It was a banner day at St Vinny's this week! I put that down to my friend Karla being along. If there is any wool in the store, she will find it! We started with the usual circuit over by the donated fabric and craft supplies ... Not much there for fabric that day, but an entire laundry basket of these wool "wheels" with the yardage listed on the tag! They seemed to be reasonably priced at $4 and $5 per wheel -- but now that I think of it, 9 yards doesn't really go very far as weft on a rug ...
It's a great time-saver NOT to have to cut the fabrics and prepare it for weaving. Even if I get woolly worms or the premium strips from Pendleton blankets, there's still a fair amount of preparation to make the "yarn" into weft suitable for making rugs. It looks like all that work is done for these wheels.
There was plenty there for Karla to also get several wheels for her own weaving stash. Perhaps this will be the motivation to get her own rug loom up and running in the new year?
We will have to check it all over to make sure we are not bringing in a bunch of wool moths with it ... There are ways to mitigate that with either heat or cold. It is winter here now -- They could stay on the porch for the next few months, or you can bake them in the oven to raise the temps enough to kill any critters that might be present. So far, they look pretty clean ...
It makes me a little sad to see someone's stash here at St V, that she never got to use it, that she's given up on this part of her creative life. I think of my dad having to give up nearly everything this past year to move into assisted living. My time will be here before I can use up my own stash, but for now, I'm going to continue making things as long as I can!
There was also a cone of wool in that bin suitable for warp. We both tested it for strength and couldn't break it. $4 for that cone!
I was thinking the next project would be a set of sumptuous towel from a kit, but perhaps I can do a batch of rugs to use up some fiber in the stash? I do have 2 floor looms now so why not both?
1 comment:
I'd say that's a pretty productive year's worth of quilting and weaving. And goodness, those wheels of wool - have never seen anything quite like that but then again, I've never made rugs with the exception of one crocheted from strips of denim cut from old jeans. Now there was a hand punishing project that produced a very heavy rug. Nice indeed that someone else has done that prep work for you. I haven't had time to look back at my year's accomplishments. I feel like I did so little but I'm betting once I look, I'll surprise myself with how much I actually did. Happy New Year!
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