Colorful Fleece

I have made some progress from last week, you can see just a bit of pink and yellow at the far left of this photo.  Big Bertha, the 60 inch Leclerc Nilart, is behaving beautifully!  I am using almost the full width of the reed and by standing to weave, my 5ft 1inch frame is not overly taxed.  There are so many treadles on this 12 harness loom that I was able to put 2 separate direct tie-ups, one at each end of the rack of treadles.  My hips are very happy to weave like this and I am now looking at the other looms I have and making plans to pare down a bit during this brand new year.

I realized sometime last week that I was going to have to buy more colorful fleece to complete the rug.  To get to the target length of 100 inches or so, I will have to repeat the color sequence a total of 4 times and not twice like I had originally thought.  (Math is certainly not one of my strengths!)  I was able to take advantage of a good sale going on at the fabric store closest to me, which is always a good thing. I was also able to match the colors that I had bought the first time, which I was a little concerned about.

I have everything ready for the next stripe, red with first a green accent and then a yellow accent.  After that it will be pink with yellow accent and then a solid pink stripe.  From this photo you can see that I am cutting the strips of fleece into 4 inch lengths, it speeds the whole process considerable.

Next week I hope to get to the half way mark with the prepared strips that I already have on hand ready to go.  It will then take a day or so to strip the second batch of fleece.  Maybe, just maybe I will be able to get this off the loom by the end of January.  I sure hope so, I have a list a mile long of projects for Big Bertha, I just have to decide which one to do first!!!!

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina