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Mysteries of the Peg Loom- Revealed!

Sorry for leaving y’all hanging last week.

Now that I have a moment to sit down and blog, I’ll give you a quick rundown on the workings of this cool little gadget.

The peg loom is simple to construct. Just a length of wood with holes drilled into it (not all the way through, but deep enough for the pegs to sit securely) and as many pegs the same size as the holes.

In each of these pegs, there is a small hole drilled through, just above where it sits in the base.

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And in each of these little holes you thread through yarn or string, which will serve as your warp.

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You want each warp thread to be twice the length of your intended project. Pull it through the hole, join the ends and tie. So each warp thread is independent, just threaded through it’s peg.

Once you’ve got the warps threaded through each peg, you’re ready to weave!

To get started, you’ll take whatever you are using as weft and make a slip knot with it, placing it around the first peg on whichever side you’re starting from- just to anchor it.

Then you simply weave back and forth around the pegs, figure-eight style-

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Do this weaving back and forth until you’ve built up a fair amount of weft on the pegs.

Now here is the magic part.

You pull the pegs up and out.
One at a time.

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And then put them back in.

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Pulling the warp through the weft as you go.

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Until all your pegs are empty again and ready for another round.

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Neat, eh?

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It goes quickly if you use thick materials- roving, multiple strands of yarn, fabric strips.

I saw on Ravelry someone who uses a peg loom to weave rugs from felted fleeces that are unspinnable- cutting or tearing the fleece into strips.

Pretty, pretty cool.

Back on the Needles Again

Classic Oak is assembled (not that you can tell that from the picture, but I swear it’s true!)

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Now all that remains is the button band/collar.
I’ve never done a button band before, and the buttonhole technique/size was worrying me a bit-
so I’d been procrastinating all week.

Tonight, after much gauge measuring and button size contemplation, I decided to go for it.

All the stitches are picked up (all those little tan yarn bits are markers for stitch spacing).
And after all my fussing and cogitating about buttonhole techniques, I’ve decided to just do the darn thing exactly according to the instructions and buy buttons to fit after it’s done.

Why do I find it so hard to trust patterns?

Sharing, Shearing, Sewing

Saturday I participated in the 1st annual Whatcom SkillShare and Barter Faire

As you might guess, my SkillShare was spinning. I brought a whole bunch of wool, carders, two wheels, and some yarn and small items to barter with if the opportunity arose.

It was a good time. I really enjoyed talking to people about wool and spinning, and folks seemed to appreciate having a chance to get behind the wheel and see what they could do.

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There were also people demonstrating and instructing people on drop spindle and supported spindle spinning. So we had a whole array of options for the wool-curious to check out.

And I actually did my first ever bit of bartering! I brought home a reversible little project bag, some grapefruit scented hand cream, facial toner, and herbal soap. Mmmmm. good smellin’ stuff 🙂

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Then today, much to my amazement, my stupid rope trick (see Outsmarting the Smarty Sheeps worked again! So I had the chance to spend some quality time with Frank and get the last of this Fall’s shearing done.

Here is Frankie-boy mid-shear
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Oh my gosh! He actually is white under all that messy wool!

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So that was cool. All the boys are fresh and sporty-lookin’.

And sewing. Lets not forget about the sewing.

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Really pleased with how this is going so far.

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Hope that I didn’t just jinx myself by writing that 😉

Still have most of the side and under-sleeve seams to go, but
The sleeves are in! The sleeves are in!

Can you tell how excited I am?