When I was in my 20's I was given 5 huge boxes of fabric. It was the most thoughtful gift. The person who gave me the fabric spent months going to thrift stores and fabric stores when there were sales and buying chunks of fabric. She kept them until my birthday and gave it all to me at once. Needless to say, that's when I took up quilting.
I didn't have much money then. I had chosen to stay home with my babies and not work. When I sewed baby clothes or made quilts, I pulled from this huge collection of fabric. I combined colors and fabrics from my large, yet limited supply.
My high school art teacher once explained that creativity comes when resources are limited. If you could buy any material/art supplies at any time and had no restrictions on resources, you could of course make beautiful (or "profound", if beauty isn't your thing) art. However, if you are restricted to what you have now you will be challenged creatively in a more complex way--thus creating something
more profound. I'm not sure if I believe this because it's true or if I believe this to make my self feel better about my finances.
A few years back I was in a thrift store and saw a big bag of roving for $2. I didn't know it was roving at the time; I thought it was "that stuff people use to spin yarn." Even with my little knowledge of spinning, my thrift store instinct told me $2 was a good deal.
I actually got into spinning to save money! What a joke. Who knew I'd become obsessed and spend so much money on equipment, wool, dyes, etc.? Sometimes I hold up a hank of yarn that I have spun and proclaim to my husband, "This would cost me fifty dollars in a store!" He'll compliment it and humor me by saying nothing about the
real cost of making yarn.
After my serious thrift store score (see Just Like Winning the Lottery), I went to a different store to check for yarn. Instead of yarn I found issues of Handwoven Magazine spanning three decades. I bought 24 issues. Spin-off has been one of my best learning tools for spinning, so I figured that Handwoven would be the same for Weaving.
I have wondered if I actually won the lottery, would I be one of those people who still shopped at thrift stores? I'm not sure, and I'll never know because I don't really play the lottery. For now I'm content using other people's unwanted looms and yarns and magazines.
I started with 8 oz of raw Romney.
I washed it carefully with Dawn to get the as clean as I could. Then I used my Fricke flick carder to prep the fibers.
Spun some singles...
Plied it onto my big bobbin... Soaked it, dried it, twisted into a skein.
In the end I had a 5 oz skein of yarn. So that's 3 oz of grime and dirt and seconds flicked out during the prep process.
My Basic Weaving class started last night and I can tell that I'm really going to love it. The pace is perfect for me and the instructor is excellent. We started to warp our looms with a 3/2 cotton. After my first two homespun wool projects I did at home, the yarn from the class felt so soft and fine. I figured I'd be weaving with all of my thick woolly homespun, and that's okay, but I'd also like to make more delicate weavings.
Today I headed out for a walk in the neighborhood and decided to stop by Value Village on Capitol Hill. After my quick check for looms and spinning wheels (I never see any) I wondered over to the yarn that hangs in plastic bags on the wall. Instead of the usual polyester grandma left-overs I found tons of gorgeous silk, soy silk, and Seacell yarn. Perfect for weaving!
This blue skein was marked $37.50---wow! I got it for a buck. The garnet colored soy silk skeins above were $15. each--I got 7 skeins. I spent a total of $18. The retail price of these skeins is over $800! My son thought I should sell it on Ebay, but no way--this is my chance to work with these new (to me) yarns.
The Thrift Store Gods have Blessed me!
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And if that doesn't work, take a class. My class at Weaving Works starts July 8th. In the mean time I will attempt my second weaving. I have made the same mistake again--the view from the top is the "back" of the fabric. What am I doing wrong?
My friend Jasmine said, "Hey, have you ever seen this?" and proceeded to show me a little sample of Tunisian Crochet. She got out a hook and whipped up a little 3" square in no time. I was shaking my head "No". No, I have never seen it. No, I don't believe there's another thing that one can do with yarn. No, I don't have time for ANOTHER fiber craft even if it's super simple. No. 
I really have no idea what I'm doing here. I got the loom warped and then I started weaving. The top side was the back of the fabric--I guess. At least I liked the back side better. At first the weft was compact and then it got loose and I have no idea why. The edges look awful. I think I need to take a class. I could spend a lot of time figuring this all out by reading books and looking at youtube videos, or just go straight to the experts.
I'm going to keep this---my first woven piece of fabric!
