Another week flies by.

This has been another crazy week. Due to the impossibility of stopping up all the holes in the barn...including from below...since the woodchucks dig holes up into the barn.......we bought a 10'x14' metal shed to put the wood pellets in. After the first night, I thought my husband was going to "take the bridge", but after rereading the instructions, he decided to stick it out. His comment was, "I'm Irish, and if it takes me 6 months, I am going to get that "blankity-blank" together."
Today was day 4, and he had a helper for all 4 days, and he still has to put the door on. He says he has made mistakes, but it looks good to me. 956 bolts/screws whatever.....so he tells me. Sounds like a nightmare I had once.
Anyway, I was safe in the studio.......I declined to be his helper....smart woman, eh?
And I had orders to finish, and orders to start.....so that was that.
I am still waiting on a crank for my newest loom acquisition, another Union Custom. I may try to put a warp on this week without the crank.....I just can't wait.
I had a student this week, Candy, and she was a quick study.....easy to teach, and eager to be a weaver......an eager weaver? Yup......she was loving it, you can always tell when someone has been bitten by the weaving bug. She was getting herself all set up so she could do it all herself. She made a rug, and it looked great. She is off to a fine start. I can just imagine what she will be weaving a year from now!
She will be coming by one of these days to watch me warp sectionally, since her loom has a sectional beam, and it is my favorite way to put a warp on. I bet it will be hers, too.
Visit her blog, see her rug, and even find out how to make vanilla extract......I was amazed.....I never knew! I am going to have to try that one.
That is one of the perks of teaching weaving....I get to meet the nicest, most interesting people.
After all, they are going to be weavers, so it only makes sense.

Here it is September already, leaving me wondering what happened to summer.
I have a resident raccoon in the barn, who has decided to open EVERY bag of wood pellets, just to see if perhaps there might be something ELSE in the bag that he might like. The Havaheart is set with grape jelly, and let's hope that he has a sweet tooth. I don't have any particular dislike for raccoons, except when I have $1000 invested in wood pellets, and that changes everything.
I just bought the pellet stove, and the pellets, so that this winter I wouldn't cringe every time the furnace starts up, which by the way sounds like an old VW starting up in the cellar.

I am busy putting gumball rug kits together. I am pretty excited about this.........enough sock seconds from Sol Mate Socks cut into strips, toe clips, warp, and instructions, to make 2 (2'x3') gumball rugs. I sent out 5 kits today, which proves to me that other weavers are like me, they can't resist color and texture in a rug.
After my whirlwind trip to the UPS center, which has convinced me to get my own UPS account.......I met my friend Alice at the Feeder Dam, and we put our kayaks in the Hudson and paddled away. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the water was like silk, and there was just a slight breeze. It was awesome, and I totally needed the break.
Sometimes I forget just how hard I work.

I am guilty of working too much, has been a character defect of mine for quite some time.........but I do consciously try to modify that behavior. I recently did something that I have been saying I wanted to do for a long time, but somehow never got around to. I bought a kayak. My friend, Alice, and I went to Dick's Sporting Goods and bought kayaks together. True, we didn't have a clue about what we were buying, but apparently we aren't accomplished enough kayakers for that to matter a great deal.
We've been out twice, both times on the Hudson. Today, we paddled 6 miles down to Feeder Dam, and back up. I am exhausted, but it feels good. And it especially feels good to finally do it, after I have talked about it for so long. As I was driving home, with the windows down, with my orange and yellow kayak strapped to the top of my car, the sun was behind me, the kayak appeared in shadow ahead of me as I was going down the road. I couldn't stop smiling.

Just concluded a weaving weekend at the studio. I LOVE this house. It has an ambience that is hard to explain. Maybe it is all the years of living that it has seen, I don't know. I only know that it feels good to be here.
Judy was my student and weaving companion for the weekend. She arrived Friday night, and started right in weaving. I set her to work on the Leclerc studio loom that was already warped. I gave her simple instructions on throwing the shuttle, and advancing the warp, and left her to it, just to get the feel of it.
I made pasta........whole wheat penne with sundried tomatoes, feta cheese, fresh basil, garlic and olive oil. With a great green salad. We had a late dinner, and went to bed........she had a long trip here, and I had a long week!
Saturday we cut the warp off the Leclerc, and she began to wind her own warp. We didn't put a long warp on, I think sometimes that it isn't necessary to put on a long warp in order to know how to do it, and then I don't have to feel guilty about weaving it off, or not. So she put a short warp on the loom, got it all beamed on, threaded, and sleyed. It was a red boucle warp. She used a purple variegated thread for the weft, and did plain weave with stripes of twill. She made a runner that turned out to be at least 3 ft long. It is beautiful.........I said, "WOW".......either you are a really good student, or I am a great teacher.....we decided that both could be true!
We cleaned up and went out to dinner with my husband and my mother, and then to a show....."Footloose" at the Charles Wood Theatre....by the Adirondack Childrens' Theater group......it was very good. Long day, we were exhausted.
Sunday....today.....she wove a rug.....yes, an entire rug......made from loopers.....a gumball rug....about 2'x3', and she did another awesome job.
She tried a little spinning.....but I think after all that weaving, her heart wasn't in it.
We ate Mexican......and once again.....we are beat.
Where did this weekend go??? The time flew by, I enjoyed teaching her to weave......and I hope that she enjoyed her weekend at Crazy as a Loom.

Mimi's Vintage Rag Rugs

Quite some time ago, I acquired a stash of fabric on bolts......prints from Joann's......nice cottons in lots of bright colors. I cut it into strips with my Eastman Chickadee cutter, each no more than 24" long, some shorter, then set out to sew them all back together randomly. I roll them into balls, and put a colorful warp on the loom, red, light green, turquoise, purple, lilac, orange, yellow, and bright blue.
The rugs that are woven with this fabric are Mimi's Vintage Rag Rugs. They are modern day "hit n' miss"........instead of using bits and pieces of old worn out clothes, I use leftover fabric, the brighter the better.
I have cut my strips thinner and thinner, so they are lightweight rugs, much like the antique rugs that I have.
The whole process is a lot of work, but I think the result is worth it, and in fact, I think these are my favorite woven rugs.
It is amazing though, how quickly I have gone through the shelves of fabric that I thought would last for a year.

Today I took the day off from the studio, even though I have lots and lots to do there. I am trying to put more balance in my life, and two grandsons, Nevinn who is 10, and Logan who is 8, are definitely inspiration for that endeavor.
They had asked me if they could go to the "maze".....which in fact isn't a maze at all, but a labyrinth.
We drove over to Harmony, in Comstock, NY, a nature sanctuary run by my dear friends Bonnie and Robin. When we got there, they took off down the path into the meadow, which was over their heads in a yellow blaze of flowers. I took my time, and enjoyed the quiet, the scenery, and eventually found a bench by a babbling brook, where I sat and waited for them to slow down. After a while, they did, and we went to the labyrinth. I entered it, and purposely began my walk, and I said to them, "Come in, and walk the path, and don't jump from one lane to another, and while you are walking, I want you to see if you can figure out what it means." Nevinn said, "I don't get it." They kept walking. I said, "Keep thinking." Finally, Logan said, "Mimi, I know what it means".....I said, "You do? What then?" He said, " It is where you find the center of your heart"..............I gasped. Then I smiled, and said, "Yes, Loge, you are exactly right, it is."
Some things are, in fact, priceless.

gumball rugs

I have a new rug on my web site...on the first page......and I am calling it a "gumball rug". It is a pretty neat rug, if I do say so myself. So far, I have a pile of 2'x3' rugs.....that is approximate...some of them are a little longer. They are made from recycled socks, not just the toe clips that most "looper" rugs are made of, but the whole sock. I cut the sock seconds, the ones with little mistakes, into 1" sections. I start at the toe, cut that off.....and then just cut the sock into as many pieces as I can, each piece being a circle. Then these circle pieces, which I call sock clips,are looped together, with the toe clips(2 or 3 looped together) appearing every so often......about every 7 or 8 sock clips. They they are woven on a brilliantly colored warp that matches the socks. These rugs are soft and cushy....they are great in kids' rooms, bathrooms, or just about anywhere. They are all alike, and yet all different, does that make sense?
It is a great use of these sock seconds, that would otherwise be a huge waste product.
I love making new things out of old things, or things you wouldn't expect. I also love using things for other than they were intended, rather than throwing them out.
Today I bought some antique rugs.......from a very nice old gentleman who came to my door, because he thought I would be interested. And of course, he was right. I was. So now, I have to decide how to clean them, and then how to save them. Some of them are OK, and others are not. Some can be cut down to make smaller rugs, and a couple can be rewoven. The colors are great in them, and the fabric was cut so thin, they are great rugs. I so admire the way they were woven, and think that once someone sat at the loom weaving them, much like I sit and weave all day in my studio. Interesting.

weaving for money

This winter I had the opportunity to weave for someone else. It was to be an ongoing job, of weaving rugs with someone else's materials. They would sell them, and I wouldn't have to worry about the marketing. It sounded easy, and it sounded like it would be a good thing.......
Fast forward many, many rugs later........weeks of shipping out 20, 30, 40, even 60 rugs. And before that could be done, there was preparation.......warping the loom, getting the weft ready, weaving, tyeing fringe, packing, paperwork. Rugs that started out to be quite attractive, eventually became drudge.
I always try to be open to the lesson, and believe me, there is one here.
The job is no more......just the way things turned out......and I have learned that I don't want to weave like that. I don't want to weave for money. I want to weave and know that I am doing what I love.
It seems that you are never too old to learn a lesson.

Feb28th,2008

Wow, it has been a long, cold, snowy winter. I am tired of paying the oil man, and the guy that plows the driveway.
Heating a house built 200+ years ago is a contstant challenge, one I am afraid I have not completely figured out yet. The furnace sounds like a Volkswagen taking off every time it runs, which is often. Someone is always suggesting that I put insulation in the walls, and they look at me strangely when I tell them that there is NO space in the walls to put insulation. The walls are board on board, with lathe and plaster on top of that, so all in all the walls are very thick, but solid. It is not a typical studded construction, but rather a true post and beam. Most of the windows are original, and even though there are storms on them, they are drafty.
I dress differently at the studio than I do at home. If you keep moving, it is fine, but if you stop, you need a sweater, or a fleece.
I have been weaving things I want to weave, blue jean rugs, placemats, hit and miss rugs, selvedge rugs...........my biggest problem some days is which loom to weave on.....life is tough.
I have been battling with low back pain, and I have been taking note of how my back feels after weaving on each loom. I have come to realize that the relationship of the height of the bench to the height of the loom is crucial to whether or not I feel like I have been beaten up after a day of weaving. And you can be sure I am going to address the results.
Kismet and Miss Puss are tired of winter, they don't have the run of the house when it is so cold......the upstairs is mostly kept shut off, and they don't like it. Today I went upstairs just to check everything, and they followed me up there. ........since they aren't allowed outdoors, the whole house is their world. Now they spend alot of time sitting on the Toika bench, watching the bird feeder .......which I call Kitty HBO.
Kismet is sweet and lovable, despite being wild for the first 4 months of his life, but when he hears someone drive in, he runs and hides inside an old desk that I use, climbing up into the drawer from the back. Then he comes out if it's someone he knows, and if not, he waits til whoever it is leaves. Miss Puss on the other hand, prefers to follow people around if they come in, but doesn't like to be picked up, and will only tolerate head scratching.........she is NOT sweet and lovable by a long stretch, although she does keep close tabs on me.
I decided to do my baking at the studio.....since I am there more than I am home......and besides chocolate chip cookies smell so good!
I was going to make sourdough bread, until I realized that my sourdough starter was 23 years old.....but that's another story.

Kitty update

When I caught Kismet's mother in the Havaheart trap, I thought it was a good thing. It would be company for him, who at 4 months old thereabouts, would be lonely in my big old house. But it didn't turn out that way. Karma, which is what I called the momma cat, was a true feral cat. She stayed under the bed most of the time, and when I rousted her out, she was wild. I went in the room and sat there, talking to her, trying to get her used to me. But to no avail. She threw herself at the windows, and I have honestly never seen a cat jump that high. I read that manx cats had powerful back haunches, and now I believe it. But the worst of it was that Kismet changed. He had been coming to me when I called, and letting me hold him, and obviously enjoyed my company. But with his feral mother there, he began to return to those wild ways. I couldn't get close to him anymore, and when I did corner him, and tried to pick him up, he scratched me. Eventually, I saw that it was going downhill at an incredible rate of speed.
One morning I went to the studio, went upstairs to feed Karma, and she flipped out, jumping at the windows again. Then she looked at me, and the look in her eyes was terrible. I realized that she was miserable, and that even though it seemed to me that "taming" her was in her best interest, it was obvious that she did not agree.
So I shut Kismet in the dining room. I opened the door where she was, I opened the back door in the kitchen, and I made some noise. She ran out, down the stairs, and right out the back door. I haven't seen her since. But I feed her on the porch every day, and the food is gone every day. And she is fixed so she can't have more babies. I did what I could for her. And I will continue to feed her, and make a place for her in the barn.
And Kismet, the very next day, came to me and let me hold him. That was 6 days ago. Now, he is all over me, playing, looking for affection, and giving it back. He appears happy and he is growing in leaps and bounds.
Hard as it was, I think that my decision was the right one......for Karma, and for Kismet, too. And once again in this world, I accept my limitations.

kitties

I have long been concerned about homeless animals. It bothers me a great deal that there are so many dogs and cats in the shelters, and not enough people who will open their hearts and their homes to take an animal in. So, as luck would have it, a feral cat decided to have kittens in my barn. Of course, they are very clever, and I didn't know about them til the kittens, two of them, managed to get big enough to dart here and there in the yard. Because they were manx kittens, with no tails, and I had seen this white female with no tail, I realized that they were a family of three. I fed them on the back porch for awhile, but I knew that this was hardly enough to do. My studio is on a main highway, and the momma kitty was going to get pregnant again, and it would be neverending.
So I put out the Havaheart trap, baited with a can of cat food. The very first night I caught the little tiger kitten that I had seen first. He was terrified, of course. I covered the cage with fabric, and took him to the vet, where he was neutered, dewormed, treated for fleas, tested for leukemia, given rabies shots, and given back to me. I was totally surprised to find, that at 4 months thereabouts, he was scared, but not mean. He didn't scratch, or bite. Within a week, he was coming to me when I mewed to him, and at two weeks, he is playing under the loom, following me from room to room, and generally taking over the house. What a cutie he is! I named him Kismet, which means fate, or destiny, because it certainly does seem that he was meant to be where he is now.
So three days ago, I caught his mother. She is another story altogether. Once again, she went to the vets, was spayed, and received all the rest of the treatment. And yes, it was expensive, but the veterinarian gave me a 30% "good citizen" discount. And I figure this to be my contribution to the plight of homeless animals, at least it is what I can do in my own community.
So I brought her home, and she has not come out from under the bed, except when I leave the room, then she eats and uses the litter box. I have kept them separated until today. When I left the studio today, I left the bedroom door open, and gave her access to the hall and two rooms downstairs, with Kismet. Of course, he was immediately investigating. Maybe he will get her to come out. I resisted the urge to go check on them, I think they will figure it out.
I have done a lot of googling about feral cats, and I guess this could go either way. She may calm down, and she may come around, and then again she may be miserable as a house cat, and she may need to be released. I am going to give it awhile, and see what happens. I am going to let her decide, after she has had a chance to scope it out. I know she is terrified right now, but I also know that her life outside is not an easy one.
The trap is still set, trying for the sibling, a little grey kitten with no tail.
But so far, no luck. I have trapped the neighbor's cat, a woodchuck, and chased away a German Shepherd who thought he could fit in there.
I told Kismet today that eventually he would be in charge of mice patrol. He didn't seem all that interested.

Finally, I am back.....really back. I had a total knee replacement on March 5th. I won't go into the details......and I won't us this forum to express my very strong feelings about it, but if anyone out there wants to hear more about my not so nice experience with it, I would be happy to answer any emails....especially if it is to help someone make the decision to have or not have the surgery....or to encourage someone who has already had it........
The recovery was much longer and harder than I thought. I was exhausted, in a lot of pain, and I hardly could bring myself to go to the studio, much less weave. Then, because I couldn't bend my knee, I had to go back to the hospital and have my knee manipulated under general anesthesia. l
Then, as luck would have it, my gallbladder decided to finally take a dive.....and I had my gallbladder out. Actually, it was a walk in the park compared to the knee surgery. But it was surgery, nonetheless.
So here I am, almost 4 months later, and I am feeling like my old self, at last. I am back at the studio, and weaving like crazy.
One thing that happened because of all this is that I had a lot of time to think. And it occurred to me, that I had let myself wander away from what I had originally planned would be my focus in the studio. I started out wanting to weave rag rugs. That was it. Nothing else. But somewhere along the way, I found myself stocking the studio with spinning fibers, and some yarn, and some gift items. Then I did different classes in fiber arts other than weaving. And I dedicated part of the house to retail. None of this, unfortunately, made me very happy.
When I started feeling better a few weeks ago, I knew that the first thing I wanted to do was change all that. I wanted to get rid of everything that wasn't weaving related. I don't want retail to run my life. I want to have a working studio, and I want to weave custom rugs, and rugs to sell on my web site, and at occasional shows. When I am there, I put the flag out, and if people want to come in and look around, and maybe buy rag rugs, that is fine. But all the rest of it, well, it just isn't for me.
It is incredible what a relief it is to finally realize that. Some of the roving and a spinning wheel left today......and hopefully in no time, it will all be gone, and I will have rearranged the entire studio to reflect what I want to do, and what I am about. My friend, Sheila, says that the universe is speaking to me, and you know what......I am listening.

Time to clean

One of the things that I have discovered is that weaving can be very messy. I have fabric all over the studio, as I search for the right color combination, and have piles of stuff all over. And then there is the dust. So occasionally, I have to stop. Can't weave today. Have to CLEAN today. Because my mind is as cluttered as my surroundings at times like these, and there is no fix but to interrupt my weaving marathon, and take matters into hand.
So today, I started.....I would not let myself even go near a loom. I swept, I organized, I picked up, and I even mopped. I got TWO rooms in ship shape. There are more rooms, and more to do, but at least I have started.
On the Toika right now: 4 x 6 Adirondack lodge rugs. Two, maybe three, more to go, then a lavender rug for a custom order.
And all the while I am weaving on the Toika, I am looking around at the other looms, standing there quiet. It is just not right, why CAN'T I weave on more than one loom at a time.

The shop is full .........rug hooking wool, monk's cloth, frames, supplies; needle felting kits and supplies, lots of books, yarn and knitting kits, roving in merino, tussah, ingeo, alpaca.........knitting needles, Denise knitting needle kits, some beautiful wool kits from Fleece Artist. And of course, rugs! Lots of rugs.......cotton blends, and Adirondack lodge rugs, North Creek bath mats, and placemats, anywhere mats, mug mats, rag bags, beach bags, table runners. And some scarves, shawls, and HATS, lots of hats.
It is looking good, if I do say so myself.

We are in the middle of a blizzard. And I went to the studio today to weave. It was marvelous.....listened to music, worked all day on the Toika, made 2 big rugs.........then I looked outside and realized how much it had snowed. So I packed up my stuff, and tried to leave. Unfortunately, it wasn't happening. My car is stuck in the drive way. My husband said, "didn't you look out the window while you were weaving???"
Hmm.....don't think he understands. I don't need to look out the window when I am weaving.

Toika

People are always asking me how long I have been weaving. The answer always surprised them, they think I have been weaving since I was a toddler. Actually, I came to weaving pretty late, several years ago, after I had raised my children.
Once I learned to weave though, I was committed to it. I couldn't get enough of it. I bought looms and material and equipment, and finally, the house! Now I have a 2600 square foot house, with 13 looms set up, tons of fabric, and my biggest problem is which loom to weave on.
Well, not really. I still have to work as an RN 2, 3 4 shifts a week. Have to pay the bills. That is my biggest problem, because it takes me away from the studio, which is where I really want to be.
Right now, I am attached to this Toika. It weaves, actually I weave on it, a rug 7 ft wide. I have had the loom a year, and I have wanted to sell it several times. It annoyed me, and confounded me. I didn't like it, and it didn't like me. But I kept getting orders for bigger rugs, so I found myself weaving on it anyway. With help from my daughter, Morgan, I became acquainted with this loom. I had a sectional beam put on it. I put all new Texsolv heddles on it to replace the saggy string heddles that came on it. I made a list of all the things I had done wrong on the first big rug that came off it. I studied the sheds, and finally got decent ones. And I got more orders, and realized that this Toika was paying the heat bill, and the taxes, and was actually doing more for me than all my other looms combined. Somehow, we got to know each other, and I can honestly say that now, I love the Toika. She is my friend, and I wouldn't part with her. My neighbor came in and said.....you are ALWAYS weaving on that loom!!! And she was right.

I have finally decided to start a blog.....yay....I have entered the present day...I am no longer computer illiterate.....well, at least in my opinion. So this is where I will enter my daily ramblings about the life of a weaver......me. Here at Crazy as a Loom Weaving Studio in Kingsbury, N.Y. My dream come true. Stay tuned.