the placeholder becomes concrete

I have this idea that I am going to import all the posts from my undyedyarnpire.wordpress.com blog. However there are no importation tools to facilitate that. I am not even sure I can cross-post non-manually.

But there should be something here.

The goal is to have space for discussion here in the journal format since no one comments on blog posts. The blog will continue, of course, but posting there is a lot like screaming into the void.

I understand that, I loathe leaving comments on peoples' blogs. Not only are the login credentials a pain, but there is no mechanism to send a notification of a response automatically, so commenting is a poor experience as the commenter. It is also irritating as a lurker when a pattern post has a bazillion comments on it; when I want to save or print, I have to do a lot of work to strip out all the dreck. But as the blogger, there is no point in actually taking the pictures and laboriously crosslinking everything because no one is looking.

I added all the fiber-related groups that appealed immediately, but there is very little activity in them. It almost seems as though there needs to be a combined group for many fiber crafts until there is a need to split off.

the obligatory introduction post

As an introduction, so you get the idea where I come from creatively, there is a song that was quoted in Fire In the Mist by Holly Lisle,
(Available on the publisher's website, legally)
I am only quoting my favorite verse and the chorus:

For the moment

I rejoice,

Whatever the

Moment brings.

Cry for sorrow,

Laugh for joy for—

Sometimes I have sunshine.
 

Lady shears and

Lady cards;

Lady spins and

Lady dyes.

Lady weaves our

Lives to cloth and

Lady sends the sunshine.
 

 ---

I read that when the book was new, in 1992, and it is probably the single-most mentally sticky thing I have ever read. It was not until I began spinning in 2007 that I had the ability to see the sunshine in my life. Not that spinning itself caused this, there were a number of other factors, but it suits my preferences to do something handy when times are difficult. 
 

Loom!

I bought a loom.

I had 3 choices I really liked.

• floor loom, Glimakra Julia. But honestly I've never woven and $1K is a lot to try something out. Plus the space, the space...
• rigid heddle loom, LeClerc Bergere, but it doesn't have a stand available, it doesn't fold up and it's kind of big. 
• rigid heddle loom, Glimakra Emilia. I loved the 19" version but couldn't find anywhere that actually had them. They were the vaporware of looms.

Most people said that RH looms are better with a stand unless you get a really tiny one like a 15" Schacht Flip. 

So when Paradise Fibers sent a Year End Clearance coupon code good for 10% off almost everything (except LeClerc looms and some spinning wheels) I went and looked. They had the 13" Emilia. So I bought one on the spot. I figure it will not need a stand because it is small enough and if I need to do big things, I probably want a floor loom anyway. 

It has been more than a year of looking and and handwringing trying to find the right choice. I hope this was it, but certainly with the sale price, I can resell it for closer to my cost. 

I started looking for a loom because someone, somewhere said weaving uses up gobs of yarn. I have a lot more yarn than I can possibly knit in my lifetime. (I am a very slow knitter and easily distracted when something is not for me.) But I love yarn and want to keep spinning, so I needed to find something that would help. 

I expect to be rather happy with my purchase, and there will be pictures.