Let there be light........

A couple of weeks ago my track lighting over the looms frizzled out. We spent a lot of hours looking for new lighting but none of it was over 6 ft long or else it wasn't remotely affordable. Sam finally found this lighting at Lowe's, an 8ft track. He had to wire in a switch with a chain so I could turn it on/off as it's hardwired in. He got it up, pulled out the lights to put them up and they were the big lights, not the cute little dainty pretty lights he thought he was grabbing off the shelf. He was ready to take them back right then (a 50 minute drive) but I said "wait a minute - let's give them a try". Wow - I could do brain surgery at the looms with those big lights - I love them.  So style to the wayside - I'm going for function. I've never had this much light over the looms - whoo hoo.......

 This was the painted warp I got on the loom today after the lighting was put up. It's 8/2 tencel. Here is it coming up over the back beam into the raddle.........

.......after heddles are threaded and reed sleyed.......

 .....auditioning wefts for the 2 scarves......definitely going with the first color, fuchsia - still trying to decide between the second color, black or the third color, teal for the other scarf.......

......first scarf using the fuchsia tencel as weft........it's half woven now, hoping to get some good weaving time in tomorrow. I'm still figuring out how to juggle life - my weaving time has been suffering the past few years, I've got to figure out how to remedy that but I seem to run out of hours each day........also want to make more time to spend with friends too...........hmm, where is that big clock with the hands that move slower when I need it???

So bright I can do surgery!

So ignore the mess, look at the track lighting - this is just one little corner of my studio and it's organized mess in my weaving world. Sam put up new track lighting for me over the two looms - it's so bright I could do surgery in the studio - it's great! Lighting at the looms was a challenge - I had clamp-on lights on each loom but it still wasn't enough. That's a shelving unit of 5/2 & 3/2 perle cotton - the 10/2 & 20/2 are on another shelving unit.......and then out of sight are all the shelves of 8/2 UKI unmercerized cotton, other unmercerized cottons, tencels, bamboos, silks, rayons, rayon chenille, wools, novelties, linen, cottolin, handspun, etc. etc. etc.  Knitting yarns, beads, fabrics, sewing machines, papers, stamps, stencils, etc. are in a separate room across the hall. And then there's the walk-in closet with dyes, spinning fibers and overflow...........all roving for sale is in around 20 huge bins in the 3rd bay of the garage, dye equipment in a storage room in the garage........hmm, looks like I've taken over quite a bit of the house since there are also 3 spinning wheels upstairs along with knitting needles, etc. and current knitting/spinning projects. I think I need a separate big studio but it's not even on the radar at this point, I'm fine where I am..........