When you get a group of weavers or spinners together, eventually the talk turns to the merits - and quirks! - of various types of looms and spinning wheels. Inevitably, someone will ask "how many do you have?"

Like millions of other people, I've lost a hero from my youth. And although at one point he insisted that he was “Not Spock,” things that I’ve read by Leonard Nimoy himself and others tells me that much we feel drawn to in the character of Spock was informed by Nimoy’s own experience and understanding.

Once upon a time, not that long ago as the ages are reckoned, I was more than a little intimidated by color. Not being trained as an artist, I knew very little of color theory beyond "mix blue and yellow, get green." The concepts of value and hue, tints and shades, meant nothing to me.

When working with my technical dyes, I try to treat them with respect. I like the the consistency of the results, but I am well aware that they contain potentially dangerous chemicals and certain procedures need to be followed.

Did you ever pick out paint, and the color looked great on that little swatch card in the hardware store, but when you put it on a whole wall it was all too much "more"? That same thing happens with yarn.

My great-grandmother, Hattie Story Sala, wove rag rugs to support her family. By the time I came along little remained of this legacy. The house with the loom in the third story attic was sold shortly after my birth.

Sewing Carpet Rags: Because it's hard to read on the image. Here's a transcription of the poem by Harriet Whitney Durbin.

Naps are one of my favorite things - rare but favorite. Best nap opportunities seem to happen on Sunday afternoons. When the weather is nice I like to nap on our front patio - but sometimes it gets a bit chilly when the patio moves into the shade. A light blanket is called for.

It was almost exactly 25 years ago that I started weaving. Even though I was struggling with the onset of rheumatoid arthritis that was nowhere near under control, I knew that weaving was something I had to do.

Weaving takes a whole lot of specialized tools. Here's a view from my living room into my studio.

I've been away from my own looms for a couple of months, while completing some spinning and weaving projects for others. Last Saturday, I finally had time to sit down and start weaving on a warp that had been on my AVL Little Weaver for a while. Before I did that, I knew I needed to download some software and firmware upgrades for the loom.

It's a beautiful spring day, and I'm inside weaving. Fortunately, I have a loom with a view.

When my parents retired, they moved into a farmhouse in a very small town - a village really, except that we don’t have villages in California. The house had a barn. It was small by barn standards, and I don’t know if it ever housed any livestock - possibly some farm equipment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_of_Thyatira

My current weaving project is a scarf that includes a fur-type yarn called "Baby Monkey" in the warp. Baby Monkey is exceptionally soft and entirely faux fur.

I get these crazy ideas sometimes. You know those old movies: "Let's put on a play!" "My uncle has a barn we can use!" Yeah, that kind of crazy idea.

My project this weekend is weaving some ribbon from silk sewing thread. It's pretty mindless, but the results are gratifying. There are 36 cards with four threads each, totaling 144 warp threads. The resulting ribbon s 3/8" wide.

Sometimes another set of eyes is what is needed.

Last night my friend Ercil stopped by for dinner. She asked how my current project was going. I told her that it wasn't - I was stalled out. "I think it has too much mohair!"