post

Post from Frank Herring, England today!
A replacement bobbin winder that works.
Hooray. I'm a happy bunny :-)
Back to weaving.

Not sure if I'll meet the guild deadline for next week, as I still have to weave 2/3 of the scarf.

#*#*#*#

Since my last post I have not been weaving. Other things to do like painting. I'll show in another post.
But I wanted to finish my double weave scarf before the end of the month so started last night and wove 2 blocks but tonight I had to use the bobbin winder to wind another bobbin. And low and behold, it gave up the ghost again after only a few seconds. grrrrrrrrrrrr
Sent out a frustrating email and hope that Leclerc will come up with a solution that will work once and for all.

hurray, problem solved

I now know what the cause was for the bobbin winder to fail.

this:

Somehow the plug does not fit perfect at some point and that is when it just stops working. By squeezing the plug to make the wholes round again (they looked slightly oval) the contact is back to normal.
Problem solved!
A sewing machine repair man solved this problem yesterday, apparently this sometimes happens with sewing machines too.

So, at last able to go back to my double weave project that has been waiting patiently. Have to feel a bit better before I do that; some flu symptoms :(

frustrations

Finished 2 scarves on Minerva and very pleased with the result.

The same warp, a fluffy felting wool, but a different colour weft alpaca yarn used.
They shrunk quite a bit, as I was expecting them to do. They feel lovely and soft!

Yesterday I picked up my Leclerc bobbin winder that had been looked at and was working again. Hurray! So, very much looking forward to getting back to my double weave project. After winding almost 1 full bobbin, the winder stopped again, like before. So frustrating!! I'm waiting to hear from my sewing machine man who got it to work again, to find out what he thinks might be the matter.
When it works it's a wonderful piece of equipment. It's only about 1,5 years old and the first year I hardly used it. So, I'm very disappointed with it braking down so quickly. You do not expect that when you make such an investment.
I need to be able to wind a few bobbins before I'm able to continue with my double weave project. I've trebled the warp yarn and am also trebling the weft yarn. By using the endfeed shuttle I can load plenty weft yarn on the pirns. These pirns however do not fit onto my hand winder.

Looks like I have to go back to Minerva to continue weaving:

and finished a 3rd scarf :-)

Leclerc Minerva

As I'm waiting for my bobbin winder to be returned to me I have taken out the Leclerc Minerva loom and made a very short warp for just 1 scarf.

The warp is a thick felting wool and the weft a thin soft alpaca. It's been ages since I used this little loom and I had forgotten what a lovely loom it really is.

Just a bit noisy with all the metal...

Workshop 2 All Tied Up

Wow, er zijn zoveel aanmeldingen voor de workshop All Tied Up door Jette Vandermeiden in november dat er een 2e workshop komt om iedereen een kans te geven daadwerkelijk mee te kunnen doen.
Heel blij dat beide workshops door kunnen gaan.
De 2e zal direct na de 1e worden gehouden.
Data voor de 2e workshop zijn 24-25-26 november, echter niet in Nieuwegein maar Randwijk met een maximum van 8.
Voor meer informatie zie mijn eerdere blog bericht
Heb je belangstelling om mee te doen, stuur mij een berichtje.

Summer holiday

That time of year again.
First I had friends over from England and we had a great time together. Visiting Rotterdam for a day with a great guided tour by my niece living there. We took a water taxi, exiting!

Going to Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn, where there is an exhibition about Grace Kelly (well worth seeing), that was shown in V&A a few years ago. The gardens are amazing

 

Also visited Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Is always worth a visit.

I also had the grandchildren staying with me, one after the other.
First granddaughter stayed with me for a week. One day we went to Amsterdam, seeing the Mouse Mansion in the library

and on to Nemo where she enjoyed herself.

After a few days rest my grandson stayed with me too for a week.
We went to Rotterdam where he went climbing with my niece. Very brave as she only remembered, once up high, that she is scared of heights! He is just like an ape, he loves anything like this.

Another activity I had organised was a visit to Rijksmuseum with him. A special 2 hour tour by Vrije Academie for (grand)parents/(grand)children. He stayed interested until the end. The tour was very well done. I'll be looking out for more activities like this in future. In the planning is a tour through Boymans

But he had fun there too after the tour.

They are back to school now.

I should have time for weaving now, but I still have not solved the problem with my bobbin winder. I have someone look at it now, to see if the motor has gone. The weaving needs me winding pirns on the bobbin winder as I need to use the endfeed shuttle with a much larger capacity on the bobbins as I'm tripling the yarn. So, I'm having an extended holiday away from the loom.