Christmas Scarves

Continuing work on the Christmas scarves for Anne's niece and nephews.  3 are finished, one on the loom, and warp ready for the final 3.

The first three completed

The warp is a cotton two ply that holds together fairly well, although weak spots have pulled apart a couple of times, and there were a few knots on the cone - all require fixing as I weave.  The wefts are various cotton/wool/blends - all the yarn is from my stash of yarns from my fathers collection I inherited.

Number 4 underway on the Leclerc Dorothy

The point threading over 10: 2/2 twill pattern is more obvious with a dark weft on the lighter warp.

I also have cotton ready and dyed for the Christmas towels - that should be underway this week some time on the Macomber.

Rambouillet processing

Anne has been working hard on the picking, washing, flicking of the Rambouillet wooland with a little bit of carding we are now starting to see some results.  The original raw wool is reduced by about half through the full process - removal of really dirty/short/matted locks, then when flicking the discarded wool - both add up to quite a bit, but the remaining wool is very nice.  I found that with the Ashford drum carder I can run it through a couple of times to get a smooth batt - keeping it down to small 1oz or less (more starts to come off the card and tangle as it goes under the brush.  I'm sure this is related to the fine nature of the Rambouillet wool - and really I should be using a carder with finer teeth, but don't have that luxury.

Ready for a carding session.

I'll deliver the first batch of carded fiber at the Christmas guild meeting next weekend.

Wool/silk skein

I finished plying the spun singles this morning.  The carded batt was extremely easy to spin into very fine singles, and the plying was a breeze.  It turned out to be about 175 yards of 2 ply (9 twists per inch), at laceweight/fine (27 wraps per inch) and weighs 1.2 oz.  I think the luster has certainly improved over straight Clun Forest.

Finished CF/silk blend skein

I should be able to produce enough yarn for a shawl from this wool - and will be doing some dye samples to make sure we can produce appropriate colours for the finished product.

While spinning the singles yesterday I found time (on a rainy day) to finish the peppers (roasted, sliced, frozen) and start three batches of limoncello (to be ready for Christmas gifts).

Wool Silk blending

Anne has a friend who is an accomplished stained glass window artist and who expressed an interest in creating some pieces for us.  The payment would be in some fiber product.  Anne suggested Clun Forest/silk blend (silk for luster) spun and made into a shawl as a starter, possibly dyed as well.

As luck would have it I had some silk, bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival some years back with the intention of trying this very thing.  Unfortunately though, I couldn't find it - although I have no doubt it is in the spinning room somewhere.  Luckily though (!) there was a couple of ounces of silk amongst all the fiber I was given by my sister-in-law.  So the test was back on.

Clun Forest and Silk ready for carding

I used flicked locks from the large supply we have, and broke off similar lengths of the silk, finding that the best method was lay out the silk and cover it with CF wool on the input tray to the carder.  It then took 6 times through the carder to blend it smoothly.  Each time I took it off the drum I split it about 7 or 8 times and flattened out these to re-card.  The mix ended up about 20% silk 80% wool (worked out by weighing before the mix).

Finished 1.2oz batt

There is a distinctive sheen to the batt, and needless to say I did a quick trial at spinning it.  As with any batt that has gone through the carder a few times, spinning was a breeze.  I spun a fine single and plied it back on itself as 2 and 3 ply.  While this gives a quick idea of how it will look, the real plying will have to be a bit tighter which will emphasise the silk/luster. 

2-ply top, 3-ply bottom.

The other job today was to pickle some of our peppers - 6 jars done, and some washing.  The latter is done as the sun came out after thunderstorms rolled through this morning.  Unfortunately it now seems to be clouding over so I may have to bring that lot back in.

I have some Rambouillet to flick sometime today and Anne has been flicking more raw wool so perhaps a wash again tomorrow.

Several 'Firsts'

The new/old singer had a workout this afternoon completing the prototype kitchen chair cushion.  I found three suitable pieces of cotton for the back portion of the cushions - all uniquely tie dyed by Anne when she was doing her Indigo dye class in Washington DC two years ago.

1. I had never sewn a zip into anything before, and this called for a zip in the back to make the assembly easy and make the 'stuffing' easy.  As it turned out, with the help of the original manual for the machine, this wasn't a problem.

2. The next effort was putting the stuffing into the cushion liner - I had foam, but also used (finally) some of the Clun Forest we had been saving as left over from making batts - washed and too good to throw away.  Appropriately we had a bag labelled 'stuffing' as we imagined we would make pillows/cushions out of it one day.  So once the foam had an appropriate coating of wool it was sewn into a cotton cover ready to put inside the cushion.

The rest of the machine sewing was mainly just ensuring that it was done in the right order (and around the right way), with the final assembly including some wool three strand plaited cords to tie the cushion to the chairs.

The prototype ready to sit on

The indigo dyed back, with zipper and ties.

3. As a first for the Singer sewing machine, it did pretty well.  I have to remember that it is very manual and adjustments have to be made with tension all the time for different material thicknesses, but I have now got the hang of starting it easily, and with more use will get some straighter seams!  I will now contine to practice on the two others, so that when I weave the actual kitchen cushion cover material, which is now looking like it will be shades of green, I can do it with ease (and a little bit more neatly).

Long time between efforts

I finished a skein of 3-ply Clun Forest, spun from combed top.  It has been the only spinning I have done since the 'Z'/'S' skeins and the last two visits to the guild meeting have contributed a bobbin of singles for each visit on top of the one I did at home.  So I finally plied it yesterday and wound it today.

The original 3-ply, and the small recend one

The original skein using Clun Forest combed top was the blue ribbon skein from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival a couple of years ago.  The general idea is to complete enough wool so something worthwhile could be made out of the wool.  The one skein would never have been enough so I need to keep at this for at least a couple more.

Rambouillet processing

Two wins at the guild meeting this weekend - I sold two Clun Forest batts to members to try out spinning the breed.  I could have sold more perhaps but left fairly early to go and pick up the Rambouillet wool which we agreed with the owner I would clean and card and rather than payment I would keep half the processed wool.

Once home we weighed it and there was 7.4 lbs (including bag) of raw wool, which I suspect will drop by quite a bit by the time we have picked over it, washed and then carded.

We decided to hand pick the raw wool to avoid having to wash any wool that wasn't going to contribute to the finished product.  Anne and I had a quick go this morning and produced the first 2 oz of picked wool which I then ran through a wash.

Raw wool bottom, locks ready for washing top.

The owner isn't in a great rush for the wool, but we are keen to press on and get it done.  Our plan is to sell our portion of the wool - probably as batts, although I could spin some as well.  The yarn if spun fine is often used on next to the skin garments as it is soft and has a good elasticity.

We agree with the owner that the Coopworth wasn't really worth processing.

New (old) Sewing Machine

Yesterday Anne found a little sewing machine shop next to the store she went to to get some paint samples for the kitchen.  They apparantly had several older machines - the first needed a little more work so the owner said she could have the next model up for the same price.

We're now the proud owners of a Singer Stylist 457 sewing machine - almost as old as me!!

The machine, complete with manual and zipper foot.

My last sewing machine (in NZ) was a typical cheap mostly plastic model, that had some, but limited features.  This machine has two parts made of plastic with the rest all solid, well engineered, metal, and almost the same features, but not automatic.  And the smell...  They serviced and refurbished the machine, which I think meant liberally coat every metal part with copious amounts of Singer Sewing Machine Oil - the smell of which certainly brings back memories of growing up in a house where the sewing machine was a central feature.

The 457 was introduced in 1969. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but it was one of the early 'beige' models - quite a change from the standard Singer black that had been the norm for a hundred years or so.  It would have originally come in a console, and it was one of the first models with the motor inside the case. 

I'm now set to complete the cushions once we buy the material and zips in Knoxville this weekend.

My shelf in the weaving room is filling up - which means the work table will have space for the sewing machine - very timely.

The new shelves

Wash Day II

More washing and processing trials again today: increased water temperature (150 degrees), and more detergent (4x the amount of Power Scour). I also washed a load of the Ramboulet using .4oz of Dawn Blue dishwashing detergent.

The extra amounts of either the Power Scour or the Dawn certainly lifted more dirt out of the wool, and with the Dawn I ran two washes - the second with half the detergent.

Water after the first wash with Dawn

 The real difference was in the feel of the wool (both kinds), washing with extra detergent left a little less greasy feel and having a fresher smell. The down side is that all the VM and much of the original matting remains.  It was pleasant to see that neither wool type (Coopworth/course, Ramboulet/fine) felted in any way throughout the process.

The various batches of wool drying on our screen set up.

The next step will be to try some different carding/combing combinations to see how much VM that will remove.

Coopworth combed top

The Coopworth is a sitter for combing, with very long locks.  There is a fair amount of loss because of the matting, but three times through the combs meant there is negligible VM left.

And the distractions from this task today were: assemble second set of shelves (for the weaving room, moving most of the 'stuff' off my work table to allow me to actually do things on it), and put 5 gallons of beer into a keg and force carbonate it.

Washing Day

Today was set aside for the wool scouring (washing) trial that I have undertaken for one of the Knoxville guild members.  I have samples of Coopworth and Ramboulet that came from fleeces she bought and is interested in getting washed/carded and potentially spun.  I said I would do a trial with the methods we used on the Clun Forest wool (which successfully cleaned some fairly dirty wool).

Both wool types are verging on that 'fairly dirty' category that generally precludes them from commercial/small scale wool processing, without heavy extra fees.  If I can clean the wool to an acceptable state without adding too much to our process I can take on the larger job of washing the fleeces and charge accordingly.

The testing set up for the Coopworth wool

The first trial was with Power Scour at 140 degrees for 15 minutes using the recommended 2% mix.  It also had a second wash at 1%.  This was followed by a plain rinse and final rinse (with 2.5ml white vinegar).  The first wash really removed a lot of the grease and dirt, the second not a lot more so in the second trial I didn't include a second wash.  The locks remained fairly matted at the tips which contained the majority of the dirt and vegetable matter (VM) so I took the second batch and ran it through the picker first (a Kaydessa Lil' Dynamo) to open up the matted wool.

Wash water after the first wash.

 In the end the wash has managed to get a lot of the dirt out and remove most if not all of the grease (I like a little bit left, but if all is removed, some oil can be re-introduced before spinning if necessary).  For both the locks and the picked wool the carding process will be needed to remove much of the remaining VM.  Then finally when spun the last can be removed.  I will have to let the wool dry before trying the carding, but I am starting to think that this wool is a bit passed the simple processable stage.

Clean picked wool

Clean wool locks

Along with a pause to spray the weeds on the drive, meet the propane delivery man who came to fill up our tank before winter, and assembling some shelves for the computer room - it has been a busy day!!

Carding and Spinning demo

At the weaving guild meeting this month I volunteered to set up a spinning demo and to help with the carding by doing some hand carding (there is already someone doing drum carding).  This will be for a day long event at R&M Yarns (https://www.rmyarns.com/) which is where the guild meet each month. The fiber arts festival (from the web site click on the tab labelled R&M Fiber Art Festival) is a chance to educate the visitors on the process of taking fiber and turning it into products so will follow the sheep to shawl type of order with demonstrations of each step. 

As it has been a while since I used the hand carders I have been busy checking every book I have and video I can find to ensure that what I am demonstrating is reasonable correctly. 

Carded rolag.

The practice is coming along - and it's not as if I don't have enough raw material to use (the Clun Forest mountain never seems to diminish in any way!!).  Once made into rolags I also have to practice my woolen spinning using the long backward draw - something I have also done very little of, but as with the carding seems to be getting better with practice.

Woolen spun Clun Forest on the Ashford.

I have the spinning guild meeting in Knoxville this Saturday so I will take the carders/rolags up with me and ask for tips from some of the experiences spinners. This month is also a 'show and tell' so will take some other Clun Forest products along including some batts to sell.  I also have to finish the cleaning and prep of the wool samples I took away from last meeting.

Cushion weaving finished

Yesterday I removed the finished weaving from the loom and quickly finished both ends by stitching in the tabby weave.  While that worked perfectly it does indicate fairly conclusively that I really will need glasses fairly soon.

Finishing the ends

With the ends finished I threw the cloth in the washing machine with some other washing on a hot cycle.  It came out well but with a significant final shrinkage.  On the loom the warp was 21 inches wide through the reed, it drew in to about 20 1/4 inches at the fell line (using weighted hooks as my temple as I don't have a temple this wide), then once woven it drew in to 191/2 inches.  Off the loom the warp drew in to 19 1/2 inches from the woven 21 inches. So the final 17 x 17 squares I have show a total change with shrinkage of about 20%

Finished, washed squares read to be cut up.

The twill weave is not quite at 45 degrees so for the actual cushions I will change the sett from 21 back to 19 which should fix that.

Close up of the pattern.

Next job requires a sewing machine and some supplies (zips, foam). I didn't bring my sewing machine from NZ although I could have run it via my transformer which is plenty powerful enough, but decided to look into something over here.  Ideally we will find a second hand machine somewhere - something for basic sewing, and then look out for one later that can handle industrial/heavy duty sewing for the yurt project (some way of as yet).

Weaving on the Macomber

The time came to move all the wool and boxes from around the Macomber so I could start a project on it.  What you can't see in the photo below is the bags of wool are now in/around/over the upright loom - so for the moment I can weave on one or the other until I can sort and store the spare wool/yarn.

It should be noted that I did manage to uncover the Leclerc Dorothy, but more on that later.

Dressing the Macomber

The project is one we have had 'on the books' for a while.  We bought a nice oak table and chairs soon after arriving here and use them in the kitchen (four of the chairs, and other rooms; the other two).  While they are fairly comfortable they do really need a small cushion on the seat.  Simple to weave I said, and here we are 6 months later and I'm just now starting!!

I decided to do three cushions as a test using some of the blue cotton I had in my stash.  The final cushions will match the colour scheme we have planned for the kitchen.  It is 8/4 cotton which I would normally use for rug warp yarn, but I hope will give us a nice firm and hard wearing cushion material.  The hand woven will only be on one side with some plain cloth on the other - where the zip will be.  We will stuff them with a small sheet of foam and some of our 'reject but washed' Clun Forest short locks.

It was a pretty straight forward task to dress the loom with the 440 ends, in a point twill design, taking just on a day

Heddles threaded and reed sleyed.

 I had planned to put a twined border at either end, but I soon discovered that fiddling with twining at 21 epi is not fun, so that will have to wait for another project. The weaving is racing along with over half the weaving done in two sessions yesterday interrupted by a trip to the recycle centre in Cleveland.

Progress on the cushion covers.

The other weaving was on the Dorothy.  I had heard that the reflective properties of 'Z' and 'S' twist wool yarns would be visible in weaving, so set out to see what that would actually produce.  Previous blogs have noted the spinning of skeins of both yarn types (from Clun Forest of course).  I set up the Dorothy with a small test run using stripes of both yarns in the warp and then wove with the same sized stripes in the weft.  The best result would have been obvious 'squares' where the 'Z' or 'S' overlapped or opposed. 

As it turned out my home spun yarn turned out a little finer than my initial calculations and I didn't end up with a perfectly balanced cloth.  I will need to do a second test but with the set just a little smaller so that the weft and warp are perfectly balanced.  As it is there is definite 'striping' across the weft as seen in the picture below.  More to follow on this one.

Z/S twist sample.

Wool Processing

I went to the monthly meeting of the Tennessee Valley Handspinners Guild (www.tnvalleyhandspinners.com) yesterday and took on a trial to wash some wool for one of the members who had bought two fleeces at a wool and sheep show some time back. 

The two types of wool (Ramboulet and Coopworth) are totally different and both are fairly dirty/full of vegetable matter (vm) so she hadn't got too far with preparation.  I was telling her about our method for the Clun Forest and said I'd give some samples a go to see what it would do for these two types respectively.

The samples and sample locks from each

The first trial I did was to take a few locks of each and run it through exactly the same cycle as we used on the Clun Forest. This cleaned up the wool to a degree, but didn't remove too much of the vm.  I took the washed locks of each and in the case of the Ramboulet, I flicked the locks open with a flick carder, and for the Coopworth I used my combs.  In both cases this removed almost all of the vm.

The flicked Ramboulet and combed (top) Coopworth

I did a little bit of spinning - the Coopworth was a breeze, but the Ramboulet from the flicked locks was a pain to keep consistent (given I was spinning it very finely).  I'll need to try some different carding techniques on it.

Coopworth 2 ply fine and medium

Ramboulet 2 ply fine

The next effort will be another small sample using 'Power Scour' instead of straight detergent, then perhaps two washes instead of one, and finally fine tuning the water temperature, which according to documentation should be different for both.  Once I have the best parameters I'll wash the approximate 8 oz of each and see how it turns out.

Early morning weaving

I have managed to get into a sort of a routine. Driven mainly by the fact that Anne has either an early start (departing home by 5:15) or late (starting late morning).  The last week has been mainly the early starts so I have, after joining Anne for coffee and breakfast and then when she departs, been weaving for an hour each of those days.  Progressing about an inch an hour I am starting to really see changes.

Before I started this spurt though I had to find the cones of wool that I knew I had seen in a box of other wool, but couldn't remember which of the many boxes it was.  I had done a cursory search a few days back and hadn't seen them and wasn't looking forward to pulling all the boxes out again and searching them more carefully.  Luckily I took a chance and decided to check some of the boxes in the computer room first, as I had rearranged them when preparing for our recent guests.  Sure they turned out to be there so I could proceed to re-fill the shuttles.  I will run out of the dark blue first as I only have a very limited amount of that - so when that runs out it may be the indicator to stop (if I haven't already reached the end of the warp that is).

The found cones of weft yarn

As mentioned, progress is good.  The limiting factor now is sitting for more than an hour on the wooden chair I have been using  at the upright loom. I will definitely need a cushion to solve that problem!

A brief change from the routine yesterday involved fixing the sewing box that had been damaged in the move down from Maryland.  One side had been crushed which broke two of the drawers and broke off the lid.  I had quickly assessed that it could be repaired, but hadn't until yesterday actually had a good look at that.  It turned out that with some careful glue work, and a little bit of care I was able to get it all back together and functioning again.  I took the time while the glue dried to tidy up the drawers and box so that we could find what we need in it.  Over the years it had become somewhat chaotic!!

The refurbished sewing box.

Of course now I will have to a) keep it tidy and b) find all the other miscellaneous sewing things we have stored about the place.

Other weaving planned include the trial of 'z' and 's' twist homespun in a woven structure, and some cushion covers to make cushions for the kitchen chairs.  Only the planning stage for both, although obviously I have the spun Clun Forest yard for the former.

Progress on the Turquoise Lightning Rug

Turquoise Lightning

With the upright loom set up again I have begun to re-sley the piece I was working on in NZ. With the zigzag stripe alternating from turquoise to sky blue it has been named "Turquoise Lightning" for fairly obvious reasons.  It's about 2/3 finished and will most likely be sold.

I did find a use for one of my many glass insulators during the process - as a temporary weight as I re-sley. The color even works!

Use for an otherwise unused insulator

I have the loaded shuttles for this rug/throw, but will have to dig around to find the cones with the rest of the yarn so I can complete the job - they should be all together, but who knows where I've temporarily stored them.

The weaving room is fairly cluttered at this stage, as I still have everything 'out' until such time as I can work out what can go into more permanent storage, i.e. won't be needed for a while so can be wrapped at go into some of our remaining storage boxes either out in the shed or up in the roof.

The fairly full loom room.

With a lot (but nowhere near all) of the yard work now under control I have been able to get a little bit more yarn work done.  I have made some business cards to hand out, completed a skein of 3-ply alpaca, and I'm half way through tying on the warp, after a relatively painless reed re-sleying and heddle threading.

So, finally getting down to business. More photo's to follow - will post when at higher speed internet locations, as here at home our upload rates are pretty poor so don't support a lot of web work.

'Work begun'

Finally fitted in some time for fiber work. Driven by the need to have some samples to take to the guild meeting this Saturday and also by that feeling of guilt that other jobs have been higher on the list.

So today after a quick trip to the shops, watering the hops and roses, then mowing lawns and trimming edges - I finally got started.

Set up on the kitchen table

The first thing I discovered was that a round table isn't great for an Ashford drum carder which needs a straight edge or corner to clamp to efficiently. I compromised with just one of the two camps. I could add the table extension to the table to get a straight side at some stage though.

First batt in TN

With a batt all ready it was time to get spinning, which I did in a couple of very un-serious sessions of 15 minutes or so, between fixing the hop trellace and putting away the tractor before the rain came. Small progress, but at least a start.

Set up in the lounge. No furniture yet.

The forecast for tomorrow is for a rainy start - perfect to continue with this...

Settling in

As mentioned in the last posting, we have moved to our new home in the mountains. So far I haven't actually done any spinning/weaving/fiber work! Too busy setting up the house ready for the arrival of all our furniture from both the storage in Maryland (arrives the second week of June), and from NZ (about the same time, as it arrived in the US on the 24th, but still needs to clear customs etc).

That being said, I do have combs, a drum carder, my Rappard wheel, and the table loom, so really nothing to stop me getting going, and as most of the 'move in list chores' are now done.

The equipment coming together

It will be great to get a couple of looms set up in their own room permanently, and still have another room for spinning and fiber work.  More on that once the gear arrives

Move to America

The move finally happened, and basically without too much fuss (although at times the stress level did rise slightly).  But here we are settled in Tennessee with progress on all fronts.  We have bought a house and 17 acres of forest in Polk County (on the doorstep of the Cherokee National Forest), our furniture from Maryland and New Zealand should all arrive early June, but we will be moving in with the bare basics by the end of the month.

We have made a few trips up to Maryland to retrieve some of the more fragile (paintings) and valuable items from the storage.  On the first visit Anne managed to retrieve my Rappard wheel and some Clun Forest washed locks.  The only trouble was that these were probably our 3rd choice locks, but never the less I was able to take the washed locks, open them up a bit with the flick carder and spin direct from the locks.  That resulted in my first skein produced back here in the US.

200 yards of  2-ply, superfine, 8 tpi.

The next trip I rescued some other bags of locks and a large bag of flicked locks (Anne would normally then run them through the drum carder).  I also managed to slip in the Ashford drum carder.  This made the spinning a whole lot faster as I was able to make up batts and spin from strips torn from them.

After watching a little of "The Gentle Art of Plying" a video by Judith MacKenzie that I purchased just after arriving here, I noted her comments about the light reflecting differently off fibers spun as 'S' and 'Z" - all to do with the direction they align.  This got me to thinking what would happen if you had such yarn set out in stripes across a warp, and then you wove the same 'S' and 'Z' stripes in the weft.  That started me on spinning singles the 'opposite' way to normal, and plying them similarly.  With the Clun Forest batts from the carder I soon had nearly 500 yards of each.  The weaving will have to wait for the looms to be set up once our furniture arrives. Who knows what will happen with the yarn during the weaving/fulling process.

The other test I tried, after having once tried this and given up, was to remove the fiber from the drum carder using a diz to produce roving.  There are plenty of videos on the web showing how to do it, so I tried again and had moderate success, which with practice should become easier.

Fine Clun Forest roving from the drum carder

The diz - an old plastic top (with very small hole)

I'll continue to work doing this - and will try a larger hole in the diz, which will speed up the process considerably.

In other 'settling' news, we went along to the Tennessee Valley Handspinners Guild meeting this month (see: http://www.tnvalleyhandspinners.com/ )and signed up.  A great group and I may have a potential outlet for some Clun Forest yarn.

On our last trip up to the storage (we're almost ready for the final move) I did find a bag of the 'best' locks so I searched around and found my wool combs as well in case I get the chance to produce some top.

Look out for more regular posts once we get the Internet set up in the house...

Final post from New Zealand

The time has finally come...

We are all but packed up (the packers come on Tuesday to pack up and remove everything that is moving to the US), and sorted ready for the move.  It's been a while since I posted anyting - driven mainly by the lack of fiber work undertaken, but here is a brief summary:

I missed the November guild meeting, as I was in North America briefly (including a little bit of house hunting in TN) - Anne did go along though.  Then we both missed the next meeting as we had visitors over from the US, which left the final meeting this month (Feb - there isn't a January meeting) - so time to return our library books, and say some good-byes to the wonderful group of weavers we got to know in our year back here.

I gave my 6 year old granddaugther a drop spindle (an Ashford top whorl beginners spindle) and wool to start her off (young) with an interest in fiber, although she was far more interested in my mandolin - also given to her for future use.

My sister-in-law gave me the Ashford traditional (1 of 4 wheels she had!) that I had had on loan all year.  I have spun quite a lot of fiber on it (also from Jenny) and really did enjoy it - so was very pleased that it will now join my Rappard 'Little Peggy' in the US. (2 out of 2 NZ wheels!).

The upright loom was dismantled and moved to the garage to join the counterbalance loom (parts) ready to be uplifted by the packers.

The two looms in pieces ready to be packed

 All going well we should be established in Eastern Tennessee by mid-summer, and hopefully I can get all my looms up and running in one place.