2021 SO FAR

Over the Christmas break I committed to buying two spinning wheels, an old floor loom and a Rigid Heddle Loom.

The wheels were an Ashford Traditional, dating from the early 1980's, and a Sleeping Beauty Thumbalina, from the mid-1970's:

Sleeping Beauty Thumbalina, 32" Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom, 

Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel and a large box of roving.

The floor loom dates from 1974, made by C Fuller in Mangapai, Northland. It is a LeClerc Fanny-Style 4 Harness Countersunk.

She has been sitting in a barn for the last six years, about 20km from where she was made. I have named her Tirairaka, Tuhoe for Fantail, a native bird.

I took her completely apart, sanded her down, cleaned all the metal work, and reconstructed her. There were only 200 rusty heddles, so I've replaced them with 1000 brand new inserted eye heddles.

I made a warping trapeze so I didn't have to get hubby to help - his first question on helping me warp the Rigid Heddle Loom was "how long will this take?" Well, how long is a piece of string?! There is now a warp on the loom, and once the boat shuttle and bobbins arrive, I can get weaving.

It's a straight-draw sampler, so I can learn how to weave on a floor loom.

The Rigid Heddle Loom has a cotton warp on for teatowels. Not moving very fast, as I'm not terribly interested in it.

I've now spun 4 spools of yarn on the Traditional, getting better each time:

To help me with plying, I decided to make an Andean Plyer, as my arthritis makes it difficult to be wrapping things around my wrist:

Which was wound onto Version 1 of a Turkish Spindle:

Which progressed to Version 2:

To be made into a Diagonal Weave scarf, where you use the warp as the weft. My own handspun is the green and gold, with a blue variegated commercial merino.

I've also restored a early 1980's Ashford Drum Carder.

On the list of things to make are:

• a cage distaff
• a 2-row hackle
• a swing picker
• an e-bobbin winder

Which brings us to ... Adventures with Harakeke