The Estrella project came off the loom tonight! 13 hours of throwing the shuttle back and forth, 47.5 total hours into the project so far, and I got to take scissors to the warp! Coming off the loom the fabric is 25" wide and 10 yards long. Tomorrow I wash it, to full the fibers together and shrink it width wise by about another 4 inches. Almost done!!
Also, I taught someone to spin yesterday. I was out at SCA practice with my wheel and a box of roving, and this lady was very very interested and envious. I happened to have a spare drop spindle in the roving box, so I got her starting learning to draft with the park & draft method. By the end of the practice she had it down, and was about ready to start with the drop part of drop spindling. I gave her a large handful of the roving and sent her off for the week with instructions to feel free to ruin it all. If she wanted, next week she could throw me a $5 and keep the spindle, otherwise she could give it back and try something else. You should have seen her grin, having the time of her life!
Come to think of it, I should make up a batch of inexpensive spindles, and make up kits to have with me. The more people I can hook on spinning, the more people I have to play with!
I've started picking up nice oak dowel rods from the local home improvement stores, and stacks of various sculpy clays from the craft store. I can spend a few hours one evening: Cutting and sanding dowels, mixing and rolling out "clay" weights, and baking them in the oven. Voila, spindles for less than $1 of supplies. I give them out in my spinning classes all the time. LOVE them. (Also, teaching my students they don't need to spend a lot of money unless they want to, how to spin without a hook, and how to convert any spindle from top to bottom whorl... either way works.)
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