So many hobbies!

Weaving

My girlfriend came over Saturday and we helped each outer warp our respective looms.  This one is mine:  a Kromski rigid heddle loom.  This is only my second weaving project and I'm not that good at it yet.  My edges are kind of all over the place but I've gotten some tips from my weaving friends and the edges are starting to look better.

The warp is commercial sock yarn.  The weft (the back and forth yarn) is my handspun from a batt I bought at Maryland last year.  If I recall correctly, it's Merino with some sparkle.  Oh, it's going to be a scarf, BTW.  It may become a Christmas present depending on how it turns out.

First weaving

The rug has been taken off the loom, washed and dried.  It looks both better and worse after washing.  Better because the yarn bloomed and made a tighter, denser fabric.  Worse because the ends were I started and ended a color have popped out and the fringe is kind of mangled.  Once I give everything a trim, though, it'll look better.  All in all, I'm happy with my first woven piece.  I'm still figuring out how tight/loose to do my edges and that's the hardest part.  Despite it not being perfect, it still got the Tyr nod of approval:

Warping a loom is a big job

And it takes even longer when you have "help."

Eventually, we got it done and I started weaving.  Since I hate practicing just for the sake of practicing, I'm weaving a rug for my tent to set my shoes on.  Both warp and weft are cotton so I can throw it in the washing machine when it gets dirty.

I definitely need more practice but it's not too bad for my very first piece.

While Rhonda was helping Sheri and I warp our respective looms, Galen was showing his love for Sheri's shoes:

The expression of his lust for her shoes got a little wild at times.

Today was a day of chores.  I managed to get groceries, catfood from the pet store, two baker's racks from ALDI, weeded the front bed (it was so bad you can't really tell I did anything... darn it!), did two loads of laundry, took my camping gear back down to the basement, wove a little and scooped the litterbox.  The darks are in the dryer and I still need to change the sheets on my bed. I need to do another weeding session next weekend and pick up a lot of mulch from Lowe's.  A LOT of mulch.  Once the mulch is down, the garden will look much better.

While I was working, Galen was sleeping:

And Tyr was playing: