Flirting

Or: How I Spent a Portion of My Tax Refund

I work in a very creative environment. Most of my coworkers create something in their spare time, be it beaded jewelry, scrumptious handspun yarn, or musical compositions, and this is a fabulous, and dangerous, thing. When I volunteered to knit a small pair of socks for my boss in exchange for weaving lessons, I didn’t think she’d really take me up on this (I have no idea why I thought this—maybe she just always seemed to busy to actually teach weaving lessons?).

I was wrong. And now I have a new toy.

Now, knitting is my main squeeze, my bee’s knees, my…I can’t think of anything else with an “eeze” rhyme to it—but I’m really quite excited about my flirtation with this weaving bit. Mostly the instantness appeals to me. I’ve heard stories of people weaving full-length scarves in a grand total of four hours. Four. Hours.

This also appeals to my love of plaid. Who doesn’t love plaid? Weaving plaid seems so much more easier than knitting plaid! Not that I’ve actually done either.

For anyone wanting the gory details, I’ve got a Schacht 15” Flip Loom with a 8-dent rigid heddle. I chose to learn on the Flip because it folds up nicely and won’t take up too much space, and because it’s incredibly portable. I’m not-so-secretly proud that Schacht’s home base is in Boulder, Colorado. I love buying locally-made crafting supplies. You should see the buzz I get from buying Colorado-made yarns.

Oh, this reminds me that I still haven’t been to Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder, purveyors of both yarn and weaving supplies. Of course, after you see the following haul, you’ll understand why I really shouldn’t go to that store anytime soon.

I can explain! Some of these yarns were on sale for ridiculous prices, due to the sad, sad closing of one of my favorite online yarn vendors, Sonny and Shear. Mostly, though, I’m just weak, and when in the presence of beautiful yarns and their fumes, well…

The yarns pictured above are Dream in Color Starry in Gothic Rose, Yarn Love Elizabeth Bennett in Awakening Earth, MadelineTosh Sock in Dahlia (these three purchased from Sonny and Shear), Malabrigo Sock in Persia, Malabrigo Lace in Cadmium, Schoppelwolle Zauberball (these three procured in Fancy Tiger in Denver, and from now on I’m not allowed in there without trusted supervision), and Plymouth Yarns Baby Alpaca Grande (purchased in a quilting/yarn store in Breckenridge, which I visited last weekend to see a friend who was in town for a week).

(Don’t even try to pretend that you don’t smell the fumes in a yarn store, the all-encompassing, overpowering fumes that demand you take the yarn home by any means necessary, short of outright thievery but not excluding selling kidneys or small children*.)

This space has been a bit more quiet than I would have normally liked. I blame my busy work schedule, which usually allows for plenty of me-crafting time. Over the last few weeks though, that time has dwindled to nothing and I’ve made no progress on anything that I can share here. Hopefully, though, I’ll have some more progress to show you. Vivian is back in the mix, for one thing, and there’s an excellent chance I may soon have enough brain power to tackle that second sock (thank you all for the kind and respectful-to-my-not-discussing-certain-things words on the first sock). For tonight, though, I’m resisting the lure of the loom.

* I hope it’s obvious, but just in case, I’m kidding about the small children bit. Kidneys, though, are totally fair game.