Warning: Disaster Ahead...

We'll start with the good and sorta good first though. The Flip is here! This is how it was packed:So it took maybe two minutes to assemble, unlike the Harp that came in several pieces. All I had to do was unwrap the plastic, unfold it, and attach the dowels:


Originally I was going to do mug rugs on it for a quickie project to test it out, but now I'm thinking of trying dishcloths that will match the towels on the Harp, even though I'll end up using different-sized heddles. I'm using a 10 on the Harp, and I ordered an 8 with the Flip. More on the reasons for that idea later.

Speaking of heddles - the really good news is that I ordered a 16" Ashford heddle with the 15" Flip - and IT FITS in the heddle blocks. Since the bottom of the heddle is rounded and the Flip block slots are flat-bottomed, I may end up 'flattening' the bottom of the heddle so it sits better. It's a tad bit wobbily in the slots as well, but it fits well enough to use. :-D


On to spinning. I put the plying flyer on the Babe Thursday night and oiled in the appropriate places and thought I was pretty much ready to go. I even assembled my tensioned lazy kate:I found these instructions quite awhile ago on the Crafty Canines' blog:

DIY Tensioned Lazy Kate

and added a couple of modifications from the Keyboard Biologist's version.

Building a Homemade Lazy Kate

It works, too. :-D

Then I tried treadling the wheel. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the plying flyer hit the bottom bar. :-/ So I sanded off the shoulders carefully, which took quite awhile, watched the plying video on my Joy of Spinning cd again, and sat down to ply. Again the flyer was hitting the bar - there is a lot of 'slop' in how the flyer shaft runs, and it kept moving toward me and the thicker part of the bar. Off I went to find something to use as a spacer to keep it back against the wheel post (I tried yarn, but it got wound up under the brake and the bobbin). Luckily I found a bit of tubing that fit, and finally I'm plying:
It seems like the plys aren't very 'close' together, but if I do it much tighter then the ply becomes unbalanced. I probably shouldn't have started with alpaca. :-) Oh well, it will work regardless - perhaps after I wrap it on the niddy noddy it will even out some, as I'm sure I've got some of it too tight. I thought the plying would go a lot faster, but it looks like I've barely made a dent in the bobbins.


I took a break from plying to warp the Harp for the towels. Since I couldn't wrap my teeny brain around how I should do this on the warping board, I decided to use the warping peg instead. So here is my warping setup:Notice the full basket of dog toys, and yet the favorite toy is that piece of cardboard under the loom. Sigh.

This is a complicated warp for me, and I kept making mistakes early on but finally got the hang of it and it started going quicker:


Here is where the disaster comes in - if you have small children, you may want to avert their eyes. Here is where the process was 5 hours later:
The warping peg popped off the table when I was almost done, causing a rat's nest of yarn. It was 99% my fault, and 1% the design of the peg. I noticed that the peg's table was leaning forward, so I put a weight on the back causing the loom to lean forward. So dummy me added a weight to loom, and off came the peg. I do wish the peg had longer clamps - so many tables have rounded edges and with such short clamps you can't get much grip. I put the Flip's warping peg on the table when I was trying to sort out the warp, and it is better designed - much more robust, the peg is thicker and not quite as smooth - I think that's a good thing, and the threaded bolt is 'captured' so it isn't always falling out like the Harp's; although the clamp isn't any bigger so it's not optimum. But I'll be using it for the next warping attempt.

I tried to put the warp back on the peg and straighten it up, but the more I worked with it the more messed up it got, so I finally gave up and cut it all off. What a waste of yarn and time. I did learn a few things though.

1) Weight down both the table and the loom before starting, especially when using a portable table.

2) Use warp ties even when using the warping peg, just in case.

3) The dowels on the bottom of the Harp stand are excellent for holding the little cones of carpet warp while warping - they don't go dancing across the floor this way. I'm going to have to add that feature to the smaller stand.

Since I have all those 'short' pieces of yarn leftover from the Harp now, it gave me the idea of using them on the Flip for dishcloths. Since the dishcloths will be narrower the warping shouldn't be as much of a problem (famous last words). We'll see how I feel about it after warping the Harp again though.

I'm going to try another plan o' the day again - we'll see what happens.

This morning, warping the Harp.

This afternoon, a few hours of plying to rest my back (warping kills my back).

After plying, I'll see if I can figure out a way to attach the Flip on the smaller loom stand, and do the figures for the dishcloths (which shouldn't take long at all).

Anyone taking odds on how much if any I get done?

And if I'm very very good, perhaps I can warp the Flip tomorrow.