Emerging into a world gone wild

I can't believe how much has changed in my world since last time I wrote here.

I quit my job, moved, did a LOT of temp work, got a new job and then things REALLY got interesting. 

I am now living in Kansas, one of the fancy KC suburbs. 

I have started weaving.  Its a long story:

My father's sisters (and my mother) have had an annual get together for several years. They all get together and quilt. The first few years were at a youth camp in ND. Great fun, worth the drive even from KS. 

My father's mother was also crafty and she had a loom that she made rugs with in her scary basement. I was always delighted to get to go down and help her. After she died the loom went through the hands of a couple of my aunts (there are a fair few of them). My Aunt Mary had it at her place and when her craft building (yes, she has a building for all her crafty activities, I am a bit jealous) needed to be replaced the loom came out and went into storage. 

In my family there is some debate - I remember Grandma telling me I could have her loom some day. My Aunt Angie says it was given to her. Who can say, the truth is aged by time and a child can misunderstand. Certainly not worth fussing about. But I did mention it to my mother, who mentioned it to my Aunts. I was asked if I wanted the loom and had a place to use it. Indeed I did! That trip to Aunty Camp included driving the van to my Aunt's house to acquire a loom. 

There was some fussing to get the loom into the room where it now resides. We had to make a new piece for one that had been damaged long ago (who else would have a piece of walnut exactly the correct size for making a new loom piece?). I took a class, wove some fabric, wove some rugs. 

Then I discovered that my grandmother's lovely loom, while it could manage some nice weaving couldn't do all the things I wanted to do. Then the trouble began. I found a loom about 45 minutes away for an amazing price. Again the van and I went for a road trip (this time Rob came along) and we brought home ANOTHER loom. This loom lived in my office (it is now in the care of a friend who wanted to learn weaving). It is a lovely loom, made of cherry and quite sound.

Then I found a weaving class I wanted to take, in North Carolina. So I started looking for a workshop loom. Something I can take to a class, and fold up warped (in case I didn't finish in the week the class happened). In fairly short order I found one - in St. Louis. Road trip! And thus the Baby Mac joined our family.

I joined the local Weavers Guild. There was an advertisement for a larger floor loom with much more complex weaving options. It is different than all my other looms - we had to borrow a truck and a friend to get it home and we couldn't get it up the stairs.  It now fills half of our living room. It's a beautiful piece of art, complete with brass fittings. 

Now a sane person would think that was sufficient. Luckily (?) I am not that person. The floor looms have been joined by a Gobelin style tapestry loom (which I am still trying to learn how to use) and a Navajo loom (the seller of the tapestry loom insisted I take it when I bought the tapestry loom). 

I am still reading about Navajo style weaving and, while I have acquired supplies, I have yet to take the leap and warp it. 

But the true treasure is the warp weighted loom that I bought at a weaver's downsizing sale. It is the cheapest loom I own but to me it is without price. Some of my readers will know of my interest in Medieval history, this loom is among the very oldest style of looms.  Rob had asked me to marry him, I said I wanted a warp weighted loom as my bride price. Rob was going to make me one but there were technical issues (like he doesn't understand the technique of weaving and so his attempts to improve the design were not improvements). Then he was saved from perpetual fiancé-hood by the sale. All he had to do was take me to the sale at an ungodly hour and then wait down the street until I had completed the purchase before collecting us and bringing us home. (in the corner of this picture you can see the Baby Mac. It is folded, having just returned from the aforementioned friend who exchanged the little loom for a slightly larger loom to continue her foray into weaving)

And in June the wedding happened, bride price having been received and all that jazz.