Making Little Waves!

There is a thread in Ravelry's Warped Weavers group called OLAD Strikes Again.  OLAD, or Obsessive Loom Acquisition Disorder, is something that apparently strikes weavers.  We seem to have a need to add more looms to the herd - more than we can ever weave on. Whilst browsing the Warped Weavers Marketplace, yet another group dedicated to acquisition and destashing of looms and equipment, I came across an ad for a Gilmore Mini-Wave.  The Wave looms are primarily warp-faced band looms.  They can be used for inkle, card or tablet, band and bead weaving.  I've had my eye on the Mini-Wave, but I really had no use for one as I have two inkle looms already.  But there was one in the Marketplace, looking like it needed a new home...  And so she's mine!

Gilmore Mini-Wave Loom

She arrived on Friday - a long teaching day for me.  George brought her to the shop around lunchtime, but I couldn't do more than look her over.  Saturday and Sunday were pretty much devoted to the Kid N Ewe fiber festival in Boerne, but I did think about a first project for her.  I've been looking at the Josephine Knot design in The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory.  It's done in a technique that might not fit so nicely on the Mini-Wave - at least not for a first project.  I used the same chart in a different technique and added little green and gold cables to the side, and classic inkle bars on the outside.  I opted for fall colors - again, because I love them and it's what I had in my stash.

After only a couple of tries, I got the project warped on.  The little loom takes some getting used to.  Also, the green Perle 5 cotton I used for the braid pattern wasn't as thick as I thought it would be.  I had to unweave, untie, unbeam, and add doubled threads for the pattern.  That could have been a disaster, but it worked out okay.  I got the loom set back up again and took off.  I've decided I love this little loom!  She'll probably be my inkle loom of choice.  I'm not a huge band weaver, but I do enjoy some pick-up work.

And here's the band in progress:

Celtic Braid Band

It will probably be made into a small bag to be attached to an narrower inkle band I wove a couple of years ago.  I'll use it at work to hold my badge, phone and other small items that I always seem to need.

But I'm really looking at a huge computerized loom...

Weaving Like A Celt Yet Again!

Weaving like a Celt is apparently something we do quite a bit.  The 2013 Austin Celtic Festival has come and gone and we have a mostly-finished tartan on the loom, a full bobbin of spun yarn and lots of happy memories!

This is the first year we've used the rug and bench pads - I barely got them finished in time.  Here is the booth set up and ready to go on Saturday morning:

George and the Booth

I am SO glad I made the pads, especially, as we were much more comfortable this year than we have been in the past.  I now need to finish the bench pads for my studio weaving benches.  Here's a close-up of the spinning wheel and its rug:

Now add one spinner and you get this!

We were especially fortunate to have Cassandra with us on Saturday.  This may be her last demonstration with us as she's moving on with her life.  On Sunday, we had two friends come who innocently thought they were going to drop by to see us and then enjoy the rest of the Festival.  They stayed and worked almost all day!  Chris worked the loom and Patrick the spinning wheel, freeing me up to do presentations.  Such a luxury!  Thanks to both of you!

So now I have to come down off my cloud and get back to work, both the day job and the studio.  Although I don't have photos of it, the tartan is coming out beautifully.  I adore the Maine Line 2/20 and will probably use it extensively in the future.