. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
The man that built this loom was an artisan, pure and simple.
The loom is apart, but from what I could see, it is an 8 harness, 10 treadle jack, 48" wide, with a high castle. There is a bench, a warping board, and more. The man who owns it, and his wife, are moving to Florida, and want someone to have the loom, someone who will use it.
Now .......where to put it?????
I am so excited. I think I will be getting it next Monday or Tuesday. I only hope I can get it all put together.

Now I need your help.
When I make the placemats with the fringe-y sides, I trim the edges off. I have been saving the bits and pieces that I trim off, and now I am racking my poor brain, trying to figure out what to do with them.......zero waste, ya' know.
Someone suggested using them for stuffing, but I want to use them for something that showcases all the wonderful, bright colors.
So what do you think? Any ideas?

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It has been a long day, and a longer week. Tomorrow is two rugs, in white, off white, and light terracotta.

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I am so easy to please sometimes.

I'm back.....kinda.

I have been crazy busy, and away from home for the last 5 days.....I missed posting, but it just wasn't possible.
Family emergency, you could say. A place I needed to be, things I needed to do. Priorities.
My children are my priorities, and have been since they were born.
My family.
My husband, my mom.
Three daughters, two grandsons, and two granddaughters.
They keep me grounded. They keep me from weaving all night, and from working 24 hours a day. My gene pool would have me doing that.
But they pull me back from the brink, each in their own ways, with the things that they need, the things that I want to do with them, and for them.
Family.
A good thing.
I love them more than I can say.
And everything is OK, working out exactly the way it is supposed to.
You should be hearing a big sigh on this end. A really big sigh.
They say that blood is thicker than water. But it isn't blood, it's love.

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One grandson, and one granddaughter, sorting and cleaning loopers for the upcoming kits.
Somehow today, when we got back to the studio, and they were in the barn with me, I felt the presence of the circle that they made.
Speaking of gene pools.
Today is my Dad's birthday. I missed him today.
And out of the blue, a memory came.
Some of my family on my mother's side was coming from England for a vacay.....they were coming into Kennedy Airport. I needed a way to get me, and 5 of them, back from New York City to upstate New York, a good 5 hour trip. They weren't going to fit in my car.
My father had a van, an old conversion van, that ran pretty well. He offered it for the trip, but said we needed to go out in it, so that I could drive it, and get used to it, first.
So we did.
Somewhere along the way, he made it clear that if the van was going to NYC, he was going with it. I hadn't considered that.
On our test drive, on a perfectly nice May day, he had the heater blasting. The sweat was pouring down my face. He was cold.
The country music was blasting from speakers in every corner. He was deaf.
When we finally got back, I vowed to myself that there was no way I was driving 5 hours down and 5 hours back, under those conditions, even if the van was free.
And I didn't.
I rented a Ford Windstar, and drove it to NYC without my father and his insufferable heater, and his annoying country music.
Today, on what would have been his 88th birthday, I look at a picture of him, sitting on my front lawn. Big coke bottle glasses, a shock of bright white hair, his signature white tee shirt, and a dazed look.
Today, if I could, I would drive across the country with my father, in his conversion van, sweaty and singing country songs all the way.

Good thing

It's insane, I tell ya.
Dyeing, cutting, winding, sewing, making more and more and more weft.
Why is this nuts, you ask? Well, because I already have more weft than I will weave if I live to be 100.

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But it's the color and the texture and the endless possibilities that get me going.

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It's like crack to a weaver, let me tell ya.
I am so not in control of this obsession. Don't tell, OK?

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I have told you before that my father was a junk man. Tis true. He couldn't stop himself. He just kept bringing more and more of it home, until finally my mother moved into the back of the house, had a kitchen made, and stopped actually living with him. He lived in the front, and she in the back. That's what his obsession did.

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So I suppose it is a good thing that I don't actually LIVE at the studio, as in sleep there and stay 24/7.
Or perhaps, my husband would be moving ME into the back of the house.

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This way, my 5000 lbs of fabric, 13 looms, 7000 lbs of socks, and other various and sundry items, don't drive my husband to drastic measures.
Whew.

Say hi to Sydney

Whatcha doin'?????

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This is the face that watches me ALL DAY LONG.
I am serious.
She follows me from room to room, on her short little legs, she lays above the loom, below the loom, on the nearest bench, anywhere close enough to 'see' me. She follows me into the bathroom............every time.
I want ya to tell me how you can resist this face? How could anyone???

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She's fat, she knows it. She doesn't care. She is SO comfortable in her own skin, she could teach us all a lot.

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She makes me smile.
Sometimes, she makes me laugh out loud.
And she is great company, she hangs on my every word.

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Oh, Sydney Sue, I am so glad you came into my life. You are a sweet, sweet girl.
It was miserably hot and humid today, even with the rain. I wasn't my usual perky self.
I did a little of this, and a little of that.
Some of this.

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And NO, Sydney, I don't think exercising is going to do much for you at this point.

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Besides, I love you just the way you are.

I hear ya callin'.

I told you that loom was calling to me. I heard it loud and clear.
So I wove this up this morning.
It is 27"x65".

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In the interest of weight loss and good health, I have been eating lots of good things, and not too many not so good things.
This is one of my new 'favorite' things. I LOVE it on cereal. It comes in a vanilla flavor, but I prefer the original.

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It isn't that I am trying to give up dairy along with meat.......but I am somewhat curtailing the 'amount' of dairy that I consume.........some things, like milk in my tea, and feta cheese on my salad, well ya know, they just aren't going anywhere.
I've had this order to do for a couple of weeks now. I have been putting it off, mostly because I couldn't 'see it'. The customer described what they wanted, almost in too much detail, and I just got totally confused. Finally I emailed them, and they called me, and we talked about it some more.
And I got some fabrics cut.
Then this is what happens.

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Yup, you got it. A big, fat mess.
But this is how I work. In the middle of it all, I will be off digging through more fabric, for just the right piece, the right color, the one I need and don't have nearby.
So, 29x60, mostly red, with some blue, some orange, some yellow, bright, but blended, not striped..................................ta da.

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I sure hope they like it.
So for a few days, anyway, I am orderless. Not a bad thing, because it gives me time to do other stuff, time to play, time to come up with new ideas. It's a good thing.
For right now, I think I will mosey on over to my dish towel warp. It is just too hot to do anything else.

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Listening

I was so busy today, that I didn't have lunch until 2pm. That was after I managed to refrain from having hot dogs from the Dog Shack on my trip to the bank and the post office.
I haven't eaten meat in over a year. But hot dogs, well, despite what the evidence says, they just aren't meat in my book. Don't tell me any different. I am not listening...
You know the deal......nananananana.
And the hot dogs from the Dog Shack.......dear Lord, they are addictive.
But I didn't have them.
I got myself back to the studio, and had this instead.

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It was delish, too. I completely almost forgot about the hot dogs.

While I have been weaving placemats out of the toe ends of Solmate Socks, I have been stressing about having enough of them looped to make 4 matching placemats. Then the socklady said something to me in an email, and the light went on. Duh.
If you are familiar with the socks that produce the sock waste that I make rugs and placemats and potholders out of, you know that their motto is, "because life is too short for matching socks". You can see them HERE.
So, she suggested that I make mismatched placemats. Oh, heart be still.
It doesn't take much to get me going, obviously.

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And this, of course, takes the worry out of trying to match them. In fact, it will be the most fun of all to NOT match them.
On the potholder front, the bags came today. I am waiting on the brander, to mark each loom on the side, and I went to the printer today to get the header card started.
But then, something else occurred to me.
What about this???

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With a ball of thinly cut fabric, one could make sweet little squares that could then be sewn into bags, quilts, or anything else you could imagine.
I have to think more on this one.
I guess I should get this project on track before I go off on another tangent.
But tangents are such fun.

I want to thank everyone for all the suggestions of names for this little loom. They were great. You are an incredibly prolific bunch, and I totally appreciate your input.
But like I said, when it rings true, it rings LOUD.
The right name practically JUMPED off the page......I could hardly stand it. When I read it to my husband, even though he had suggested his own creation, he knew this one was right.
So thank you, Martha. I couldn't email you back, because your email wasn't available.
And though there were several I really liked a lot, yours was perfect.
So.........
Crazy as a Loom is proud to present the "Hip to Be Square Looper Loom". Using recycled wood, this 9" loom is made just for the looper waste from Solmate Socks. It doesn't get any greener.

I have the "list" of all of you who want one, and as soon as they are branded, and packaged, I will send out an email to you, and give you payment options.
And again, if you ask me a question, I can't answer you if your email isn't available.
Sylvia.....email me with your address, and I will get a price for shipping to Germany.

UPDATE: You all heard me kvetching about my experience with Prilosec, and the months of rebound reflux that made my life hell when I stopped taking the Prilosec. Well, 4 months later, my body has adjusted. My stomach is happy. My colon is happy. I don't have any more reflux. I sleep better. I feel better. I am not bloated and sluggish. I did it. I got OFF Prilosec, and it didn't kill me. But more than that, I was right. I didn't need it. It was making me feel awful. I listened to my 'gut', no pun intended, and got the truth. Just so you know. Doctors aren't always right.

I should probably mow the lawn tomorrow, but I think there's a loom calling. You hear it, right?

They're HERE!!!!

Oh, yeah, this is what I'm talking about.

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I picked up the first two dozen today.
I am trying to decide.........stain them? or leave them au naturel?

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I would love to hear your feedback.
I have the list of all of you who want one of these large potholder looms, and as soon as I get the packaging figured out, you will all get one.
They are $29.95 each, and that includes enough loopers to make EIGHT of the large potholders,
which look like this.

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I think for shipping the medium flat rate box will work, and that is $10.70.
I am very excited to get these out there, but there is work to be done. I ordered the gusseted plastic bags, and now I have to get a header card made, that gets stapled over the top.

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Might take a couple of weeks to get it all done, but I'm on it.
You knew that, right?
I stayed 'too long at the fair', so they say, and now I am beat. But I can still dream.