Moving Forward

This winter I borrowed a 32" wide rigid heddle loom from a friend.  I wanted to be able to have two weaving projects going at once and have one of them be portable, so this loom is doing exactly what I need it too.  It is warped up with an ash brown unwashed Harrisville Shetland wool and the weft is  Icelandic that I spun from roving my boyfriend purchased at the Shenandoah Fiber Festival a year and a half ago.  (Yes, I am doing some stash busting and trying to wrap half-finished projects up!)

Because the warp is unwashed, it will compress and fluff on washing, filling in the gaps of the weaving and tightening the whole textile up.  I hope to have enough finished fabric to sew for him a hood.

The other bit of project fun this weekend was to finally try to use the reproduction firestarter that I got at Pennsic (from Viking U Like/Feed the Ravens).  I had flint imported from England, my firesteel, a ball of unspun flax and a piece of dried Tinder Fungus (Fomes fomentarius) that was given to me when I purchased the firestarter. 


I tried many times, striking the flint over and over with the steel.  Sparks came easily, but it took some time before one landed in the right spot on the mushroom to ignite it (and when it took, it REALLY took).  The flax next served well to catch fire so I could see how this method served well in the past.  Unfortunately, there are no images of the actual fire because we were both so surprised when it actually took that no one thought to reach for the camera (and, to be honest, I almost dropped it I was so surprised)!

Now I just need to find some more of that fungus so that I can create more material on which to catch the spark.