Oxford House

Oxford House, originally uploaded by life_at_oxford_house.

Life at Oxford House

I'm finally moved.

The month of January was spent making repairs to the Oxford house. Every waking hour not spent at work was spent painting, patching holes, installing shower walls, and fixing everything imaginable. Most of the work was done in freezing temperatures (the paint was frozen, the joint compound was frozen... everything was ice), no running water, electrical problems, so many little things went wrong. When finally the water was on, there were plumbing problems and the pipes had burst... but a month and a half later the hard part is over. There is much left to do, but it has been so worth it. I love the house, the location, the peace. I love walking with Molly through the fields and among the monstrous old trees. All of my furniture and belongings look like they belong in the house. It is so worth the challenge of dealing with all the little issues that come along with living in a 100+ year old house. I love breathing life back into this beautiful home.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/11197619@N02/sets/

And a great adventure begins...

It's been a long time since the last update- a lot has been going on! I've been working out of town most of the month, but now I'm finally back. I recently got handed an unexpected challenge. Unfortunately the bank will not let me keep my house without my ex-husband also being on the mortgage. My looms and I are looking for a new home. Needless to say this has been a very stressful time, but I'm trying to think of it as an adventure. I have my eye on an old Victorian farmhouse... that is If the landlord will work with me on putting in heat and making some repairs! Plenty of room for looms there. Wish me luck.

Weaving ahead...

Just taking a moment away from the loom to post a couple of photos- first the loom itself, a dandy little loom it is! I'm enjoying having it in the living room, but still look forward to getting my loom room put together (and second loom up and running)!




Not a tremendous amount of new things to talk about today- still weaving along on the black scarf warp. Below you can see what the same pattern as the purple scarf looks like when woven more loosely and with multi-colour yarn. I'm still quite in love with the way the pattern flows! This is the same yarn you can see being wound from around my steering wheel in an older post.

Maiden Voyage

Meet the new scarf! I am sort of in love with this weaving pattern. I was worried it was a bit too ambitious for my maiden voyage on the new loom considering that I haven't done any serious weaving since I worked at Churchill Weavers three years ago. I hit a few hitches on the first scarf I attempted, which I half (more like 75%) anticipated. I got the problems with the warp fixed pretty easily (I rolled the whole warp off in the floor in the process, to the utter delight of my cat, Linux). I really like the black warp- I was worried that the heathered purple wool wouldn't show up too well, but as you can see it really "pops". (The purple is good ol' Cascade 220 from ReBelle). I'm thinking I'll do a few more black-warp scarves, and then switch to a natural colour cotton warp and do a few more while I have the loom threaded up with this pattern.

Disreguard the Mistramp, Please

I stayed up until after 4:00 am a few nights ago putting together a draft and getting a warp on the new loom- please pardon the mistramps (then again, I don't think they count when it's this far past my bedtime!) I've already pulled this out, I don't want to waste an inch of my warp. I thought this warp was pretty short at 7 1/2 or 8 yards (I suck at math) but apparently that's a pretty long warp. I'm still in "production weaver mode." Think 30 yards... 50 yards... or more. 7 yards seems so short to me! It probably won't seem so short weaving without the benefit of the flyshuttle looms. I can't wait to get home to my loom!

Warp- Valley Yarns black cotton perle/Weft- Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool

Much Excitement!!!

With much excitement, I present to you:

My very first whole skein of yarn! I bought the roving at Stone's Throw Artisans here in Georgetown. I made it on my Ashford drop spindle after recently learning from Traci (of Silver Wheel Yarn fame). I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome, and I plan on weaving it into a scarf on my new 32" Macomber Ad-A-Harness Loom!

The loom was a much appreciated gift from Ola Jean. She used it years ago at Save the Children, long before we worked together at Churchill Weavers. She mentioned that she had a loom when we were at the family homecoming back in July. I told her that if she ever decided to get rid of it to let me know first, and I'd be happy to buy it. The next day she called my granny and told her to let me know I could come pick it up. I didn't know what kind of loom it was or anything- it was a total surprise!


Here you can see the loom in the back of the truck, it folds up quite nicely (unlike my Leclerc Inca Loom which has to be completely taken apart). Along with the loom, there is a nice bench with a storage compartment, two Schacht boat shuttles and a nice stick shuttle, two heddle threading hooks, extra heddles, and some other extra parts for the loom. The loom itself is in excellent condition, I couldn't be more pleased with it. I can't wait to get a warp on it and see how it weaves! In honor of it's previous owner, the loom shall be named "Ola Jean." May she weave many a fine thing.