Yes, the first will be basically whites with splashes of baby colors, so they will work for boys or girls. I've also decided to do lap rugs for the vets in wheelchairs so they aren't so exposed in those awful pj's and gowns. The vets need things like that to call their own. The idea is to get them to realizes other people still think they're viable, and we still know they exist.
That sounds like a good idea, Ina. I'm sure they will appreciate it very much especially knowing that you made them yourself just for them.
Well I woke up at 3:30am this morning, I guess I was just too excited to get started working on my loom. I soon found out that it takes very good lighting to do the warp threads. I had to undo it a couple of times before I realized I was wasting my efforts, so I decided to lay down and watch TV until sunrise. I woke up at 11:00am. But After a big cup of coffee, I started the warping all over for the third time. It is amazing what you can accomplish when you can see properly. So here are three pictures of what my first warp looks like. If it looks like a lot of threads, it is. I haven't counted them yet, but I know there are more than 400 slots and each has two threads running through each slot.
WoW!! that looks amazing already Ina... I can see you're going to be very proficient at this in no time at all..
Thank you @Holly Saunders , proficient is a very good word for the things I do. Maybe that's why I think of all the different things I do as just puttering around. Give me instructions and I can do it. To me art is something unique that comes from inside a person, and is not duplicatable by anyone else. I've built a small house out of materials that came from a dump. I taught my boys how to make their own slalom water skies when they were 10 and 12. I've tanned the hides of the beef we raised. If it could benefit my family, I was the one who figured out how to do it. I come from people that figured out how to live off the land. Money was something to be hoarded, and only used for things you couldn't supply for your family yourself. As much as I loved my Michael, he was a city boy. At 15 I thought him the most intelligent person ever. I think his genius was in the way he never let me think I couldn't do something. When I was young, others saw whatever I did as an aspect of my being poor, now they call it art.
Well friends, I just thought I was tired yesterday. I at least waited for the sun this morning. I kept thinking I either put the loom together wrong, or I thought I was doing the weaving wrong. I am so glad that I purchased the stand for the loom. At least at this time I can't sit and hold the frame to do the work, too much pain bending forward. But I found that I can stand and the pain is much less. I'm only going to be able to work for 5 or 6 hours at a time. But this is what I accomplished today. It measures 6 inches up so far.
@Ina I. Wonder , that is BEAUTIFUL ! ! ! The blanket already looks soft and cuddly. What size of yarn are you using for the colored yarn ? Is it a regular 4-ply yarn or the smaller 2 or 3-ply baby yarn ? Or something else entirely ? The closest I have ever come to weaving anything with a loom was years ago when I was making beadwork hatbands for my cowboy hat. It was a much smaller loom, and very thin thread and special beadwork needles that I had to use to make the hat bands. It was so hard to see, and so frustrating to get all of the beads in the right little spaces that I only did a little bit of it at a time, and stopped when it became too frustrating for me. I enjoyed doing it back then; but would never even think of attempting something like that now. I am impressed with your weaving so far, and I am glad that you have found something that you enjoy doing so much to help occupy your time.
Looking good, Ina! 5-6 hours a day? That will keep you out of trouble. just make sure you still have time for us. How many baby blankets do you plan on making? Also, will you do all those first before you start the lap rugs?
@Ina I. Wonder, the blanket looks lovely already, I love the colors! Creating things on a loom always amazed me. You're so cool!
@Yvonne Smith , I told you I needed to be educated in yarn. So it's your faults that I'll be giving you stupid answers. All I know this the warp threads are white crochet thread for like dollies, and the weft variegated colored thread is just one ply I think. If that means how many threads it takes to wind Into a strand. I admit I'm too lazy to read three or four books to learn about yarn or weaving. I watched YouTube!!! I still haven't been able to bring myself to read much, except for my favorite forum, since Young Mike died two years ago. I'm tired of worrying about that, so I figure reading will start again whenever I can do it without always thinking of him. When talking to people about what kind of loom to buy, no matter what kind it was they all suggest 12,18, or 24 inch looms. You can only make a limited width of cloth, and the looms are expensive. So I look until I found my 48 inch loom. Then I was told most weavers ended up buying larger and larger looms as they progressed in the craft. Yes the 48 inch it is much harder to work from one side to the other, but my financial sense jump in, and I realized that you could easily spend 3 or 4 thousand dollars on looms ands other equipment before you got to making blankets or cloth. @Chrissy Page , I'm not sure of the cost yet. I went and spent a hundred on the two yarns you seen. Now I'll see how many 4'X4' baby blankets I get out of the supplies I have. @Ruby Begonia , It is not hard to do once you get the basics down, and I can still listen to music, watch the TV, or watch the birds, squirrels, even horses. I live in a weird little rural pocket of about 90 homes, and almost everyone has 5 to 30 acers of property. Although the city of Houston has almost encircling us. We're not even an incorporated area. We still have our own well and septic systems. Well it's back to work for me.
@Ina I. Wonder ,would you be able to weave a 2 or 3 foot wide blanket, by only using the center portion of your loom? Would this limit your reaching and the material needed?
If you look at the labels on the balls (skeins) of yarn, it should say right on there how much the weight of the skein is (3oz, 6oz, etc.), and also it should name the yarn , such as "3-ply baby yarn", or "4-ply worsted" (the size that I used for your socks and rug) , and also how long the skein is, usually in yards. Once you have that information, it will help you in determining the price and economy of the yarn, since a 4oz skein of one brand of yarn might cost more/less that 4oz of a different brand. That is your yarn lesson for the day, @Ina I. Wonder . Your homework will be to look at the labels on the yarn that you already have and determine what it is.
@Joe Riley , yes I can make the width anything from a couple of inches on up to 4 foot wide and as long as I can make the warp. Baby blankets need to be at least 3x4 foot, and the lap blankets need to be around 4x5 foot to be comfy. So I might as well start building those back muscles again. It's not the left to right movements that hurt my back, it's the leaning forward. So I do most of the work standing. Although I'm only 5' 5", my shoulder span is 24", and to be comfortable I tend to throw my shoulders back like a soldier, which I can't do while bending forward. I broke my back at 9, and now I have upper and lower spinal stenosis. So it's called grin and bear it. I've been doing that for 55 years now, and it's either quit doing anything or push forward. We all do it. But I'm going to make some pretty blankets.
Well here is my first baby blanket. My instructions say that after I wash it with softener the knots in the threads will blend in. I'll find out tomorrow. As far as cost goes I am estimating the cost at about $20.00 for my first blanket. It measure 40"x 48", and I think I can bring the cost down when I find a good source to buy bulk amounts of yarn. I still have to do something with the fringe on both side. I want to make sure there is nothing a baby can strangle on like the fringe.