Feeding the Obsession

I found the most inspiring flickr group ever today: http://flickr.com/groups/837990@N20/

I don’t want to step on anybody’s copyright toes, so I won’t post a picture here, but it is a group that shows photo mosaics of fiber, spun singles and then the finished yarn (and sometimes knitted objects). It is incredible eye candy!

So inspiring, in fact, that I had to take a little trip to etsy to take an innocent look around the spinning category (because life has made it impossible for me to dye anything for myself lately).

And then I innocently put a couple braids of roving into my cart.

And now these lovelies are on their way to me (since I bought them, I hope cloudlover won’t mind me using the photos on my blog:

Speaking of obsessions… Something you should know about me- When I get interested in something, I get REALLY interested. I buy multiple books, heavily research and buy the equipment and then commence to learn like there’s no tomorrow. That’s how it happened with photography, jewelry making, sewing, knitting, dyeing and spinning. I have one of those super compulsive muses that will literally grab me by the wrist and drag me on her latest whim with no warning whatsoever.

Now, I sense, it’s happening with something else. It all began with another totally innocent perusal. This time it was through Amazon.com’s recommendations for me. Amazon, it seems, knows just how to get me to spend money.

As I was looking through knitting and spinning book recommendations, another caught my eye: Weaving Made Easy by Liz Gipson. In that moment, I entered the world of rigid heddle looms.

Before that moment, I thought that “real” weaving had to be done on giant looms that took up huge amounts of space. My mother in law has one that takes up half of her basement, and one of my dearest friends has one that takes up half of her studio floor space. I can weave on something in my lap or on the kitchen table? Where do I get one of these things?

The research phase had begun. I spent hours reading up on rigid heddle weaving on ravelry, reading book and loom reviews and trying to determine the best beginner loom that would allow me to expand a bit with my skills before having to purchase another model. At this point, I’m quite sure that the Schacht Flip will be the way to go, but I’m also interested in the Kromski Harp. I have read very good reviews for both.

The real deal sealer? While checking out my flickr contacts’ recent uploads, I discovered that another dyer, also named Georgia, just happened to get a rigid heddle loom for Christmas and her first projects are so amazingly beautiful I can’t stand it! That’s it. I’m hooked.

I’m so excited at having another method for creating beautiful and useful objects from my handspun and hand-dyed yarns!

It’s probably a good thing that the 25″ Flip is backordered at Webs…