Bobbin Along

I'm still working on the tapestry rug. It's not perfect. I'm not to experienced in it but thought this would be a good chance to learn some tricks.

I did figure out how to make my own bobbins. At $20 a pop, I thought it would be worth it to make my own. I came up with this with dowels and beads. I love em. It only takes me five minutes to make one. I'm not so good at making the non-slip loop though.

Feeling Loomy

Now that I'm out of the hospital and in my new digs, I have the room to set up my looms. My little Dorset loom had a really long warp on it of ugly nylon. I decided to take the warp off and put it on the bigger loom so I could make some rugs with it. I had unwoven some rag rugs that were coming apart and within a day I was ready to weave. I finished the two rugs in record time and decided to try a tapestry rug with what warp was left.

Needle Felted Dorper Sheep

I decided to make a last minute present of a needle felted sheep. Dorpers are one of the favorite breeds of  sheep of people who keep sheep to train their border collies on. They are hair sheep - meaning they don't have usable fleece. They are very hardy, parasite resistant and easy keepers.They often have dark heads and white bodies although mixes come in all sorts of pretty spots and colors.

Mills and Snowmen

Here's the finished warping mill cut down to just fit on my folding table. It's not as small as the one online but I didn't want to cut too much. It actually works better than it did originally.

And here's the needle felting project.

Mini Warping Mill

One major obstacle to weaving in a camper is winding a warp.
Several years ago I had made a warping mill out of pvc pipe. It wasn't elegant, but it saved wear and tear on my arm trying to use a warping board.
When I moved to Texas and into a camper, I found the warping mill was just too big and I didn't have a table to set it on.

It also seems to be missing one cross piece.

While browsing online, I came across a teeny tiny warping mill. That started my brain cranking out ideas. What if I cut this warping mill down to fit my small folding table?  PVC is easy to cut and drill and I'd have something I could actually use. I won't be doing any large pieces for a while until I find a place where I can use my floor looms. Better to make small pieces and stitch them together than none at all.

I'll start on this as soon as I finish my needle felting projects.

Little loom.

I dragged my homemade table loom into the camper so I can work on the rugs. I have to move it to open the fridge or make the bed but otherwise it fits pretty well. Now I just need to get something for the warp. I'm thinking I'd like to get some nylon string that won't rot out, even though I hate working with it. It's slippery and a little harder to warp the loom. I'm better at warping now so it should be ok.

Re Rag Rug Experiment

I've heard about people taking a rag rug apart and re-weaving it, especially if it was a family heirloom that was coming apart. This isn't exactly a family heirloom, but it certainly was coming apart. The string warp was breaking, but the cloth weft was still in pretty good shape if somewhat faded. The fading seems to give it a softer look.
It came apart pretty easily, but I should have measured it before I started ripping it apart so I'd know how much rug I'll have to work with. I don't have a place to set up my bigger looms so I'm going to see what I can do with a table loom. I think I'll make smaller pieces and stitch them together.