New toys and turtles

Last weekend I finally crumbled and went to Wingham Woolwork on my way home from Ro's. I deserved a treat as we'd gone to Northampton to watch Tigers play the Saints and not only had we sat for more than two hours in the freezing cold, but the Tigers had played pretty poorly and been beaten by the Saintanists (boo hiss).

So in view of the fact that I was in serious need of cheering up I went and splashed some cash and came home with a loom!!! I am now the proud owner of a Kromski 24" rigid heddle loom plus stand. I spent Sunday evening putting the loom together but couldn't finish the stand as there were a couple of bits of hardware missing. I wasn't too pissed off as I knew that I wouldn't be able to start anything before getting back from driving on Wednesday and I was pretty sure that Wingham would get the missing parts to me by then. I wasn't disappointed in them, the envelope was waiting for me on the mat when I got home.

Strangely enough having completed the construction of the stand I was a bit nervous about actually using the damned thing. I was in a paralysis of indecision about exactly what I was going to start with. I had some nice German sock wool that I'd bought some time ago from Astrid's Dutch Obsession and was going to use this for a scarf, but I'd also got some pink sock wool that I'd bought when on holiday in Norfolk which matched some of the colour in the german wool and I wasn't sure if I should use some of that too or just go for the simple option. In the end I decided to be brave and do a few narrow stripes of pink in among the warp.

I've been weaving most of this afternoon and evening and I'm not getting on too badly though my selvages leave a bit to be desired. I've got a few floats too but I'm fairly pleased with my first effort. Don't think I'll be wearing it tomorrow though.

I meet some interesting people with some interesting stories whilst I'm out doing my deliveries and this week I was talking to one of my customers about her business Turtle Bags which grew out of her involvement with the Marine Stewardship Council. Because leatherback turtles mistake discarded plastic bags for their favourite food (jellyfish) Turtlebags, by selling alternatives to plastic bags hope to reduce the number of plastic bags finding their way into turtles.

I particularly like the one made by a Bangladeshi womens' co-operative from recycled cement bags, very funky! Ooooh, wonder how it would perform as a knitting bag?