Building a loom

Last week I showed you the big loom I bought in all its bits and pieces, today I had the good fortune of two lovely friends come help me setting it up. I had managed to persuade (ahem) DH to move the bookcase from one end of the lounge so that I could bring the loom inside.

After unwrapping everything we found out the loom is actually a Finlandia 8 shaft by Finnish loom maker Varpapuu. I couldn't find much current information on the maker, they might have gone out of business, so if you happen to know anything about them please feel free to point me in the right direction.

Here are my friends helping me with the set up, the one on the right is Rachael the Sparrow :-)

Actually just after this photo was taken Pamela (above left), who is a weaving guru, realised that we'd set the frames the wrong way around, so we quickly rectified that!

 

Now that's better! Unfortunately we couldn't go much further as we found that there were some bits and bobs missing to complete the assembly. I called the seller who is going to have a look for me when she get home from work. So looks like I might need to wait until we come back from our trip to complete the set up and start weaving. But that's ok, there's plenty to keep me occupied in the meantime :-)

And I'm really beginning to panic, one more week to take off!!!

Oh yes, there's some new stock just been added to our Etsy shop, use code XMAS13 at checkout to receive 10% off storewide :D

Now what have you been up to this week? 

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!

A FO and, Gasp! A Floor Loom!!

Hello me dears! Welcome to Fibre Arts Friday! Today I have a FO (finished object) to share and... wait for it... a floor loom!! Yay!!! well, it will be a floor loom once I figure out how to assemble it!

The final countdown has began for our big trip - Around The World in 40 Days, as I write this there are 15 days 5 hours 48 minutes... I will try to keep a travel blog while on the trip to keep you updated. As for now, I am beginning to panic: there are still presents to be made, packing to be commenced, and all sorts of arrangement to be organised... ... and I can't seem to get into gear, eek!!

OK, the FO... this is a throw for my friend Elaine whom we will be seeing on our trip when we stop in Seattle. She picked the yarn herself as it goes with the decor in her house.

Tunisian crochet is most suited for entrelac, the process is much simpler than the knitted ones. As you only work with one square at a time you don't even need a real Tunisian hook, any crochet hook with a straight shaft should do the trick. The pattern is Sunset Ruana from Interweave Crochet Winter 2009.  I love this pattern for blankets or throws, I already used this pattern for a baby blanket in two different yarns which also turned out very nice. For this throw I added two rounds of crochet for the border with my handspun, I was going to do a bigger border but I didn't have enough yarn.

Now, what would you do if you see a floor loom for sale for only $180? You grab it quick of course! I couldn't believe my eyes when a listing popped up on my local "buy sell swap" page for a floor loom with bench, the interest was phenomenal but I was the lucky one, oh yeah :D 

The trouble is it has been dismantled for storage, and the lady who was selling it for her aunt had no idea what the make or model it was. Still, it was too good an opportunity to miss...

It's in my garage at the moment while I search for more information and, hopefully, an assembling manual. I posted the photo on Ravelry and some weavers recon it's a Toika Liisa loom judging by the side frame, so I sent an email to Toika to confirm. A lady from my spinning group who is also an avid weaver offered to help me put it together, so did Rachael (Sparrow). With any luck we could have this baby set up before my holiday, fingers crossed!

The question is: where do I put it? ... a sensible person would have asked this question before the purchase, obviously that wasn't me...

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!