Double Weave and New Shoes!

I'm finally weaving.  It's been slow going though.   First, I had the worst time threading the single stripe which is on the bottom layer.   I ended up rethreading it 5 times.   Then, when I thought I was good to go, Phil, my sweet orange kitty helper, wouldn't be persuaded to leave the loom alone.   In the end, I re-threaded ALL the heddles and re-sleyed the whole thing.  I very quickly tied everything on so that no more kitty helping could interfere!

Then I waffled about warp colours.  Originally I was going to do the red, so as to have a solid red stripe.   After sampling, I then thought that the red was a little to bright, so was going to switch out for green.  However after checking out my supplies, I didn't have enough green, so I went back to the red.  Now, seeing how much red I've actually used, I probably did have enough green.   I don't really like playing yarn chicken with my projects though, so I'm happy enough with the colour choices.

Then, the 1st treadle in my pattern, started getting caught in the loops of the treadle beside it.  Since it was an unused treadle, I pulled out the pin holding the cords and set it on the ground the way we do with some beginner classes.   Next, the first shaft kept unhooking from the lam.   Then once in a while the second one would unhook.  Talk about a nuisance.   I had to crawl under the loom, re-attach the hook and then unweave what ever few rows I had done because there was invariably a skipped thread.    Finally the brake spring slipped off.   How does that even happen?  The result of that was having to wait for someone stronger than myself to hook it back up.     ARGH! 

So far I've been pretty thrilled that I can slip my hand between both layers and thus working like it's intended to work.   I've also been using a temple.   I'm actually enjoying it.   There is definitely a learning curve for selvedges, but even if the only benefit is that there is less abrasion on the outer threads I think it is worth it.

New shoes!  Runners are almost as good as new boots, almost but not quite.  Still, they are comfortable, although maybe a bit bright.   They were on sale but of course the blue ones were already sold out in my size.    They are very spring-like and are happy coloured shoes.

Soon I'll have a picture of my seedlings.  Japanese Indigo seeds have sprouted.  They were a bit unevenly timed as some seemed to start right away while other seeds took their sweet time.  I ended up soaking some seeds overnight which helped a lot.  I also planted 4 white cotton seeds.  I think I have some green ones around as well.  If I can find them, I will try to start them also.  The green cotton seeds are a few years old though so might not still be viable.   Still, things growing always makes me happy!