Those.....loopers!

I had promised myself that after my show last week, I'd be able to spend some time weaving rugs. Also, when we got the huge donation last week for the Tuesday Weavers, in organizing the annex they found several large bags of loopers that had been stored there. I knew they were there and had planned to bring them home to use but don't have alot of storage room in my studio either so had left them there til I needed them.

Well, this was a good time to bring them home so I spent several hours out in the yard cleaning loopers. Kind of a messy job but the stuff is biodegradable and we live on the edge of a hill so cleaning up was pretty easy. This is the kind of job that can't be done inside. The lint flies!

 The cleaned loopers look so nice. They're all nice and round and ready to go. Not alot of lint, although there will be some that shake out beneath the loom as I work.


 Here's what it looked like before I shook them. Tons of lint and lots of strings. All of that needed to be removed. That's why there's that huge pile of white stuff on the ground next to my chair.

 

 I got into the rhythm of grabbing at least a dozen of them between my thumb and middle finger, then reaching out and shaking them like crazy a few times. Stop, pull out the strings and shake a couple of extra times for good measure.

DH came home as I was finishing up and thought it was funny watching me sit on the driveway, shaking loopers.
I have one more big rubbermaid full of uncleaned loopers but have 3 already done, ready to go. I have half a vest left to weave on the loom. Then I"m putting on a long black warp to weave rugs. They won't all be these loopers, but several of them will be.
Some of the loopers will also be dyed with Rit for weaving later this winter.
What happens when I run out of these? I know a garage where there are hundreds of pounds more of this..... now just need another few nice days to sit out there and shake some more! We've had a few days of the cold rainy weather. I think it might be the very outer bands of Sandy?  We should have better weather later this week.
So that's what I'm doing this week. I hope you're able to get some weaving done as well!
Until next week
Carol