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I guess it was bound to happen.

I had dabbled in weaving before.
Built a simple frame loom.
Had The Man build me a peg loom.

So you could say I was loom-curious.
But I really wasn’t looking.

Honest.

I hadn’t written anything about it here, but I had recently listed my Kromski Minstrel for sale on Ravelry and Craigslist.
The only inquiries I received were from people who wanted me to ship her, and I didn’t want to deal with all that.
So I thought I would just hang onto her for a while, even though she hasn’t been getting much use since my new lateral treadle model has come on the scene.

Then I got an email from someone local offering a straight trade.
For a loom.

Harrisville Designs 4 harness 22 inch floor loom.

Here she is in my sewing room.

Cool,eh? Already warped and everything. (I didn’t do that, she came with a warp on!)

Yeah, I started playing around tonight with some monkey sweater leftovers.

This is so neat. 🙂

Out goes an old chicken house-

From Property

And in come some new chicks!

From Chickens

Everything is still pretty new and scary for the new girls, but they are very sweet and hopefully they will settle in and learn their way around the pasture in the next few days.

I am very pleased to report that the surgery was a success, and the patient is resting comfortably  on my cedar chest 🙂

Here is the photo documentary of the procedure:

Here you see the underarm area beforehand, with stitch markers indicating the stitches to be “reduced”.

My first step was to mattress stitch the front to the back, down the columns of stitches with the markers. I worked from the underarm down, and then went back and did from the underarm to almost halfway down the sleeve.

Then, I turned the sweater inside out, and machine stitched a single row just inside the line of mattress stitch, just to make sure everything was secured.

Now here’s the scary part. The cutting.

The leftover strips of excess fabric are about 2 inches side each, and I figure with seam allowances and all, I trimmed the width down by about 6 inches total.

Don’t have a picture of me in it yet, but the fit is so much better!

This weekend was gloriously warm and sunny.
Perfect for washing fleece!

Here are Felix and Griff batches drying on the picnic table.

They looked so gorgeous sitting there that I just had to take a minute to thanks the sheeps that make this all possible.

So I went out to visit the guys and spend a little time telling them how cool they are.

And I took them some of their favorite treats- salmonberry branches.

What a cool bunch of guys.

Also wanted to provide an update on the Monkey Sweater.

Here’s the thing. It was done. Off the needles.

And I liked it.
Really.

But I didn’t love it. And it was my fault.
I made it too large.

I can wear it (and have), and the shoulders fit fine, and the sleeves are the right length and everything.

But somehow the body is too big. Baggy.
And when I wear it, I think it looks kinda schlumpy.

And I don’t want that for the Monkey Sweater.
I want to love the Monkey Sweater.

I’ve been thinking about it alot.
And I tried it on again yesterday and came up with a plan.

I’m taking it in.
All the way up each side and through the underarm.

According to my not-so-scientific calculations, that should bring it back to Perfect Sweater size.

I intend to operate tomorrow.

Wish me luck.