Threading Wood, and Comments

In a comment on the last post, Peg says she has no trouble using heavy cord as skein lifters. And I have to agree that heavy cord is a lot easier (and probably cheaper!) than the tubing-over-copper-wire rings. I have never believed in the "there's only one right way" theory, so whatever works for you is the best of many possible ways! I'll be the first to admit that my problems could very well have been of my own making, not the cord's.

Kathy loved the yummy colors, to which I can only reply, hear-ye hear-ye, you're singing to the choir, here. Luckily, I'm not after repeatable color when working with the wood dyes, so I'm never disappointed. Every chunk of wood has different dye potential, even pieces from the same species. Water, soil, climate, you name it, it makes a difference in what comes out of the chips. Also luckily, these dyes are not only drop-dead gorgeous, they're virtually free, except of course for the very laborious process - which consists of waiting patiently while the alcohol draws color out of wood chips. The chips themselves are pretty much free of charge, since DH-the-woodturner makes 'em in large volume on a regular basis.

Since we moved to the new house, he hasn't had as much opportunity to fill my dye-material needs, because there's been a steady stream of honey-do projects - build this, fix that, etc.

On the loom front, I'm nearly done threading this warp:



Sorry, the color is abysmal - the little digital camera has trouble figuring out what to do when part of the picture is lit by the flash, and part by the flourescent lamp on the back of the loom...

However, if you click the image, and display the larger version, you can see stripes of silk/tencel and stripes of dark brown wool, and part of the heddles for the next group pulled out and ready to be threaded for the section off to the left. And that flourescent lamp has lit (but badly colored) the stripes visible on the sectional beam at the rear of the picture.