Saori WX60
Nov. 13th, 2025 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yhleeThey're not kidding when they say this loom folds up easily (a few seconds) and can be wheeled WITH A PARTIALLY WOVEN WIP STILL ON THE LOOM, ditto unfolding and your project's ready again. (The wheels are extra, but worth it to me.)
Note that this loom is lightweight, my preference (~30 lbs) but that means it will "travel" if you treadle hard. Likewise, by default it's only two harnesses. I unironically love plainweave so this is fine for my use case but if you have more complex weaving in mind, maybe not so much. (You can buy a spendy attachment to convert it to four harnesses, but...)
( Read more... )
I haven't yet tested it, but the design of the "ready-made warp" tabletop system is fiendishly clever. Frankly, warping is potentially so annoying that it was worth the cost. I am considering a Frankenstein's monster modification that MIGHT make warping easier as well but I haven't yet tested it.
Note that this loom is lightweight, my preference (~30 lbs) but that means it will "travel" if you treadle hard. Likewise, by default it's only two harnesses. I unironically love plainweave so this is fine for my use case but if you have more complex weaving in mind, maybe not so much. (You can buy a spendy attachment to convert it to four harnesses, but...)
( Read more... )I haven't yet tested it, but the design of the "ready-made warp" tabletop system is fiendishly clever. Frankly, warping is potentially so annoying that it was worth the cost. I am considering a Frankenstein's monster modification that MIGHT make warping easier as well but I haven't yet tested it.
writers beware: Must Read Magazines (currently: F&SF, Analog, Asimov's)
Nov. 13th, 2025 12:10 amyhleehttps://www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/2025/11/12/a-dream-denied/
Short version: Must Read Magazines offers garbage contracts. I'm not in contracts or law, but I started in sf/f short stories 20+ years ago and IMO Edelman correctly refused to sign.
Based on this account and others, I would not go near Must Read Magazines (or F&SF, Asimov's, Analog under their current ownership) with a 200-foot anaconda, let alone a 20-foot pole.
On August 12, 1971, my 16-year-old self mailed the first story I ever wrote off on its first submission. The publication I hoped would buy that story, my dream market, was The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
[...]
...earlier this week, after what by my count were 23 back and forth emails between me and the new owners of F&SF as I attempted to transform that initial boilerplate contract into something acceptable, I had no choice other than to walk away from my dream.
Let me explain why.
But before I do, I want to preface this by making it clear I have nothing but good things to say about editor Sheree Renée Thomas. Her words of praise as she accepted this story moved me greatly, and her perceptive comments and suggested tweaks ably demonstrated her strengths as an editor. It breaks my heart to disappoint her by pulling a story which was intended to appear in the next issue of F&SF. But, alas, I must.
Short version: Must Read Magazines offers garbage contracts. I'm not in contracts or law, but I started in sf/f short stories 20+ years ago and IMO Edelman correctly refused to sign.
Based on this account and others, I would not go near Must Read Magazines (or F&SF, Asimov's, Analog under their current ownership) with a 200-foot anaconda, let alone a 20-foot pole.
weaving underway!
Nov. 10th, 2025 08:44 amyhlee(added a very short video demonstrating Bad Weaving)
The weft yarn is my two-ply handspun on an Ashford Traveller: wallaby-merino-cashmere-silk blend from Ixchel.
...warping is indeed 99.99% of the physical work, moreso than with a pin loom or rigid heddle loom! After that, the physical work of weaving (plainweave) is stupidly easy.
Joe is getting the world's jankiest tiny blanket out of this. :) One has to start somewhere!
Saori WX60 floor loom: warped!
Nov. 9th, 2025 03:11 pmyhleeJoe helped and Cloud "helped." :)
I'm waiting for my intended handspun weft yarn to finish drying in the sun outside before setting up my shuttle. :)
I'm waiting for my intended handspun weft yarn to finish drying in the sun outside before setting up my shuttle. :)
catten yarn
Nov. 7th, 2025 09:50 pmyhleeNot my catten but isis's catten's contribution! So very soft. :3
Not much yet as it's a slightly tricky spin, mostly in that one has to pay attention instead of watching anime while spinning on inattentive mode. :D It feels different of course (silkier/floofier), but the spinning technique, like huacaya alpaca, is surprisingly similar to cotton in some ways!
BTW,isis, Cloud has been sniffing my hands VERY SUSPICIOUSLY ahahahaha.
isis's catten's contribution! So very soft. :3Not much yet as it's a slightly tricky spin, mostly in that one has to pay attention instead of watching anime while spinning on inattentive mode. :D It feels different of course (silkier/floofier), but the spinning technique, like huacaya alpaca, is surprisingly similar to cotton in some ways!
BTW,
isis, Cloud has been sniffing my hands VERY SUSPICIOUSLY ahahahaha.emotional support spinning
Nov. 7th, 2025 07:21 amyhlee
Happily, there's more of this so I can spin up more for a 2-ply. Destined for weft for the Saori loom - I have promised Joe a smol, semifunctional blanket. :3
Saori WX60 floor loom assembly WIP
Nov. 6th, 2025 05:55 amyhlee
Loom assembly to continue...after...catten removes herself from possibly having screws DROPPED on her... /o\
Special thanks to Jill of Saori Santa Cruz,
merrileemakes, and my husband for helping me figure out which part of assembly I borked yesterday!
emotional support fiber
Nov. 2nd, 2025 06:56 pmyhlee
I slightly less half-assedly fixed the warp on the Clover Sakiori loom (Japanese).
I didn't bring a comb for the weft and was using a tapestry needle, but catten remains unlikely to mind imperfect weaving.
Also, further adventures in dyeing wool yarn. I'd like to test on dyeing combed top for cotton, ramie, and silk (mulberry/bombyx, eri, tussah, and maybe a small sample of my treasured stash of muga); and then try some on alpaca or mohair after I've processed some more.
Later in the season, in natural dyes, I might experiment with the traditional hoary old standby of onion skins; rose hips (several of my roses shrubs produce them); and find out if windfall figs from the no-longer-quite-so-baby fig tree do anything interested as dyes. Osage orange, common madder, true and false indigo, hibiscus, and elderberry grow in Louisiana so making a dye plant plot might be entertaining. That or I sacrifice e.g. a bunch of beets lol. For personal use, I don't care about consistency (I prefer chaos ball colors) and I'm not that fussed about reliable fastness. "Throw it in a pot and also an ~appropriate mordant" for personal experiment promises to be very entertaining.
emotional support fiber: weaving
Nov. 1st, 2025 05:04 pmyhleeThis is beginner mode weaving on a Clover Sakiori tabletop ~portable loom. It has an unbelievably easy warping setup based on the reeds, with what I think of affectionately as typically beautifully overengineered Japanese design and terrific documentation; I don't read Japanese but the pictures + diagrams are extraordinarily clear. I'm US-based so tariffs are a vexed situation, but these tend to run ~$200 USD plus international shipping off eBay. I do also own a Lojan Flex rigid heddle loom, but I like the ease of warping so much better on the Clover Sakiori. I'm also that extremely boring person who just wants to plainweave forever; if I want to embellish fabric, I will embroider.
I half-assed the warp and it shows, but at the level of "can I set this up at all," the answer is yes. Also, catten is unlikely to be a HARSH critic of a tiny little catten blankie to shed all over, so.
Just look at those warping layouts! I'm too lazy to check the trigonometry, but I'm betting it's correct.
I'm struggling with weaving (English-language [1]) vocabulary so I can't describe the action further. This YouTube playlist by Renee Johnson Studio shows it in action, though.
[1] There is probably random Korean terminology buried in my head because of my mom, but it's not helpful in sussing out help in English...
I need to lie down now but it was a good day for exploratory weaving.
I half-assed the warp and it shows, but at the level of "can I set this up at all," the answer is yes. Also, catten is unlikely to be a HARSH critic of a tiny little catten blankie to shed all over, so.
Just look at those warping layouts! I'm too lazy to check the trigonometry, but I'm betting it's correct.
I'm struggling with weaving (English-language [1]) vocabulary so I can't describe the action further. This YouTube playlist by Renee Johnson Studio shows it in action, though.
[1] There is probably random Korean terminology buried in my head because of my mom, but it's not helpful in sussing out help in English...
I need to lie down now but it was a good day for exploratory weaving.