The Big Trip

This weekend was amazing! I took a couple days off from work so I could go with my friend, Celena, on a road trip to Oregon. She wanted to go and visit some friends and I wanted to go pick up weaving supplies from the weaver I’m starting to work with.

We had originally planned to put two beams of thread into Celena’s little hatchback. Ah, the best laid plans...

This is the big beam, warped with 150 yards, wrapped up and ready to go.


...and this is the other beam. This is the one that will make for a smooth transition into this contract because it’s already threaded and sleyed. We’ll just pop the parts off her loom, drop them onto mine and go!


Here’s what the yarn storage looks like for someone who’s making a living from it. And don’t worry, Carl, this is not what’s going to happen to our living room...



We set to work trying to get the loom parts into the car. We got one beam in!


...and then took stock of the weft thread that would need to go with us.


...and realized that there was no way that another beam and all the boxes of thread were going to fit. Here’s the end result with only one beam. We tried every configuration that we could think of. It just was not going to happen.


...and here’s the beam that was left behind. I don’t know the whole story, but this warp has been so difficult to finish that it has come to be called “The Devil Beam.”


Next time I make this trip, it will be with a truck so I can bring home this beam and a couple more. Poor little guy really does look lonely sitting on the ground there. I’d love to weave it up!

This is going to make my first beam much more difficult. I now have to thread and sley the whole thing myself before I can start weaving.

After loading up the car, I spent a day and a half at Wolf Creek Sanctuary, enjoying the delicious well water and taking in the view. Here’s a panorama photo that I took at sunset. What a beautiful place! Click this image to see the full-size version hosted at Flickr.