Introduction to the Loom

This is the front of my loom. This loom is a LaClerc and is 60 inches wide. This shot here is of the reed which is a 10 dent. That means there are 10 open slots to the inch. This reed is threaded with 8/2 cotton and there are 2 threads in each slot. There are a total of 960 threads. This is going to be a blanket for Penny when this is done.

This is how mine looks when it is through the reeds and ready to be pulled to the back. I am not very neat and usually end up with a very big knot! But I usually get it untangled after a few attempts and a whole lot of cussing!

This is the back of my loom before I thread the heddles which are the things that manipulate the threads so I can weave a beautiful blanket.

Since I have to do a bunch of work down stairs, and I never know where the next picture will show up, I am going to wait and work on the next section a little later. This is probably enough for you to meditate on today.

"Survivor" is on tonight so I should be able to work on the blanket and get it done so you can see it in a couple days. I know this looks complicated, but this is a craft you may want to try as it is very relaxing to do. If you stop to think about it, every skill you have in life is a learned skill. Weaving is no different and I am sure if you don't pursue it, you will never learn to do it.

Some where near you is a weaving guild so get online and find it and start there. Weavers are very gregarious people and will take you in and teach you this fine art. Men can and do make very good weavers. Men were weaving way before women ever tried their hand at it.

See you at the sale! Vail Hotel, Pueblo, Colorado, from now through Saturday, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM. You folks on the east and west coast may miss it!

Inkle Loom

Ok, we are going to give this a go. I have the pictures in the wrong order, so just live with that! Here you have bands that were made on an Inkle Loom. You can make bands however long the loom you have makes and that is usually up to 3 feet, but that varies. The width also varies from a quarter of an inch to 3 inches or so. All depends on your equipment.


This one (below) is the one I am currently working on and in all fairness I have been working on it for 3 or 4 months. The white band is what I use to keep it all the same width, or as close as I am going to get to something uniform. My teacher just shines with pride when she sees how screwed up I can actually get! I love that woman.

And now we come to an actual picture of the Inkle Loom. I know it should have been first, but you are dealing with me, for crying out loud! I am still in my jammies!

A very knowledgable lady named Joanne taught us how to use these and the loom was in the cost of the class. You are going to need a teacher and if you are lucky enough to get one as patient as this Joanne you are going to be blessed indeed! ( Hi Joanne of Pueblo, Colorado, who is one of the best weavers I have ever met and the most patient lady in the world!)

This is a handy little thing to have because you can carry the whole thing in one in one had and thread for the weaving in your pocket! Quite a way to pass that boring time while you are waiting to get in for your dentist appointment and it will take your mind off the shot, searing pain, grinding, and all that stuff which will happen when you getbehind that door in that sound proof room!

So, there you have the tip of the iceberg for this weaving thing. Tomorrow I will attempt to put on pictures of my big loom and the blanket that I have started. It will be a work of art! Sign up over there somewhere so you do not miss a single episode of Lou Mercer trying to talk you all into going back in time!

You are never to old to learn and if I can do it-you can do it!

The Gopher and the Dog

Oh, Lord! If you think it is quiet on this back acre of mine, I have a surprise for you! Friday I heard the most God awful racket in the garden area. The geese were, all 10 of them on red alert! I ran out on the deck fully expecting a bear or at the very least a coyote!

What I say was neither! I have had a small bit of a problem with either a gopher or mole throwing up little piles of dirt here and there in the yard. I was not alarmed as I figured when it got tired of looking it would leave. Besides that I had instructed Bret to go pee over there, because, according to the ancient legend, that would deter burrowing varmints in your yard. Has not worked yet, but you just never know!

I digress! The geese were in full battle regalia, stomping in circles, heads low and charging at the fence honking at the top of their lungs. On this side was Daisy, my dog that is a cross between a Weiner dog and a Jack Russell Terrier. Daisy had the top half of her body, to include her head and both front feet, engaged in digging the biggest hole I have ever seen a dog dig! I knew this was going to be good!

I went over and she was not interested in me at all, but rather, kept sniffing and digging. I got the shovel. After the first thrust I knew she was on the trail of the gopher/mole. There was the tunnel! I dug a little longer and Daisy kept sniffing and helping. Alas, I soon learned that I was tired of this game, so I gave up.

Daisy continued for a little while, but then she also wore out the chase. What did we learn from this? As I look out across my yard full of holes and the new piles of dirt appearing here and there, I think about Bill Murray. I don't remember the movie, might have been something like "Caddy Shack", but what I do remember is the devastation that followed his encounter with the gopher.

The golf course was all blown up, smoke hung in the air, Bill Murray was covered in dirt, and the little gopher poked his head up out of a hole and laughed! I am not going to fight a losing battle, and if Daisy wants to dig the whole yard up, then she can just dig away. I probably would like to xeriscape anyway!!

The Art of the Apology

I woke up this morning thinking about this, so I am sure I have to share with you. I lost a good friend this summer. She did not pass to the great beyond, but rather just ceased to exist in my realm of being.

I am a Democrat, born and bred. I have been known to support Republican candidates on more then one occasion, but for the most part I just support what ever or who ever I think is right and on the side of good. This has earned me the name in the family as "a flaming Liberal," but so be it. Back to my train of thought.

My friend is a Republican. Nothing wrong with that, just laying the groundwork for this missive. Republicans have the right to live also, (Hi Joe!) The problem arises when we talk politics, so I tend to avoid that at all costs. I change the subject, I walk away, just whatever it takes, but...

We live in a computerized world and in that world is the forwarded email! No need to even think, just click forward, forward, forward. Now I open most of my email because I think there may be a message in there somewhere. So when the health care debate came to the forefront, my mail box was filled with how Obama is getting ready to have all the old people euthanized, and me being an old person, should immediately write my senator and yada, yada, and you know the routine.

That part is not important, what is is the fact that I asked her not to send this stuff. I forwarded it back to her. I asked her not to, but she continued, so I blocked her and sent her a letter telling her why. I was truly offended.

Then came the apology: "Dear Lou, I am very, very sorry I offended you, but you need to know what the Democrats are trying to do. You need to know that ..." and she continued in that vein, explaining to me what I am to simple minded to understand.

So on to the art of the apology. People have feelings. People have thoughts. People just want to live. If you step on someones toes in your quest for the good life, apologize and back off. "I am sorry." "I am sorry I offended you." "I am sorry I pissed you off." Stop there at the period. Do not say, "I am sorry, but you know you are wrong!" "I am sorry, but you are stupid and need to be educated."

Just "I am sorry." That is if you are sorry. Sorry you hurt me, not sorry I am of a different belief. A heartfelt apology will go a long way toward building bridges. I am a very stubborn person and left a church I had attended for 15 years for the lack of an apology.

So just love each other, mend your bridges and try not to piss me off, cause I carry a grudge and you need to know that going in!!

Nancy's Forest

This is a picnic table that hides in the forest!















It is hard to beleive that next door to Nancy's house is a school! Her house is in a forest and there is no other word for where she lives.








































This is a bird house that her husband, Ivan built for the little feathered creatures that flit about!






This has been a test to see how to put pictures on here and I think I got it, so get ready to learn lots of stuff!!

Geese

 

Snail Mail

I surely do wonder what is going on with the United States Post Office. I can remember the good old days when I would set at my kitchen table and write a letter off to my mother to let her know that I was alive and well and preggers again. I would seal the letter and toddle off to the post office to mail it to dear mother.

Well those days are all in the past! Mother has since passed to her great reward, the child bearing days are well over around here, and the United States Post Office is slowly being replaced by the Fax Machine and the computer. Not to mention the telephone and the cell phone.

I look back on the changes that have transpired since I was a little girl traipsing the dirt roads around my home town of Nickerson, Kansas, and it is enough to turn my hair white!

We used to be on a party line on the phone. That meant that several families shared the line. If it rang 2 longs and a short, that meant the phone was for us. 2 shorts and 2 longs was for someone else. We could pick up the phone and "listen in", but we could and would very get her little fannies warmed for that! I am pretty sure the operator who connected the phone calls was not above listening, because she was very knowledgeable about the goings on around town. She actually reported to my mother that my older sister was pregnant and stirred up a real hornets nest there! Just doing what she thought was right (Like eavesdropping was right!).

The telephone came in one color; black. It had a crank on the side and that is how you got the operator, turn the crank. She would, in due time answer "Number please!" Usually we just said the name of who we wanted and she rang it through. She knew where everyone was at any given time of the day, or at least where she thought they should be.

We took a tour of the telephone company when I was in grade school, probably about the third grade. That was an eye opener! The whole phone office was probably 10 foot square. The operator set on a little stool in front of a board which had a bunch of holes in it with wires connecting the parties talking. The operator, who I always thought to be 8 feet tall, was actually a very short woman, but just as crabby in real life as she was on the phone.

Is life better now? Depends. I can pick up the phone and instantly talk to my son in Dallas, or fire him off an email and have an answer via his Blackberry within seconds. Sure takes a lot of the mystery out of life. Oh, yeah, and the privacy. I know there are people lurking out there who want to steal my identity and know all my dirty little secrets, but here is the bottom line for you to think about; how long will it be before we all have a computer chip and all we have to do is think about the kid in Dallas and we will be connected by thought? Scares me.

Gives new meaning to the term Big Brother is wataching you!!