Always Doing it the Hard Way

It is the story of my life.

A normal person would go out, take a weaving class, buy a new loom and start weaving.

Not me.

I drag home a pile of pine and cherry wood that someone claims is a loom. Then try to assemble it without any instructions. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the picture is.

Once I got it assembled I needed to start refurbishing it. I first had to sand off  the paint overspray.

Then replace all the worn out yarn heddles, which meant completely disassembling the loom and putting it back together three times. (It seems I’m a slow learner.)

Finally, the wood soaked up a coat of tung oil like a camel in the desert.  After a sufficient drying time I started adding the warp for my first project. I’m half way there.

All this led to a feeling of loom knowledge superiority even though I haven’t finished a single project. Given that I was now an expert I decided to dive into warping the looms at Billie Creek Village.

Yeah.

This is a picture of Karen my trusty spotter, telling Charlie I don’t have a clue what I am doing. She was “spotting” me to make sure I didn’t tie myself up in the loom as I could have ended up stranded there for days before anyone noticed.

She was right. I had no idea what I was doing. It is completely different than the loom at home. I managed to get the sectional warp beam loaded but couldn’t figure out what the next step was. We quit and decided to go home and consult the internet. Baby steps. The goal is to set up a rug weaving studio in the log cabin to sell rugs in the General Store.

Clearly, it’s not going to happen over night.

Before we left we toured the wood carving studio and the pottery shop for inspiration.

Attendance at the Village is way down, just like everywhere else these days. But we are continuing to plug forward with the motto, “If we build it, they will come.”

You’ll come, right?

Right?

Just say yes to humor me.