Wednesday, March 18, 2009

thread hooks

The Eastern Phoebe arrived early this morning, and has been informing everyone of his arrival since daybreak. It is a familiar song, a harbinger of spring for me.

I've been making some thread hooks.

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They are constructed from semi-precious stones and wire. A few are made from wooden beads and wire. Some of the stones are quite beautiful when the sun catches them and illuminates the clarity.

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These thread hooks can be useful for several things. I originally made them to be used for pulling fiber through a diz. I've also used them in projects for knitting with beads. Recently, I have found them to be helpful when warping my double hole rigid heddle tape loom.

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I hold the wire from the hook close to the loop end and insert it into the holes and the slots on the heddle.

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...on the backside of the loom, I catch the thread and loop it through the wire to pull it through on the front.

I am warping the loom with my handspun flax, and will finish the top row with some handspun silk, just as soon as I finish plying it. Every time I want to use the Andean Ply method, I'm forced to pick up a book and refer to instructions for winding on my hand. I'm always so delightfully surprised when it unwinds!

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The loops just fall off the wrist, no tears, no tangles, just loop after loop after loop!

14 comments:

Cathy said...

That close up is wonderful!

I'm always fighting with threading needles...now I know what to do about it.

Anonymous said...

Oh wow, and look at that silk! Gorgeous!!!

So, are you going to be offering these threading hooks for sale?

Valerie said...

First: beautiful photo of Andean plying!

Second...we were just talking about heddle hooks at the workshop this weekend. I never found one that I liked, because a rigid hook just gets in my way. Your idea looks perfect! I'll have to jerri rig something to mimic yours and give it a try! Thanks for the idea.

Can't wait to see your loom dressed and weaving in progress!

Sharon said...

The threading hooks look like stitch markers, I wonder if they would be able to function as that too? Then they would be very multi tasking indeed. They look great, no suprise there, all your work is so wonderful!

Gingerbreadshouse7 said...

Wish you were a neighbor,you do such wonderful things and don't mind sharing...I'd be sure to learn something...Ginny

Lisa at Greenbow said...

These threading hooks are works of art Cyndy. It is wonderful to be able to work with such beautiful tools. I would love to watch you while you are doing all of these tasks you write about. I find it facinating just reading about it.

DebbieB said...

These hooks are so lovely! I especially like the ones made of flat stones.

I received the beautiful handmade wooden button in the mail - I love it! Thank you so much, Cyndy!!

Anonymous said...

Your quest for creating function objects of great beauty is very inspiring. You may have a hard time differentiating greys but your eye and sense of beauty more than makes up for it. :-)

Jody said...

Cindy you asked for the recipe for the ciabatta...this is the book I use (plus I add fresh rosemary and olive oil)http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/
The dough tastes best and has the most holes when it has sat for a week :)

judy said...

It looks like you spent the winter perfecting the art of spindling lace wt. yarn. Beautiful frog hair silk!

Beautiful and functional, no better combination for a tool.

Daddy said...

Howdy! I've enjoyed reading back through your blog, particularly about the flax and the cocoon rattle. Did you raise your cocoons? I'm sitting here turning silk filament into organzine, and it seems in a way very much like spinning the long strick of flax...

Judy said...

Happy Spring! The hooks are beautiful. Did you dye the silk? Can't wait to see the finished project.

bspinner said...

Your thread hooks are beautiful! Where do you sell them?

Leigh said...

I love the threading hooks! Very special.

Great shot of plying the silk. I've never mastered Andean plying, but then I've never truly mastered spindling either.

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