Update I'm Weaving!!!

This is what I am weaving!! I modified 2 small looms to make this 4 harness loom. Took off the two harness frame from the first one and fit it to the second loom. Works great. These were those two harness looms that you lean the little dowel on the top forward or back to make the harness' switch from one to the other. I had been given these two identical ones, and wanted to try this experiment to make a 4 harness loom from them. Once I had this done I started a warp (that should be the next pix) when I started to thread the loom I realized that it did have some limitations on the possibilities but I could not get my brain to 'warp' around the solution. I ended up writing to the small_looms yahoo list for help. I wanted to warp it up for a twill. But it could not lift the 1-2 or the 3-4 harnesses together. I figured there was a way to do it but I just could not figure it out myself. Sara from www.woolgathers.com wrote back the solution. Thanks a bunch Sara. So I got it warped and threaded and am a happy weaver. I am doing it in one direction and reversing the direction of the twill for the other color. So 8 wefts in one direction and 8 in the other. So I have a plaid twill scarf on the loom

This should be the picture of the warp for the loom in progress. It is hand dyed hand spun wool. The reddish I call Strawberry Parfiet cause it looks like it is a bit varied in color. It was a dye experiment. I used my crabapples to dye it but they were not doing much of anything so I added 2 packages of cherry and 2 packages of strawberry koolaide to the pot. The wool is a Baby Doll Southdown/mohair mix. Premordanted with alum. Simmered the pot till there was very little color left in the pot.
The other purple color was gotten from my concord grapes with 2 packages of grape koolaide added. Alum for mordanting the wool and then simmered till the wool did not take up anymore of the color. The lighter color of wool was some wool I picked up in passing and decided to throw in the pot cause it wasn't full yet. It was not premordanted or even wet first so was interesting to see what it did. It did not soak up so much of the color so makes a wonderful coordinating color in just a different shade. Perfect for what I was wanting to do. Decided I had to "do" something with all that wool I was making! Gee, it is the most frequently asked question when I am demonstrating or taking to people about my spinning. "What ya gonna do with all that yarn???" Duh, I don't know. I just love making yarn, mostly. Well I am making something. A scarf in a nice plaid with a twill pattern. Ya it feels good to do something with some of it but I do like just looking at the yarn and feeling it. I know it is a bit strange but that is why I call myself a Fiber Fanatic.
I am getting into this dyeing stuff. I dyed some of my yarns a few weeks ago with some Queen Anne's Lace mentioned on the spinfree list. Made a lovely light yellow. So I got carried away with trying different weeds in our area. The lightest stuff hanging there is from some burdock growing by our door, be carefull that stuff is all out of the pot before putting your wool in! I may try just the leaves from that for a green as the stuff was much more green before I put more burdocks in and took the leaves out. The brightest with a slight color changes are done with the flowers from yellow flowering plants. Mostly a daisy like weed and a ragweed looking plant. Since I am not into identifiying them don't know for sure. Anyone know where to find pixs to help identify plants? The third batch was all purple flowers. hmm I think that one did not work too well. It came out the same yellow as the others. Just not as nice a color. They were all premordanted with alum and cream of tartar. I have ordered some natural dyestuffs from www.hillcreekfiberstudio.com. Carol has a lot of different natural dyestuffs and mordanting materiels at a reasonable price. She sends a great newsletter too.
So will post more about my adventures into adding color to my world of fiber.