On Monday I was super lucky to be given this loom from the lovely Jeni at Fyberspates.

After meeting Divaweaver at the Southbank Arts Trail back in May, I’d been inspired to give weaving a go.  So when I saw Jeni’s tweet that she had a loom requiring a new home I knew I had to go and rescue it.

Now I know nothing about weaving, nor which parts of the loom I need to fix up.  I’m going to start with a bit of dusting and go from there.  I’m not even sure what any of the parts are called, so I joined this Ravelry group in the hope that some of the experts there might be able to give me a nudge in the right direction.

I think these wires are called the heddles.  They appear to be ok, maybe a little rusty, but I’m hoping they’ll clean up ok.  I also know I need to get a new reed as the one for this machine is missing.  Any advice would be gratefully accepted!

As luck would have it, this morning I met with another lovely lady called Claire, from Bristol Sewing School, which opened in March about 10 minutes from my house.   I learned that not only will they be running weaving workshops, but knitting machine courses too, hurrah!  So there is hope yet to get even more creative hobbies than I already have.

I’m not sure if it’s possible to take a trip out to the Fyberspates workshop and not come back with yarn – I know I didn’t manage it.  There are so many pretty colours! I had to restrain myself and just buy the one skein, which I think was pretty good going considering I haven’t bought anything new in at least 6 months.  Unless you include yarn for gifts.

I don’t.

I’m not sure what to make with it yet – a lovely pair of yellow socks or a nice lacy fingering weight hat.. I’m not letting myself play until I’ve finished my bolero though!

After the drive back I found there was a street party in full swing near our road, so went down to take some snaps.  I love living somewhere with such a lovely community feel to it!