Visiting Disney - Part III

Animal Kingdom

Tree of Life

Day two of our Disney trek was at Animal Kingdom.  Again, I was surprised at how crowded the park was.  I think this was because of what has functionally become a fall version of Spring Break, but I'm not sure.  Animal Kingdom was where I saw the most changes, and the most that I'm sorry were made.  It's always been my favorite of the parks, and it's lost something of its charm. However, some good changes have happened, and there are some really FUN things to do here!

Detail from the Tree of Life

 How can you not love Discovery Island and the Tree of Life? They have several cast members interpreting animals, which is wonderful.  They're very knowledgeable and very personable.  We loved chatting with them! There are also wonderful little paths that take off and wind around.  They're often empty, even on the busiest days, as people tend to run straight to their favorite rides or such. We even managed to get in a little smooching in some of the quiet places! Gasp!!

Kangaroo seen from one of the little trails

 After exploring Discovery Island, we crossed the bridge into Africa.  I LOVE to pretend that I'm really crossing into a small (and very crowded!) African village.

African Drummers

I love these African drummers.  They've held a special place in my heart ever since our second trip to Disney. I found one of those wonderful places to get away from the crowds and was sketching a stairway when into the courtyard they came!  I didn't realize that their "escape" was through a door right by where I was sketching.  One of them, held a pose for me for a few seconds so I could do a quick sketch of him.  How sweet!

This time, George and I were both brought into the dancing.  Fun!!  Honestly, though, I'd rather they taught me how to drum!

An Architectural Shot!

 Yep!  I had to do it!  I really love the architecture in Animal Kingdom, especially in the African and Asian areas.  I just HAD to show you this one of the "hotel" where the dancers perform.

Animal Kingdom Ride Pins

The two rides I've always loved are the Kilimanjaro Safari and the Kali River Rapids.  We didn't do Kilimanjaro for a very, very good reason!

Wild Africa Trek

Our special treat in Animal Kingdom was the Wild Africa Trek.  This is at an additional cost and you have to make reservations ahead of time, but it is SO worth it! If you don't do anything else at Animal Kingdom, do the Trek. In fact, don't do the Kilimanjaro Safari and do the Trek instead! The Trek takes you "backstage" through the Kilimanjaro route. You do have to be in good enough shape to walk over unimproved trails for a couple of hours. Lack of fear of heights is a good thing, too, which you'll understand shortly.

George suited up for the Trek

The first thing that happens, after signing release forms and all, is that you put anything that can't be tied to you in a locker.  No kidding.  This means cell phones and everything! If you want to take your camera, be sure it has some way - a wrist strap or something - of being tied to you. After putting your things away, you're fitted out in a safety harness. This will be used to be sure you don't pay any unexpected visits to certain animals.  You'll also get a water bottle to fill and keep with you, which is one of your souvenirs of the Trek. Lastly, you're fitted out with a receiver and earpiece so you can hear the guide's commentary no matter where you are.

Next you'll be taken to a small plank-and-rope bridge to try out your bridge-crossing skills. It's only about five feet above the ground, and it does sway.  You step from plank to plank, carefully avoiding the gaps between planks.  Such fun!!

After the safety briefing and instructions as to how to use the large carabiners to clip into safety lines, you go with two guides, both of whom are totally awesome. You'll start out on the Pangani Forest Trail, but you won't make it far inside.  You'll take off on a trail off to visit the hippos.

Hippo, and we're actually this close

You'll be at the top of a small cliff above the hippo pool. You clip into the safety line which allows you to get to the edge of the cliff and look down at the hippos. We had a researcher there to talk to us about the hippos.  He was as awesome as everyone else and very knowledgeable. He tossed some lettuce to the hippos, one of whom came to dine right below us.  Such fascinating creatures!

Hippo Arriving for a Snack (Not Us!)

 After spending time with the hippos, you're off on the trail again and you come to...

The Bridge!

 Okay, actually, the photos are of the second half of the bridge.  This one was taken while I was waiting my turn to cross the first half. Only two or, at most, three people are allowed on the bridge at any one time.  I don't think it's a weight consideration.  I think it's because several people will cause it to sway more, which can easily frighten the Trekkers. I discovered that it's hard to get photos from it because it does move, even when you're still.

The first bridge crosses about 20 feet over the Kilimanjaro Safari river.  The trucks are below you, but the riders can't really see you much because of the tops of the trucks.  There are "broken" planks on the bridge and it's a little dance step to go from plank to plank.  However, you're clipped into the safety line above and there's a net below just in case...

The Plank Bridge Again

The first bridge ends at a small pavilion.  One of your guides will be there to help if you freak out and to space Trekkers across the second bridge.  The second bridge runs beside the river and over the... 

Nile Crocodile

Oh yeah!  Nile Crocodiles!! We were lucky in that the crocs were out and about as active as they get (when they're not eating). Fascinating creatures they are.

After visiting the crocodiles, you hike a little further and come to the Kilimanjaro Safari road where a truck is waiting to pick you up.  You shed your safety harness (about five pounds!) and your sound system and retrieve  your camera and water bottle.  Then you load up onto the truck where there's a frosty towel awaiting you.  After the heat and all, it feels WONDERFUL!  The truck heads out to the Boma (Swahili for safe or protected place) where your snack will be served. Before  you get there, you can see all kinds of the animals visible on the Safari.  This time, though, you can stop and watch them and take photos. Here are some photos of the animals we saw.

See the Kilimanjaro truck in the back?

Probably my favorite photo!

A real elephant, not an animatronic one

At last you make it to the boma, a lovely permanent camp with bathrooms (yea!), tables, ceiling fans, and most important... Lunch!  They advertise it as a snack, but you get quite enough food for a meal, even after the walking you've done. Your nice, cold lunch comes in a two-tier pail.

Snack - Top Tier

The top tier has curried chicken salad, fresh fruit, and air-dried meats.  It's topped with a lovely, edible dendrobium orchid flower.  I put my flower in my shirt pocket and brought it home.  I put it in a glass of water and it lasted until the end of our stay.

Snack - Bottom Tier

The bottom tier has pita bread, a spicy hummus, a sushi-type roll and two spicy, yummy shrimp. The food is prepared by the Tusker House Restaurant, which is linked to the restaurants at Animal Kingdom Lodge, so you know the food is good!  Your snack is served with passionfruit / orange / guava juice, which just totally hit the spot for me!

After your snack, you load back up on the truck to visit the last animals of the day...

The Rhinos!

It's so sad how many animals are in danger of extinction by poaching.  Rhinos are valued for several things, but primarily their horns.  Animal Kingdom has re-introduced two (I think) rhinos back into the wild.  Long may they live where they belong!

Which brings me to a wonderful change in Animal Kingdom.  The first time I visited was about five years after they opened.  They were struggling at that time to be taken seriously as a zoo.  They have come so far in the decade or so since I made that first visit.  They are now a breeding zoo.  This is a major step forward for them.

Kali River Rapids
I didn't get any photos from the Kali River Rapids. This is one of my favorite rides, but for some reason, it seemed a little long in the tooth this time.  I think that was just my imagination, however, because we were so enchanted with the Wild Africa Trek, I'm not sure anything could have lived up to it.  This is one to consider not getting a FastPass. The lovely buildings that the line passes through are definitely worth seeing!  Oh, and we got turned just right during the drop and got totally soaked!  Which was just fine.  Let's hear it for quick-dry clothes from the skin out!

Expedition Everest
Expedition Everest is a new ride in the Asian section of Animal Kingdom.  We'd been looking forward to it, but both came away with mixed feelings.  This is definitely one to think about not getting a FastPass.  The approach to the rollie itself is SO worth going through.  My camera was beginning to run out of power, so I didn't get many photos.  Here's one of the "temple" area:

The Yeti "Shrine"

After going through the "shrine," you go through an outfitter's store with all kinds of wonderful things to look at.  Then you go through the "research area" for Yeti, the Monster of the Himalayas. After that, you find yourself waiting to board the train to take you up Everest.

From a rollie point of view, Everest is okay.  There's not much to see on the ride itself. It starts off like a relatively gentle train ride.  Then you climb a huge hill to see that the tracks have been pulled up and you're going to plunge down the side... except that the train stops.  Honestly, the best thing to see here is that there's apparently a place where girls take the ties out of their hair and throw them to the side of the train.  I thought about it... for about a second or two.  You stay stopped for longer than I would have thought.  Apparently, they are changing the track behind you so you don't go backwards the same way you came up.  From here for about half of the ride, you're riding backwards and mostly in the dark.  There's very little to see and you have no idea what's going to happen.  Both George and I became a little disoriented.  I think this is where he had the problem.  Strangely enough, I had it when we reversed direction and went forward again.  The ride isn't really jerky, but it's just totally uninteresting from a story point of view.  Also, this is the only time I've become a little disoriented on a rollie.  Neither of us were sick enough to want to lose our lunch, but neither of us really enjoyed the feeling. Both of us decided that we'd do the line again to see the wonderful things and then bail at the chicken spot!  (All Disney rides have one.)

Here's a little shrine on an island near the Everest ride.  You can't walk to the little island, but I love it anyway.

Maharajah Jungle Trail
I love this walking trail.  It goes through areas that look like abandoned temples and buildings in an Asian environment.  We were very close to closing time when we did this one and we fell into conversation with a very knowledgeable interpreter at the Bengal Tiger exhibit.  By this time, my poor battery was about done, so this is the only photo I got of the kitties!

And this brings me to the last changes at Animal Kingdom that I really didn't like.  When I've come here before, the background music is gentle and meditative.  Mostly, the music is now either completely gone or drowned out.  I expect the African drummers in the African section, although I swear they perform more frequently now.  I did NOT expect the Indian rock and roll DJ music blaring out from the Asian area.  It's constant - no breaks and there's a dancer performing.  She's good, but it's right in the middle of the walkway.  Argghhh!!!  It's almost impossible to get away from it.  When we've been here before, every vendor in the Asian area would greet you with "Namaste!"  That's gone now as are the wagons where you can get chai.  Oh, there's a tea vendor, but it's not the same and they will NOT serve the chai over ice.  You want iced chai, you get a frozen drink thing.  Sigh.  Not the Disney I remember.

What a full day!  Here's one last photo from Animal Kingdom.  It's the view of Everest from the bridge crossing into the African area:

Although I know it doesn't really look like Everest, it makes me want to visit the base camp of the Goddess Mother one of these fine days!

Stay tuned for the fourth (and probably last) installment of our Disney Adventure!

Visiting Disney - Part II

Magic Kingdom

Statue of Roy (not Walt!) Disney and Mickey

So we got up bright and early... okay, we got up Monday morning and after a wonderful breakfast at Mara, we headed out to Magic Kingdom.  Wow!  Did I say crowded?  I think it was the first (or one of the first) days of Mickey's Not-So-Scary-Halloween event and the place was packed!  But still wonderfully fun.  It was all decorated up for Halloween.  I didn't get too many photos of the decorations, but here's George with one of the Mickey Jack-o-Lantern decorations on the lampposts.

George with Mickey

We had been selected to be part of the FastPass+ test.  At the moment, it's only available in Magic Kingdom and only for certain rides.  They send you cards, which you register and then choose two rides from each of two groups.  Sadly, I wanted three rides in one group, but they're kind of sneaky-smart about such things. You set up your ride schedule before you come, with the understanding that you can change it at any time.  We chose the Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain.   Honestly, I didn't think it would work since you're basically setting up your day ahead of time, but it works beautifully!  I hope they expand the idea to all the parks.

Since we got there well before our first ride was scheduled, we wandered around (away from the show in front of the Castle) and found ourselves in Liberty Square.  The Liberty Belle riverboat was just coming into service for the day, so we hopped aboard and went for the first ride of the day.  Everybody else boarding the boat went up, so we went out and got to stand at the extreme bow of the boat, Titanic-style. Such fun!

Okay, now I'm admitting to a weakness. I love the architecture at Disney.  I bring along my sketchbook, but seldom take the time to sit down and sketch, even this trip.  But I photograph buildings and the boat ride has some of the best photo-ops.  I'll share a few.

Becky Thatcher's House (?)

Across the landing where the Liberty Belle docks, you can see a lovely little yellow house.  I think it's Becky Thatcher's house, but I'm not really sure.  Anyway, it's on Tom Sawyer's Island.  We meant to get over there, but never did make it.

Harper's Mill

 Also on Tom Sawyer's Island is the beautiful little watermill.  Next time, for sure we have to go over to the Island!

Windmill

Yet another pretty thing on the Island!

Indian Village

Okay, Disney is the absolute master of animatronics.  I love them!  This little Indian village, across from the Island is one of the best.  If you look carefully, you'll see the train tracks on the other side of the village.  The steam train runs on the other side, around the perimeter of the park and passes by here.  And yes, we DO ride the train every trip and we rode this time as well.

There were other photos from the trip, but I won't post all of them!

In addition to the steam train, we did the most rides here at Magic Kingdom. Oh!  Another confession.  I adore Disney pins.  I seldom trade them, but I do collect them.  This trip was the trip of ride pins.  I collected as many ride pins after the rides as I could.  So here's the lot from Magic Kingdom!

From the top, clockwise, Pirates of the Caribbean (the wheel is hinged like a door and shows the skeleton at the wheel underneath), the Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Splash Mountain

The Jungle Cruise
If you've never done this ride, do it.  It's not scary although there are plenty of animatronic headhunters and critters.  You board an African Queen-inspired boat with a driver who is totally committed to packing in the most puns possible during the ride.  I never did figure out how our guide breathed.  It was one pun after the other.  We laughed the whole way around.  You get to go through a cave with what looks like Asian temple ruins.  There are elephants threatening to spit water at you, snakes all around, it's just such fun! Sadly, there's no pin for this ride, or at least none that I could find.

Pirates of the Caribbean
We hadn't planned to do this ride, but we'd heard it had been revamped after the movies, so in we went.  It's awesome!  Again, not scary but such fun and yep, there's Captain Jack Sparrow at the end, rocking in a chair with a bottle of rum and talking.  It's always a winner.

Splash Mountain
I love Splash!  The backstory is from the movie Song of the South and the story of Brer Rabbit and his antics.  The first time I ever did this ride, I didn't even notice the story because I was dreading the five-story drop.  This time I thoroughly enjoyed the build-up AND the drop!  This one is a good one to put your hands over your head.  Such fun!

Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion from the Liberty Belle

This is a must-do!  Some of the best Disney magic is in here.  You're first shepherded into the gallery to await your train through the mansion.  Be careful in here.  It's dark and people have started bringing in wheeled carry-on bags.  Thus far, the Disney people are allowing those, but they can be dangerous.  I almost tripped over one in the dark.  Anyway, you're shut into the room with no obvious means of egress and then you notice that the portraits are growing... or are you getting smaller???  At last the door opens and you (at your normal size) exit and board your waiting car for the trip through the house.  There are all kinds of animatronics in here, singing statues, graveyard ghouls and all.  But the best thing are the ghosts.  I know how they do them, but they're always effective.  And either I notice different things on different rides, or they change up the ride now and again.  Anyway, at the end of the ride, you can see that you have your very own personal ghost with you!  Wooooo!!

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (The Runaway Mine Train)
This is my favorite of all the Magic Kingdom rides and vies with the Rock 'N' Roller Coaster for my favorite ride, period. Enjoy the walk through the line here.  There are lots of things to see, many in unexpected places.  The ride has lots to look at as well (for the split second you can see them as you go careening past!).  The rollie isn't jerky, although it does do some ups and downs and fast turns.  Except for a few times through the "tunnels" it's all outside so you can see where you're going.  Love it, love it love it!

Space Mountain
Ah, Space Mountain.  This was our last FastPass+ ride of the day and I forgot that it shouldn't have been.  Either they've changed the ride, or it is aging, but I don't remember it being as jerky in the past as it was this trip. And sideways jerky, too, which is the worst for me.  I also remember more things to see as you go careening (not all that fast) past.  However, the FastPass curse may have come into play here.  With a FastPass, you go to the head of the line.  In the case of Space Mountain, that means you don't have time to allow your eyes to adjust to the dimness.  Not necessarily a good thing.  Hopefully, we just caught it on a bad day and the next time we ride Space, it'll be awesome again.

Places to Eat
Since we were on Disney's Dining Plan, we used one of our Quick-Service meals for lunch and a snack allotment.  We had lunch at the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe in FrontierLand.  George had a cheeseburger, but I had their signature barbecue pork sandwich.  DO get it!  Since you're on the Dining Plan, you get dessert with your meal.  We had carrot cake.  Okay, the icing was a bit sweet, but it was otherwise very good!

Aloha Isle

This is THE place to burn your snack allotment!  Get yourself over to AdventureLand, to the Aloha Isle and have yourself a Dole Whip Float.  I had mine in pineapple softserv in pineapple juice and it was absolutely magnificent!  Next time, I'm going to try the pineapple softserv in orange juice, I think.  Anyway, allow yourself some time.  This is well-known as the must-do snack and I've never seen fewer than 15 people in each line!

Two Sets of Tired Feet

Whew!  We're getting old or something.  We were so tired by about sunset (after realizing that we missed the last boat for Tom Sawyer's Island) that we decided to skip the fireworks and go home.  This is a first for me since I love the fireworks behind the Castle, but I was just SO tired!  However, dinner was back at the Lodge at Jiko, so how upset could I be?

See you next time for the Report From Animal Kingdom!

Visiting Disney - Part I

I haven't blogged since May??  Where DOES the time go? There's so much going on, so I guess I'm going to have to start at the end and go back to the beginning(?).  Or something.

Anyway, George and I spent four full days last week at DisneyWorld.  We had decided the last time we took the kids that we would someday return by ourselves. We got the opportunity last spring when I received a "smokin' good deal" offer from DisneyWorld, so we booked.

First of all, most info on the web will tell you that late September is the quietest time at DisneyWorld.  If it is, I'd hate to see the place when it's crowded!  Several southeastern school districts have a fall break and they all come to DisneyWorld!  Then there are many people from other countries whose school schedules don't correspond to ours and they come to DisneyWorld, too.  And we happened to hit during the beginning of the Halloween festivities.  And last, but certainly not least, DisneyWorld wasn't created for adults.  It's a children-centric, family-centric theme park complex and it will always be so.  Having said that, we did have a very, very good time.  It's been seven years since our last visit to DisneyWorld and there have been lots of changes.  Some have been for the better, some for the worse. So, without further ado, here is the story of our arrival and our lodge.

Basic Disney Advice
By the way, my advice to anyone visiting DisneyWorld is to stay at one of the resorts on property.  There are lots of them - many more than I even know about.  There are resorts for every price-range and interest. If you want a less expensive resort, the All-Star resorts are great.  We stayed there the first three trips and they filled the bill at a moderate price.  You won't be in your room all that much anyway, so do you really need a luxury place??  If you want to upscale, though, there are resorts for every desire, whim, or anything else you can think of.  All the resorts feature transportation, which is wonderful - somebody else gets to do the driving!

The other piece of Disney advice I'd give is to get the Disney Dining Plan.  This was the first time we did, and it is so worth it!  After paying for your travel, park ticket and room, your biggest expense will be food.  The Dining Plan gets almost all of that paid for up front.  No surprises.  I was afraid we wouldn't use all of the meals in our plan.  We fell a snack or two short, but that was only because we didn't use the snack credits when we should have in Epcot.  Lesson Learned.  The Dining Plan works at all the resort restaurants, too - another reason to stay at an on-property resort.

Speaking of park ticket, don't necessarily pay the upcharge for the Park Hopper pass.  You can probably only manage one park per day, so you probably won't use the ability to go to more than one park.  At least, think it through before you spend the money.

The last piece of advice will sound very strange.  Don't necessarily use FastPasses for the big attractions.  Sometimes you really want to stand in line.  No, I haven't totally lost it.  More on this later.

Getting There Isn't Really Much Fun
In my desire to fly non-stop to Orlando, I forgot the primary rule of flying.  Fly as close to first thing in the morning as you can.  Why?  1) The staff is usually much more cheerful.  2) People tend not to want the earliest flights, so they may not be full, and 3) If something goes wrong, delays pile up upon delays and you can sometimes avoid those by flying early.  A flight just before ours developed a cracked windshield. As a result, flight after flight piled up with delays.  Our flight was pretty much the sacrificial lamb and we didn't even leave the ground until an hour after we should have arrived in Orlando.  Four hours late.  Sigh.  We planned to use "Mickey's Magical Express" service which would transport the bags from the airport to our room.  However, the service stops at 10:00pm and we weren't due in until 10:50.  Due to some bad information we received from Disney, we believed that our bags were going to be held until the next day and that we couldn't retrieve them.  We had the baggage people here pull the tags from the bags, which was unnecessary, as it turns out.  If the bags arrive after 10:00pm, they put them on the carousel regardless.  Ah well.  Lesson learned.

The bus delivered us safely to our hotel at about 1:00am.  Needless to say, even with Disney Magic, all the restaurants were closed and we got nothing for supper.  Ah, but our hotel...

Animal Kingdom Lodge

Pin from Animal Kingdom Lodge

I've always wanted to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  If you've ever wanted to, do it.  Do it maybe even if you haven't wanted to.  We arrived tired, hungry, cranky and not in a very magical frame of mind, to be greeted gently and pleasantly by everyone there.  Our package was ready, our room waiting and even a fun Mickey waiting for us, courtesy of a very creative maid, so I believe!

Mickey in Towels

 Part of our "smokin' good deal" was an upgrade to a Savannah view room.  Yep!  That means we could wake up with a giraffe looking in our window!  Well, maybe not quite that close, but you look out over the enclosure and you'll see giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, ostriches, and many more critters. Really, truly.  I have trouble sleeping the first night in a new place, so I got up at 3:30am or so and looked out the window... right at a small herd of giraffe laying down catching some "z's."  I watched one of them get up - no small matter when your legs and neck are that long - and actually rear up a bit.  I've never seen that before, even when I worked as a docent in our zoo!  I never did get any good photos of the animals from our balcony, but here are a couple:

Giraffe Snoozing Outside Our Window

Look Carefully - Lots of Animals!

Besides the view of the animals, Animal Kingdom Lodge has three of the best restaurants around. The food is truly awesome.  Mara is a quick-service, run-your-tray-through-the-line restaurant.  It opens early and stays open late. I wasn't expecting much from it, but, whoa, was I wrong! You can get typical food there, but they have a few African specialties, too, which you should really try.  The bobotie plate was my hands-down favorite.

Boma is the second restaurant.  It counts as a table-service restaurant, but it's buffet-style.  It's a flat-rate, all you can eat place.  They have enough "normal" dishes for the less adventurous eaters in the crowd, but their African-inspired dishes are yummy.  There's a constant barbecue smell from the place that set my mouth watering every time I passed by, even if I'd just eaten.  It's awesome!

The third restaurant, Jiko, is nothing less than exceptional.  We were blessed with being able to chat with the sous-chef, a wonderful woman who can so obviously think in food.  She has my unending respect.  We also took her recommendations.  Gentle hint.  Do likewise.  We had the swordfish and the pork the first night, with the tea-and-chocolate dessert and the milk tart.  The second time we ate there, I had the berbere-crusted duck and George had another pork dish.  We had the Black Forest Cake (not traditional and incredibly yummy!) and the tea-and-chocolate dessert again.  Honestly, anything you get will be spectacular. Because I was running a fever and starting in on going all symptomatic on my cold, I was feeling awful.  Hot tea sounded just perfect so I had their chai.  I wish I knew where they get it because it's some of the best I've ever tasted.

Gentle hint: I'd make reservations for Boma and Jiko.  They fill up quickly.  Also, if you can stand to, eat late.  The crowds are thinning and your experience will be quieter and more pleasant.

From what I understand, the Tusker House Restaurant in the African section of Animal Kingdom is run by the same people who run Boma, so the food there should be awesome.  We didn't try Tusker... well, not exactly by that name.  You'll see later!

In addition to everything else, Animal Kingdom Lodge has activities and features that could keep you right there at the resort for days.  Why mess with the crowds in the parks??

Okay!  Enough about Getting There and our Lodge.  The next installment will follow our adventures through Magic Kingdom.  More photos and less blah-blah, I promise!

Weaving With Cousin Sam, Yet Again

We're back from the General Sam Houston Folk Festival. We have a breather now between the rush of spring demonstrations just past and the Texas Folklife Festival in June. The demonstration loom was finished just weeks before the beginning of the season.  Overall, it's been a resounding sucess.  It's a four-harness, counterbalance loom which can be warped at home, collapsed to fit into the back of our SUV and set up at a demonstration site.  As much as we previously looked like a modern-day covered wagon, we look even more so now!

The Covered Wagon

Here's the loom in the SUV with the tent alongside and the spinning wheel tucked in as well.  Once these things are in, the rest of everything is tucked in as best we can.  The display table which used to go underneath the loom now has to be strapped to the top of the car, but we're a self-contained unit!

Once the loom was finished I warped on a "maiden voyage" project - a overshot scarf.  The warp was a space-dyed sock yarn.  The tabby weft was sewing thread while the pattern weft was sock yarn in tonal purples.  Overall, it looks good.  It was mostly a "iron the bugs out" project.  Here's the loom with the first project on it.

Maiden Voyage

We've had an ongoing problem with the shafts staying horizontal. In the end, I used Joanne Hall's suggestion of elastic loops keeping the upper shaft bars horizontal. It seems to work just fine.

The loom's first outing was to a 3-day workshop with Joanne.  A counterbalance or countermarche loom was required for the Opphämta sample and I had the only one available.  I loved the workshop and I need to take photos of my samples.  The Opphämta is interesting in that it gives a great deal of flexibility in the pattern design, although it is some slower than traditional overshot.

The St.-Francis-Upon-The-Hill Renaissance Faire was the loom's second outing and first demonstration.  Although we were without Cassie this year, I decided to try a "worm to ecclesiastical stole project.  Well, I didn't spin the yarn nor did I dye it.  However, I wove the fabric for the face of the stole at the Faire (mostly).  I chose Gothic Cross from Marguerite Porter Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book, and wove it in two shades of purple silk. What a joy silk is to work with!  Gothic Cross is a beautiful pattern but I had trouble keeping track of where I was while demonstrating.  I probably won't try that again!  But I did finish the stole (at five o'clock in the morning!) in time for Elizabethean Mass the following morning!

The Stole

Next up was a one-day festival at Camp CAMP, a camp in the Hill Country set up specifically for children with developmental difficulties, who can't attend a regular camp.  What wonderful work they're doing!  They wanted a mini-Folklife Festival, so we found ourselves in company with a blacksmith and a flintknapper.  I'd never seen flint shaped into spearheads or arrowheads before.  It's fascinating!  And to me, a blacksmith is a magician.

I chose to do a traditional overshot pattern in very untraditional colors for the Fest.  It turned out beautifully!  I don't have any photos of the piece on the loom, but the piece is still in my possession and I'll get photos of it soon.

Our next outing was the San Antonio Highland Games.  Sadly, the piece we chose to weave didn't make it through the transportation process.  Something happened, either in my setting the loom up or during moves, that caused the tension to go completely crazy.  Once I had the tension corrected, I had breakage problems in the warp.  I finally had to give up on the piece.  I'll weave it again this summer as it was a beautiful sash in the MacLean Hunting tartan.  The sash was intended for Cassie, so it hurt doubly bad to lose it.

And now for Cousin Sam's Festival!  The Festival was only two days this year instead of three.  Friday was still School Day, but with maybe 2/3 the number of children we saw last year.  The loom covered itself with glory.  I tried Barleycorn, a structure I've never tried before.  I was scared at first because Barleycorn is based on huck lace which is an unbalanced weave. Counterbalance looms want to move two shafts at a time.  Huck lace puts three shafts against one.  However, huck has been woven for centuries and must have been woven on counterbalance looms.  The loom, of course, did just fine.

Barea Linen (Barleycorn) Towels On The Loom

I warped four towels on the loom, intending to weave off two during the Sam Houston festival and the last two during Folklife. However, I was well into the second towel by the end of the first day and into the third by the end of the second day.  I'll weave these off and choose another project for Folklife.  The first two towels used a pale willow green as the pattern weft.  I was getting a little tired of it by the end of the second towel, so the last two are being done with a periwinkle shade - kind of a purple-blue.  They're turning out very well.

Here I am in my prairie regalia weaving away at the Festival.

And one last shot of the entire booth with George demonstrating drop spinning.

And it's not like I'm doing no weaving in between festivals.  I have another Atwater-Bronson lace shawl on the Glimakra.  George upgraded it to a 10-shaft countermarche loom and this is its maiden voyage.  I've designed four overshot scarves, one of which is one the loom now.

But that's all for now.  More later!

Weaving Scarves (and Spa Cloths)

It's funny when you feel as though you're not making any progress and then you start counting up the finished items... and realize that you've gotten quite a bit done indeed!  I'm feeling much more cheerful about my weaving.  Not much is being done on the floor looms, but my rigid-heddle looms, especially my little Cricket, have been working their heddles to the bone!

Spa Cloths

I've finished nine spa cloths.  They're all hand-finished, washed, dried and ready to find new homes.  The four in the photo above are destined to leave here in the next few days.  The three in the bowl... well... we'll see what happens with them.  I have lots of yarn just waiting to become more spa cloths.  There's more of the lavender, lavender linen to make a different version, a set of natural colored yarn for yet another set and much more waiting in the wings!

Scarves and More Scarves
I usually don't like making scarves.  I seldom wear them and don't often give them as gifts.  However, they're great as samples.  They typically don't use much yarn and they're a finished project.  I've been working with my Cricket, developing projects that could be woven on a narrow loom and still be attractive.  Here are two scarves that depend on the color of the yarn to make them work.

Autumn Scarf

This scarf, while technically woven on the Flip loom, could easily have been done on the Cricket.  It has very subtle color variations that don't really show in the photograph. The warp is striped in stripes, alternating wide stripes of forest green with narrow ones of brown.  The weft is the autumn-colors Kauni Effektgarn (color EV).  It's easy to see the gradual shading of the Kauni, but the warp stripes give a depth to the scarf that's more subtle.

Faux Ikat Scarf

Now this one is just fun, and I mean fun!  You take a handpaint sock yarn with shorter color runs (this isn't the time for Mini-Mochi or Kauni) and arrange it on the warping board so that the colors pool together.  You can't wind the warp "out-and-back" style as you usually do, you have to wind it around in large circles.  The diameter of the circle depends on the repeat of the colors.  I used Great Adirondack's Silky Sock for this scarf.  A single color repeat was a bit over a yard, so the finished scarf with two color repeats was.. very long.  Not The Fourth Doctor long, but long.  The interesting thing is that it's not as easy to get the colors to pool as you might think.  Sometimes, I think they had been caught in a skein backwards or something because the winding would be going along well and then would come a thread that didn't fit at all.  I finally realized that those threads would have to simply be cut out.  Things went better after that, until I saw that one rogue thread made it into the warp, dead in the middle.  I pronounced it a design element and off we went!

The scarf is woven off with Malagrigo Sock in Violeta Africana, a beautiful tonal purple in Malabrigo's cushy-soft merino wool. I am really proud of this scarf!

Lace on a Rigid-Heddle Loom
But tabby weave, while pretty, was getting a bit boring, so I decided to play with weft floats.  In multi-harness weaving, this is how laces such as Atwater-Bronson and Huck laces are done.  The same thing can be done even more easily with a rigid-heddle loom.  All that is needed is the addition of a pick-up stick.  The pick-up stick is placed such that every other slot warp thread is caught.  Then when the pick-up stick is used in place of the down heddle position, only half of the threads are lifted, which means the weft thread skips over all of the hole warp threads and half of the slot warp threads.  This draws the warp threads together just close enough to make a normal down heddle pass stand apart from the weft float section.  And this gives us lace!

Bamboo Lace Scarf

The first lace scarf was woven in a fingering weight pure bamboo, Midori by Fiber Lady. I met the Fiber Lady folks at KidNEwe this year.  Their yarns and rovings are beautiful - hand-dyed in luscious colors.  But the natural color is beautiful, too, and I thought it would make a lovely lace scarf, as indeed it did. I bought WAY too much yarn and roving from them, but I probably won't see them again for a year, so I had to have enough to tide me over!  The next ones will probably be woven on the floor looms... maybe.  Again, this scarf was technically woven on the Flip, but could easily have been done on the Cricket.

Aqua Panda Silk Scarf

And here's the last scarf in the collection, a lace scarf woven in Panda Silk.  The warp is the subtly variegated Blue Lagoon color while the weft is the solid Aquarium.  The Blue Lagoon gives the scarf very subtle warp-wise striping. While it was on the loom, I thought it would have been better to have woven it with the colors reversed.  Now that it's off the loom and finished, I think I prefer the way I did it.  I'm working on another Panda Silk scarf with the variegated in the weft and the solid in the warp.  We'll see how it compares.

So back to the looms and more weaving!

O Come, O Come

Advent Wreath 2011

We've made it through Thanksgiving and into the Advent season.  This year, I decided to make a new Advent wreath. The old one was too big to fit anywhere, so I took the purple decorations from it and put them on a large candle wreath. Then I put the candle wreath of evergreens inside a wood-looking (resin) Advent wreath/candleholder I've had forever. With new candles, it's ready to go. All I could find this year were blue candles and the pink one. I prefer purple candles, but the blue ones looked rustic and were so pretty, that I used them. Maybe next year I'll actually start well before the Advent season!  (It would be a first!)

In the center, in place of the white Christ candle, I put the Madonna and Child icon given to me by my friend from Turkey. As I recall, the icon is from Ephesus, traditionally the last home of the Virgin, as she was taken there by the Apostle John.  It's on my Bucket List of places to visit.

The Christmas wreath is on the door and another on the wall beside the garage. After St. Nicholas' Day (December 6th), I'll start putting the "candles" in the windows and begin the Christmas decorations.

Making Spa Cloths

Blue Spa Cloths on the Loom

The Cricket rigid-heddle group on Ravelry is doing a spa-cloth weave-along. I thought they'd be really good gifts for Christmas this year, so I decided to participate... well, as soon as I could free up the Cricket loom.  This is a difficult thing as there's always a project on the Cricket!  But I did find some linen yarn at Yarnivore as well as the Grass yarn (hemp and cotton) for the weft.  The first warp I put on was a bit over a yard in length and was a slate-blue linen.  The weft was a marled blue Grass yarn.  I used a #8 knitting needle to form the loops. I have one finished cloth and three others waiting to be hand-finished.

The linen yarn was awfully hard on my hands, so I used Hempathy - a hemp / modal blend - for the warp on my current set.  Again, I'm using the Grass in the weft and will get four cloths from this warp.  Wrapped with a lovely bar of hand-made soap from a local soap-maker, the cloths will make wonderful gifts!

Wax On / Wax Off or The Big and The Little Of It

It's been a busy time around here. While we've been getting ready for the Austin Celtic Festival, I got a crazy desire to look at Glimakra looms. We've been talking about building a small reproduction loom for demonstrations and the most authentic loom we've seen is the old Swedish loom at the Institute of Texan Cultures. We went to closely examine their loom and then looked at modern Glimakra looms. They're so close! We toyed with the idea of getting a smaller Glimakra, but George is sure he can build one, and I know he can.

See the small Cricket loom on the bench of the Glimakra??

I've always wanted a Glimakra, but the Standard, their workhorse loom, is big.  I mean BIG.  Although how would I know since I'd never seen one??  Something made me browse Craigslist and what should I see but a Glimakra Standard loom for sale. It was 45" wide and supposedly 4-harness, 6-treadle countermarche.  Well, I wanted a countermarche, figuring that it would be more useful than counterbalance.  However, I already have two 4-harness / 6-treadle looms so why this one?  I got in touch with the Glimakra USA representative and found out that Glimakras can be upgraded.  She gave me tips on what to look for in a used loom and information on setting up a Glimakra.

When we went to look at the loom, we found that it was counterbalance, not countermarche, and had been sitting in a garage for years.  But it was in pretty good shape, had tons of accessories, and since I'd found out that Glimkras can be almost infinitely upgraded, we decided to make an offer.  By the end of the day, my birthday present was a pile of lumber in the garage and no place to put it.

Right after getting the Glimakra home, we were up against the annual insanity known as Yarn Crawl - the 4-day event held among 9 area yarn shops. Working Yarn Crawl leaves time for nothing else, but I did manage to do one thing... actually four things. I wove three scarves on a rigid-heddle loom and bought my own Cricket loom.

The Cricket Loom

Why another loom, especially a loom that some consider "toy" looms? Well, it isn't a toy, it's a very well-designed small loom. It's compact enough to take with me, I can warp it in less than an hour and it's a great adjunct to my larger weaving life. I keep it downstairs and weave while I'm enjoying my morning coffee. No sitting at the computer, no working on something else, just sit and weave and sip coffee and look out the windows.  (It's time to feed the birds again!) A great way to start my day!

The Chakra Scarf

The Chakra Scarf

So first off the little loom was this Chakra scarf!  It's made with Noro's Silk Garden Sock in the warp and Mango Moon's Chakra yarn in the weft. The stones and beads in the Chakra yarn are hand-tied by women in Indonesia and Nepal. Mango Moon is a Fair Trade company and sales of their products benefits these women. I wasn't pleased with the scarf on the loom, but I really like it off-loom. The stones and beads in the Chakra give it a weight and drape.  I like to wear it with a black dress or top.  It makes a statement!

There are two more scarves off the loom from the same Silk Garden Sock yarn as the Chakra scarf.  They'll have to be photographed and posted soon.  The scarf on the loom right now is a "let the yarn do the work" scarf. The warp is a handpaint lace yarn - Ella Rae Lace Merino and the weft is Capra, a silk / mohair blend also from Mango Moon.  Mohair doesn't work in the warp as it's almost impossible to get a clean shed, but it's lovely in the weft.

Dyeing My Own

But the next project will be a color project to the nines!  Twelves, actually... This involves a confession. I'm afraid of color. I'm afraid of making a mistake. I don't know what goes with what nor do I know how to add that spark that makes things really glow. But I figure I can learn, so I'm going to learn. I'm starting the learning process by working through Gail Callahan's Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece. Last night's project was dyeing 12 small skeins of sock yarn in 12 colors of the color wheel.  All the dyes were mixed from three stock solutions - red, yellow and blue - made with McCormick's food colors.  Yep, this is a kitchen project.  When all the skeins were in the dyebaths (small Mason jars) and arranged in a wheel, I got a crazy idea. I'd mis-measured and made 40-yard skeins when I intended to make 20-yard skeins. However, 40-yard skeins gives me enough to do a color gamp scarf project on my trusty Cricket.  As soon as the mohair scarf is off the loom, I'll warp on the color gamp project with each shade set off with black yarn.  This should be pretty!

The Finished Skeins

Pinwheel Towels

And yes, I finally finished all six towels of the pinwheel project.  Four will leave for the towel exchange, but two are staying here.  George refuses to use them, but I love them... hanging on the stove handle... not being used...


The Autumn Leaves Shawl
But wait!  I didn't leave the poor Glimakra as a pile of lumber in the garage! Last week was the project of starting to clean out and rearrange the upstairs.  Now that both kids are more or less moved out, it's time to rethink how we use the house. This is their home, too, but it's time that old stuff leaves to make room for the new. So after hauling and moving and giving away and throwing out, there was a spot for the Glimakra in the loft. Wax on / Wax off??  The wood was so dry that every bit had to be conditioned with our favorite Ashford Spinning Wheel wax. If I ever leave the Cricket unwarped for five minutes, it'll get the same treatment.


Setting up a counterbalance loom requires having a project on it. I tried to think of something that wouldn't be too much of a challenge to weave and finally thought of a chenille shawl project kit I've had laying around for years. I hauled it out and warped it onto the Glimakra. At first I was wondering why anyone bothers to put on anything less than 10 yards, but the shawl is fine.  It didn't take but a time or so around the warp beam, but everything got on and tensioned correctly. Then came tying up the loom and setting everything up.  After only a few mistakes the old girl was weaving again.

Which caused the biggest surprise. I like counterbalance looms.  I'm going to leave her that way for a while before I upgrade her.

Leave it as it is.

Never mind the turpentine.

Just leave it as it is.

It's fine.

-- David Wilcox