Collecting Yarns

In the past two weeks I have not only acquired a loom that I am trying to learn how to use, but I have also begun teaching myself crochet! I already know a few different stitches , but am still just kinda practicing and taking things back apart (who knew I was actually a bit of a perfectionist underneath the klutz and the slob? must be the German in me!)

And a friend's, Patrick's, mom
got me started on knitting a couple days ago. And Patrick made me a pair of homemade knitting needles Ü cool, huh?

Sooooo.. needless (haha, needles) to say, this is an excellent excuse to go in search of cool and unusual, natural yarn and such for first projects.. and second ones.. and thirds..



So I stumbled upon this recycled sari silk yarn. It seems like it would make some really interesting and unique knit/crochet items with a bit of patience. It's fairly uneven, different thicknesses and loose threads, but I can't wait to try it out on an actual project! I've already done a little crochet with it, just a small square for practice, and it didn't seem too bad.
Although.. when I was starting off I made quite a mess of the yarn! Got it all tangled up somehow and ended up winding it onto a notched card.

Anyone ever worked with this?

Project Looming Ahead

I am so excited about this unbelievable find! I got an antique weaving loom for a steal of a price and can't wait to learn to use it. She came with everything under the sun: warping board, wool yarns, extra set of heddles, stool, hand bobbin winders, a lot of things I don't even know what to do with yet!

There were 2 antique books on weaving that came with it as well, written and autographed by Gallinger's (maker's) daughter.

I'm making my way through these and 2 other books on the subject first, learning a bit about how it all works, then it's project time! I know if I try to jump in without knowing what I'm doing first, I will be encouraging my clumsy side to take the stage and next thing you know I'll be yelling for help getting my legs and arms unwoven from a three-armed, two-neck-holed table runner!

I am a bit confused on one thing though. Don't know if anyone can help, but.. I was told it was a "four harness counterbalanced loom", which I know what that means, but my question is this: most of the pictures I've seen of other four harness looms have more foot pedals than mine. Mine has 4 but they only move in pairs of 2. Is this a four-harness, or is it a 2? If you know the answer, then please help!

These are pictures that were sent to me before I purchased the loom. I'll put up better ones if I can get my silly scanner to work!

Denver's Pre-amp Project

We've invested in a bunch of Yamaha PM-1000 mixer boards, which with a bit of soldering, tweaking, and added switches, become Denver's handmade DIY gear creation : really cool pre-amps!

Denver's been hard at work, eagerly anticipating the arrival of packages of variable capacitors, switches, and transistors, soldering, having a grand ol' time. It's so fun to watch him, he's as excited as a little boy getting to stick his hand inside a real live Transformer's wireguts!

He's got some of the master modules on the way that he's going to play around with too - these will be available for sale soon, I'll be sure and let you know where/when/how, along with homemade carbon mic's too - but more on the mics later.

Haha, next I'll have to post some pictures of the kinda things I make from old non-working circuit boards...

Up and Running.. Life is Good!

I guess I've been long over-do to start a blog. I keep forgetting that the age of information is coming and going and leaving me in its wake of dust, wondering "What the hell is a Blackberry if not a fruit?"
Ah well, I will certainly still keep pens in the house though! I wonder how long before they are obsolete, and fonts are taught in elementary school instead of cursive!

I will be posting quite a bit in the next week or so, to get our blog all caught up with the things going on in my and Denver's lives. We're always full of some quirked-out idea or another, so who knows where we will go next with our creative spark?

Etsy store is up - but not very many items yet. Hopefully that will be brought up-to-speed in the next couple weeks too!