Just the Cutest Thing

Let me show you something...

No, I haven't bought a new spinning wheel but if I'd seen this for sale, it would have been really, really hard to pass up.  I don't know if it functions but it's the cutest thing I've ever seen and it weighs about an ounce.  Goodness me.

It's actually just passing through.  Evidently there's a little network out there that will get antique wheels from one end of the country to the other.  I believe this one came from Nevada and is heading to Michigan.  A friend of mine brought it here from Iowa and was supposed to meet someone who could take it to Chicago on the next leg.  Unfortunately, that link seems to have fallen through but since I was headed back to the Chicago area this weekend, I said I would take it.  And the person it's going to lives just a few minutes from where I'll be meeting with the LACE group.  Cool, n'est pas?

I feel honored just to have fostered this lovely little thing in my home.  Fair trip, little spinning wheel.

Overshot Weaving

We've just finished the workshop on Overshot Weaving with Vicki Tardy and what a weekend.  My brain is so full, it's overflowing.  What everyone said about her it true - great teacher, knows her subject back and forth and every which way.  She takes all the mystery our of it and makes it an adventure! 

I used a whig rose pattern and here are some of the samples I was able to get done:

The first one here is my regular pattern woven as drawn in with handspun Border Leicester, then with purple zephyr (wool and silk lace weight).

These are variations of the pattern using variations of the pattern and a variety of pattern threads.

This is the same pattern using a brocade variation (on the left) and 2 variations of the pattern woven "treadled as twill." 

It's all in the teacher, I assure you.  I can't wait to work the remaining warp.  Look, Ma, I'm weaving!