Busy day yesterday. We’ve decided to plant several fruit and citrus trees in our backyard, and that means rerouting the pipes for the sprinkler system. And that means a lot of digging. Sounds easy but when your land is very dry and tightly packed, with some rocks thrown in for good measure, it takes a lot longer than you think. I would estimate that it took about an hour and a half to dig a 6 ft trench, 6-8 inches deep, and maybe 6 inches wide. That’s just a drop in the bucket for what needs to be done.
I had all the zip ties on the Baby Mac, just needed to add the Texsolv tie-ups, and actually connect them to the treadles. Eventually I’ll have Texsolv in all the zip ties. I’ve left the Texsolv long enough that it can stay in the treadle slots. If a tie isn’t needed, I’ll put the peg in the bottom hole so it doesn’t slide completely out. I don’t think I have to worry about any of my lamms breaking now. These are the new lamms from Macomber. No plastic or bakelite or whatever they had before that broke.
An aside, this loom was made or sold in December 1975. It has a Pan Am tag on it where it traveled to or from Tokyo.
This one looks exactly like the draft, no surprises like the beginning of the weaving
There’s a part of me that considers doing the rest of the piece in this pattern, and then it could be used for a scarf (after I cut out the first part that wasn’t working). I have other tie ups and treadlings that I want to try, though, so I’ll continue on and see how the different designs change in the wet finishing. I might even cut off and rethread.
