Alternate uses for triangle loom and easel

I love my triangle loom-( I have the Dewberry Ridge adjustable one that is a wonder of engineering and fine craftsmanship. LINKIE

I know this, because I do some woodworking myself, so I know how hard it is to create such precise joins! And the math and geometry is amazing.)

Anyhow… back to my starting point here…. so, I love my triangle loom and the easel it hangs on.

(Although, I have to admit that I have royally bopped myself by smacking into the loom and having it fall on me- yow! And, ahem… I’ve done this MORE times than I care to admit, and each time, I reel away, muttering- “Man! that thing’s heavy!” And it HURTS when you, pardon the pun, ~nail yourself~ with it. I even got myself on the head with it one time. oi vey.)

ANYHOW>>> back to my starting point! I keep wandering astray here!

Okay, so I loves me my loomie…. right… and sometimes I bop myself with it, right, which has NOTHING to do, whatsoever, with what I want to show you….

Which is- that I love that I can multi-task with it!

I mean… after all, if you are going to be living with a big loom, that no matter how much you love it, it still jumps out and thumps you, you better be able to use it in more ways than just weaving with it, right?

So, here’s the deal….

My brilliant daughters are both gifted craftswomen and artists, and they are doing another craft show together this weekend.

So, Daughter #2 (technically, she’s my daughter-in-law, but I love her like she’s my very own, so she’s Daughter #2, not just ‘DIL’) is a fabulous spinner and maker of gorgeous yarns and rovings.

She has knitted up some  lovely lace shawls for the show, and mentioned that she needed to do the dreaded blocking. (ugh)

This one is a combination of shetland and camel that she spun.

Looks pretty gnarly before blocking!

I had a flash of inspiration-

I asked her what size she wanted to block them to, and she said 4 feet on the hypotenuse for one of them and 5 feet on the other….

AHA!!!! my triangle loom will work PERFECTLY for blocking the lace shawls!

So I whipped out the different sections to change it to 4 feet (as I had been weaving cowls using the 3 foot configuration -here’s the link to the cowls LINKIE)

And, in 2 shakes of a lamb’s tail, we had her shawl on the loom and blocking!

The shawl is now a thing of beauty!

AND… I have discovered that the easel for the tri loom is also wonderful for multi-tasking-

I have a grotty, ugly old warping board that needs to be supported when I am using it.

I foolishly gave away the folding screen that I used to hang it on when I warp. (in a vague attempt at downsizing and de-cluttering)

I figured that I have another folding screen, and that it would work just as well, right?

Wrong! it goes all shrinking violet on me when I try to hang Mr Plug Ugly Warping Board on it. Rats!

So, when I got the brilliant notion of using the tri loom easel to support Mr Plug Ugly Warping Board, imagine my delight at having it be PERFECT!

(The fractious folding screen had me in conniptions, so you need to understand just how VERY happy I was!!!)

And, yep, that is the evil un-co-operative folding screen to the right.

and eegads… the studio is one honkin’ mess…  well, it was either clean the studio, or write this blog post.

(I obviously opted to blog instead of clean. )

ANYHOW>>>>

I am pleased…. warping is, once again, a pleasure!

I love the way the long low winter sun makes such neat shadows:

And, here’s the back of the easel, showing how Mr Plug Ugly (but oh so essential) Warping Board hangs so nicely on the easel.

Multi-tasking is a very satisfying thing when it means that I get to use my tools in ways that they weren’t originally designed for.

Happy dancing! 😀