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The hardest part of finishing up knitting a sweater is to find the right button. Here are three for the Mountain Girl's "Big Wood" sweater. I sent these pictures to Mama so she could decide, because I sure couldn't. The silver buffaloes are a bit of joke because they live in Boulder, home of the Colorado Buffaloes at the university.
*Mama said "Braided" emphatically.
Baby girl got big this year and needs a new sweater, a couple sizes up. Hoping I get this done before Christmas.
This is lovely "Big Wood" yarn from www.barrettwoolco.com
I have almost finished restoring my loom which took something of a hit when it was stored for a number of years, and then returned with missing parts and broken parts. It has been an age since I have set up a warp, threaded heddles, and sat at the beam. I am looking forward to it. Keeping old skills new is a great joy. I love learning and here relearning. I am more patient with myself, but I miss some of the old boldness of the 18 year old self who first bought the loom in the 1970s and believed firmly that she could figure it all out. I still owe something to that girl and so returning to loom is a way of thanking her for the faith and confidence in me.
Weaving is such a lovely contradiction between absolute precision and wild instinct -- knowing the needed yardage, carefully laying it out along the warping board, patiently threading it through the heddles, through the reed, tying it on, running the lease sticks through, winding it on....and then, only then after the first foot, do you know what you have for sure. Like writing...not until it's done do you know the shape of the work and how well you have made it.
Thinking out of the box is always productive. I needed to replace two steel 36 inch rods in my loom. I checked with the only dealer out there who specializes in replacement parts for my loom, located in Canada. Two Leclrec rods were going to cost me with shipping --$80.00. But a metal worker friend in town sent me to Tucson Industrial Metal Supply and I found EXACTLY the same 2 rods for a total cost of $1.70. Feeling very metalhead right now.
Midori Snyder is the author of nine books for children and adults, published in English, French, Dutch, and Italian. She won the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati, a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte" tradition....more
