I texted LouAnn yesterday and told her that I had not gotten started on the 2.2 pounds of Bombyx silk fiber in Brick form, that I purchased last month for my Birthday, and that I am using it as a carrot to get some things done before I start. She wanted to know if I was crazy or something, but I know that once I get started spinning silk, I may not want to stop!
One of the biggest things I had to get done, before I start spinning that lovely silk was the bags of loopers that had not been de-linted needed to be. Several days last week I worked on them and all day Wednesday I worked steadily until I got to the lint in the bottom of the last bag.
This stringy stuff, and it's accompanying lint gets everywhere when you are working on the loopers, that I think is kind of why I hadn't tackled it yet.
As LouAnn mentioned yesterday, I am getting John her ORCO rug loom. I had recently sold a project Cambridge loom when I realized that while I enjoy tinkering with looms and wheels, I am not very good at full blown restoration. It was just about that same time when LouAnn decided that John might need to find a new home.
Anyway, that is what has fueled this push to get the looper mess in hand. I already mentioned last week that I am dyeing the loopers with some Rit Dye that Carol had given me ages ago. As I sorted thru loopers and grouped and washed them a couple of times in the washer, I dyed them in batches of 300 to 400 loopers .
I had to take a break from dyeing cause I ran out of washed loopers, I think I only have 3 more bottles of dye left. So this dyeing bonanza will soon be over. I did a rough estimate on just how many loopers we are talking about. ( I zip tied them in groups of 100 so it wasn't terrible difficult to do.) I have over 100,000 loopers on hand.
Here are the colors I have so far, when I dyed the first batches I did 300 loopers per pot, but I soon realized that I could easily fit another 100 in the pot and still get good color.
The black ones were already black, but they had to be washed too. Among the colors I have left to use is a bottle of black, and I think I am going to go ahead and use it on 400 of them, it will probably end up a different shade of black than what I already have.
There are still 4 bags of loopers that are de-linted and zip-tied together that still need to be washed and I am really tempted to take them to the laundromat and give my washing machine a break! Once they are clean I can finish dyeing those last 3 batches and be done with it!!!! YAY!
Now I just have to chain them and weave them into rugs!
Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina
This stringy stuff, and it's accompanying lint gets everywhere when you are working on the loopers, that I think is kind of why I hadn't tackled it yet.
As LouAnn mentioned yesterday, I am getting John her ORCO rug loom. I had recently sold a project Cambridge loom when I realized that while I enjoy tinkering with looms and wheels, I am not very good at full blown restoration. It was just about that same time when LouAnn decided that John might need to find a new home.
Anyway, that is what has fueled this push to get the looper mess in hand. I already mentioned last week that I am dyeing the loopers with some Rit Dye that Carol had given me ages ago. As I sorted thru loopers and grouped and washed them a couple of times in the washer, I dyed them in batches of 300 to 400 loopers .
I had to take a break from dyeing cause I ran out of washed loopers, I think I only have 3 more bottles of dye left. So this dyeing bonanza will soon be over. I did a rough estimate on just how many loopers we are talking about. ( I zip tied them in groups of 100 so it wasn't terrible difficult to do.) I have over 100,000 loopers on hand.
Here are the colors I have so far, when I dyed the first batches I did 300 loopers per pot, but I soon realized that I could easily fit another 100 in the pot and still get good color.
The black ones were already black, but they had to be washed too. Among the colors I have left to use is a bottle of black, and I think I am going to go ahead and use it on 400 of them, it will probably end up a different shade of black than what I already have.
There are still 4 bags of loopers that are de-linted and zip-tied together that still need to be washed and I am really tempted to take them to the laundromat and give my washing machine a break! Once they are clean I can finish dyeing those last 3 batches and be done with it!!!! YAY!
Now I just have to chain them and weave them into rugs!
Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina
1 comment:
I see some colorful rugs in your future!!! Now, get out that silk!!!!
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