Another year of weaving

 I never wanted to be a production weaver and as I look back at some of my earlier posts I realize that I have become just that!!  I have to many looms and to much stuff accumulated to weave!  What to do?  Well this is going to be the year that I do something,  just not sure yet.  So some pictures to share of what I have been up to this last year.

Weavings from the fall

 Just sharing some rugs I wove this last fall.  I am seriously thinking I need to start downsizing a bit.  I have to many looms and need to sell at least 2 this winter.  My goal has been to work up rag balls from fabric, fleece, denim strips, and sheets so that I can just sit down and weave a bunch up.  Its been hard to say no to folks who try to give me more stuff to weave with.  I am not doing much with classes this past year as we have been gone out of state quite a bit to our vacation house on the gulf of Texas that we bought one year ago.  The sun is shining so think I need to go take a walk. 

Here I go Again

 OK so I lied.  Its been over 2 years again since I left any bits of my wisdom here.  Sometimes when you go so long without writing, so much happens that you are afraid to even start again because there is this big hole.  Since this blog is about my weaving I will lay down what Ive been doing in that area of my life.  As I look back at this I see I have mentioned 2 very old looms that I sort of rescued and refurbished.  Both have new homes now I am happy to say.  The really old one I sold to a fellow fiber guild member  and did a house visit to help her warp it up the first time.  The old steel frame one I tried to sell but ended up donating it to the 4 H and it is housed only a few blocks from my house at the County Extension Office.  Strange how that happened.  I was determined that I wouldn't get roped in to teaching classes and after it sat there for over a year I ended up going in and helping them get it warped up for runner width and enough warp to last them awhile.  Well that was last year and they still haven't got anyone to weaving yet.  But they have been super nice to house my extra house plants as we have been traveling a bit and they have nice windows and like having them. Just before Christmas this last year I was crazy enough to buy another big loom  It has become a love/hate, relationship with that thing.  At the time I didn't know that we would be spending so much time out of state at a vacation home we bought in January!  So I just finished putting my second warp on it and this winter when I am home again I will try to find a buyer for it.  

The other big thing is that I invested some money in my weaving studio and had my carpenter totally redo the bathroom.  I always thought I would put a shower in it in case I wanted to convert it into a studio apartment.  Well he put in a shower, and a high-rise toilet.  We tore out the small kitchen cabinet and put cabinets all along that wall with new sink and faucets and a new water heater in the basement area.  I got a small refrigerator and have a microwave and hot plate if I needed it.    So no plans in the immediate future to convert the space to an apartment but the upgrades were a new investment.  A couple years ago I had to put in a new Electric panel and breaker box.  Moved it all to the outside of the building.  So that up grade was good too.  I never keep money from my rug sales for myself,  it just goes in the bank and I use it to buy weaving "stuff" and pay utilities, taxes, and insurance.  

There are a couple gals who are renting the old renovated  dental building next to my place and they are very motivated to help keep our little town going. They have a little boutique.  Also the gal who owns the quilt shop up the street opened a Mercantile Store adjoining to her quilt shop and it has all local vendors selling mostly all hand crafted items.  So its been nice having a booth there and letting someone else do the selling. These 3 gals are always doing events to draw folks to this little town and when I can I get involved and do weaving demonstrations and sell a few rugs to boot.  Win-Win.

So that pretty much catches me up on my weaving.  I have slowed down on doing weaving classes and this last year it seems most of my weaving has been for consignments and that's a nice thing to be recognized enough that folks come to me. 

I still have to much stock in my studio to get woven, and to many looms.  Goal this next year to to definitely downsize some and NOT take in any more fiber for weaving.  I WILL weave up the rag balls I have made and the selvage on hand already.  And I WILL take more classes to expand my knowledge to weave things out of my comfort zone.  This picture is my big skein of warp that I hand dyed after a class I took a couple years ago.  I really want to get back to my basket full of cotton skeins I made up to dye. 

Sometimes I just can't help myself

Late last fall I got a call from a gal that got my name from coming thru the farmers market where I set up to sell rugs.  She was moving out of state and had an old floor loom that she needed to get rid of and wondered if I would give her 50$ for it.  Of course I had to go look at it.  Turns out to be a really old steel frame loom made in Iowa.  So we took the little trailer to Joplin and brought it home.  A friend, Linda helped me put it together.  Lucky it came with some photos and some written info.  It is just 2 shaft and pretty cool old loom. I got it registered and found out it was made in 1934 and only about 1500 of them made.  Seems many were scrapped during WW2 for the metal drives.
It is a rough old girl and not easy to advance the warp, but weaves good.  I am now trying to find a good home for her.  My little weaving studio is just not big enough for this big girl.  I have had two new students to teach weaving to this last few weeks, and one of them has a brother and sister in law who are new weavers that she thinks would be interested in it.  They will be here visiting next week and hope to come by and look at it.  Looms are like puppies, don't go look!!!!!Might as well just bring the truck.  If I can get a picture transferred on here will try to do that.

Weaverbird is back

A few bags I wove a couple years ago  Wanted to get them added here I have made many more as I cant seem to help myself

I have been a rug weaver for many years and this last year I have decided to learn some new skills  I took a dying class a year ago and love the painted warps. Then I went back to the college weaving class to get motivation to learn setting the loom up to do some pattern weaving I will see if I can get a few pictures moved in 

OK now that I am back in the saddle I hope I can write my story here even if its just for me.

Flunked

OK  I have to admit it,  I flunk at managing a web site and at creating a sales spot on Etsy.  Having said that I have to tell you that I really don't care.  Not going to lose sleep over it or cry about it.  No one will notice or care.  There are so many web sites out there I have saved the cyber world from an overload.  LOL  Actually I have been very apathetic about the whole thing.  First of all the Web site costs me $$ a year for a lot of nothing.  I did a pretty good job setting it up then later came back to it and can't manage changes or links without getting professional advice.  So if I can get them to give me a refund, yes they already charged me for next year, I will shut that down.  Then the Etsy account.  I can hardly keep my rug stock up enough for my local markets, so why do I want to bother selling on line, shipping, keeping track of all that stuff. 
So by flunking at Cyber advertising, I have actually freed myself up a lot of aggravation. 
See I took a class in Cottage Industry Marketing.  Loved the class and tried to transition my book store over into a weaving studio by following every single thing I learned.  Turns out I did need about 75% of what I learned, but have learned that I needed to modify things to what I personally needed.

So here is my thought for today!  A little something I made a few years ago.

Hello from Weaver Birds Rugs

Since I have a FB for my Weaver Birds Rugs, this site sits with no stories.  But you don't put everything on  FB.  Well some do but I try not to.  I have a cute story about a student I had in my shop last week to teach weaving.  It was just a simple basic weaving class with me providing everything.  She ended up with a nice 5 foot table runner.  After she got home, she sent me a message that her husb was really impressed as he thought she would come home with a pot holder!!!!  She was beaming when she left.  I love teaching someone a new skill that they had no idea they could do.
I have acquired a couple antique looms this past year.  One is a huge Studio loom.  here is a picture of it.

It has a number on the front post and I sent the info in and got it registered and just found out it was built in Davenport Iowa in Dec. of 1957.  I thought it might be older.  It weaves really good.

I am still writing a monthly column for a local paper, I use about half my space sort of as a personal blog with info of whats going on with my weaving, farmers market and my shop and guild events.  Then I review a couple books.  I do have I few followers I have found.  Cool.