Laffing Horse Crafts

Some times you’ve just got to blow you own horn. This ain’t one of ‘em.

I get a lot of people saying nice things abut the work I do, but they usually only say it in one place. I’ve taken the liberty of grabbing a couple of those comments. So, without further ado, let the lily gilding begin…

• A true artist! Incredible Loom! Great Communication! Highly Recommended! Thanks!
  • Laffing Horse 6-foot Triangle Loom, Weaving Tri-loom

  
  

• Exceptional workmanship and great communication.
  • Triangle Loom, Laffing Horse Triloom, 2-foot, fine sett

  
  

• ,¬?¬???¬§¬?¬?`¬?¬?¬§??,¬?¬?,??¬§¬?¬?`¬?¬?¬§??,¬?¬?Incredible,¬?¬???¬§¬?¬?`¬?¬?¬§??,¬?¬?,??¬§¬?¬?`¬?¬?¬§??,¬?¬?
  • Afghan crochet hook, hand carved wood, sz L, 22 in.

  
  

• Wonderful!! Just wonderful. It’s a pleasure to do business with you.
  • Afghan crochet hook, hand carved wood, sz P, 22 in.

  
  

• Thank you so much! The best needles ever. Shawn has a customer for life!
  • Square Circular Knitting Needles, Carved Hardwood, sz 8

  
  

• Great crochet hook! Beautiful! And thanks for the speedy delivery.
  • Tunisian double-ended crochet hook, 22 in long, size K

  
  

• I love the spindle. My kids even want to try it out.
  • Drop spindle, spinning, bottom whorl, yarn, hand spin

  
  

• Love the workmanship on these hooks… Highly recommended.
  • Afghan crochet hook, hand carved wood, beaded, 22 in. K

I had Jen select these. She tells me that only from the month of August and includes no repeat customers.

She also tells me things like, “a customer called up and asked for a loom. Said that they’d researched a lot of others, but wanted one that would look nice in their living room.”

Now, I’m gong to have to stop writing as I fear that any more and I will not be able to get my head out the doors to go do chores…

Ah, but it is nice to be appreciated!

Popularity: unranked [?]

If you’ve been reading this website for any length of time, you know that I try to be upbeat and positive. I don’t gripe much, and I don’t point fingers.

If I ever do gripe or grouse or complain, I apologize. When I do point fingers, I don’t name names, if you know what I mean.

Today is different. Today, I’m gonna whine loud and long. I’m gonna point a finger (still no names). I’m gonna hope you can forgive this little slip in my cheerful fa?ßade… the chink in my armor.

The title of this post is caveat emptor… buyer beware. That could have applied to the content of this post, but that’s not the case. Read on.

I’m a spinner and weaver. I’ve spun on everything from an Orenburg spindle to a tahkli support spindle to a bottom-whorl drop spindle to a Egyptian top-whorl spindle (there’s a Navajo spindle in that link, too) to a Turkish spindle to a Balkan spindle (look down the page a bit… it’s there) to a Navajo spindle (there’s a video at this ink) to a charkha to an economy PVC wheel to a $2000 one-of-a-kind antique to a museum Great wheel (I demonstrated for a tour group once using this wheel which snot pictured) and much that was in between. I’ve only practiced my weaving on a rigid heddle, a four-harness table loom, a 48-inch Newcomb, and my TriLooms.

That’s my r?©sum?©. I’d think for the area I’ve chosen to work, it’s pretty complete. I’m no Alden Amos, but I’m working on it.

Today, I spotted someone selling Navajo spindles with a tw0-inch whorl mated to a 30-inch shaft with a hook in the top.

I’ve made Navajo spindles for years. I’ve spun on ‘em for years. Never have I seen a Navajo spindle with a whorl that small. I’ve never seen a Navajo spindle with a hook. I could also go on about other errors in the ad, like saying it’s all oak when in fact I recognize parts being used (I use them, too, for other projects) as birch and maple, but that would be petty.

In fairness, I announced a couple of weeks ago that I would make a Navajo with a hook to get people started and I have made one or two. They have four- to five-inch whorls and are not called Navajo spindles when I do that… I call them the EZ Southwest Spindle.

Now, it might be assumed that I am ranting because this is cutting into my sales. That might be partly true. I gotta eat just like the next guy. But that’s not the real reason… not the proverbial straw that broke this camel’s back.

It’s dishonest and wrong!

Anyone purchasing one of these spindles is not getting a Navajo spindle… they’re getting¬† a really hard-to-handle drop spindle. This will leave them disappointed and frustrated and improperly informed.

It hurts the spinning community and hurts the consumer and it hurts legitimate fiber arts vendors… I don’t like that.

Popularity: 2% [?]

I’ve got to learn. I never seem to learn. Why am I so stoopid!?!

I’m talking about surfing the internet. I’m talking about reading news and blogs. I’m talking about getting new ideas for new products that I don’t have the time to make.

Today, it was a new concept for a niddy noddy and an improved noste – and I haven’t even really introduced the old one yet.

I hate the internet.

Of course, as much as that hurts (my brain and my schedule), it keeps me on my toes. It’s also the source of all of our income between shows.

I love the internet.

Some day I’ll learn.

Some day I won’t surf the internet.

But first, I’ve got this transatlantic flight on the back of a winged porcine to take.

Popularity: 2% [?]

I’m in the middle of finishing off a Palomino 6-Foot TriLoom which Jeanette wants to ship tomorrow (and which I’m going to do my (^%%est to finish tonight) when she asks me if I can make a noste.

I said, “No.”

“Are you sure?” she replies. I translate that as ‘don’t you think you should try?’

Grumbling, I stalk around the workshop looking for a piece of scrap wood I can experiment with. I find one and cut to to 7 inches and chuck it into my makeshift mini-lathe (the real lathe isn’t set up yet) and begin.

It’s quite nice even if I do say so myself, this smoothly tapered piece of wood. the beeswax and oil and high speed buffing have put a wonderful glow into it.

However, its got no handle and I’m running out of time… I’ve got to get that TriLoom done!

My eye falls on something I had lying about and it looks vaguely hand size… might work as a handle. I center the noste and mark it and drill a hole into it about 1-inch deep. I then cut a 2-inch piece of 1/4″ dowel and rough it and glue it into the hole. I grab what I had spied and eyeball its center and drill a matching 1-inch deep hole in it. I add glue and set the dowel firmly in place. A little whittling, some smoothing…

Voila! The noste is done!

Did you know that bread is the mother of the rocket ship? Necessity is the mother if invention, right…

Oh, yeah, the handle? A darning egg!

Introducing the Laffing Horse Nostedarnepinne or something like that… I’ve got a modification or two to make (after the TriLooms are done) and I’ll get some pictures up here (and some instructions for use) and Jen will get them into the store.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Today I finished up Two Learn To TriWeave kits, a Shetland 2-Foot Fine Sett TriLoom and I am engaged in the process of assembling a Palomino 6-Foot TriLoom and a Palomino II 6/4/2 MultiLoom.

The orders that remain after that include a size K crochet hook, a 22″ size P afghan crochet hook, a set of three oversize (16″ long) square knitting needles, a 48″ size Q afghan crochet hook (the Laffing Horse Mega Weaving Hook, actually) and a Learn to Spin Kit.
As soon as I get all of that done, I’ll get to take a break and make stock and prototypes rather than just fill orders. Truthfully, I should be done by Friday… Monday at the latest (but only because we’ve got a seminar on sheep and goats in the Ozarks to attend on Saturday).

Yep, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel!

There’s also a light in the workshop. That’s important. Used to be¬† a series of six domed light fixtures in the entire shop we’re currently living in. There are also two banks of fluorescent lights over the kitchen and Jen’s desk, but those never helped me much.

The six domed light fixtures are still there and still on – even during the day, there’s need of them in the shop. However, I’ve removed the plywood cover over the back window. The previous tenants had covered it and I can’t for the life of me think why. The glass isn’t broken. It even has a pull-type shade. All of it was intact, but behind a slab of screwed in plywood.

Now there’s light.

Makes me sound smart, right? I didn’t remove the plywood to get to the window for light, though. It only occurred to me as I was removing the plywood that light would be a nice by-product of my endeavors. No, prior to the removal of the plywood, I mounted clip lights to whatever I could clip them onto.

No. The reason I removed the plywood was to install a second hand, window mount air conditioner.

Now, well lit and cooled off, I am getting some work done.

P.S. If you happen to follow the link above that mentions the 48″ Mega Weaving Hook, you’ll get to see where Jen spent most of her June and July. That’s her Mustang 7-Foot TriLoom hung on the wall of our booth at the Colorado Renaissance Festival.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Well, it’s kinda new… sorta…

I wrote in the Laffing Horse Diary the other day that my blog was my website. Seems people were getting confused looking for us and finding my daily (or sometimes not-so-daily) ramblings.

People stayed confused. Bummer.

They wanted to find out about Laffing Horse Woodworks, or Foxbriar Farm, or Common Threads. I wanted to tell ‘em about my neighbor.

Since we – Jeanette and I -¬† cannot count ourselves as a majority of two (well, we could, but what good would that do us… or our readers), we decided to turn all of our websites back on and desegregate them.

Now you’ll find the following:

• Laffing Horse Diary
  • This is where I’ll write about the woodshop and all the wonderful goodies I build and design. Crochet hooks, square crochet hooks, afghan crochet hooks, Tunisian crochet hooks, flexible crochet hooks, knitting needles, circular knitting needles, double-point knitting needles, square knitting needles of all types, drop spindles, Navajo spindles, TriLooms and more can be found right here.
• Foxbriar Farm
  • Daily trials, tribulations, and celebrations of life in the Ozarks. Here there be¬† critters! Llamas, Jacob Sheep, Lamancha Dairy Goats, Angora Goats, Dogs, Cats, Chickens, Bees and Nugget and ‘Fria – the two old token ponies and hay disposal units – will wander side by side with half lunatic ravings about how to best build a house out of scrap lumber and baling twine.
• Sustainable Reality
  • Where High Tech meets the Homestead. We’re homesteaders, sure, but that doesn’t mean we’re not civilized. We’ve got DSL run right to the barn. We’ll blather on about new green technologies, how to use your computer and Internet connection to support the farm, and the like right here. I might even tuck in a few personal musings.
• Spinning Dreams and Weaving Yarns
  • Jeanette’s personal musings. I’m sure she has a more defined idea of what will go here, but she’s not told me quite what it is yet.
• Sis
  • ‘Lena spends a lot of time on the farm. She has a very good eye for photos and a gentle, healing hand with the animals. She can tell you about it – or show it to you – in her own way.
• Road Dogs
  • Jeanette decided that our dogs should have a voice. You’ll hear from Aniken the white German Shepherd, Quigley UpOver the Aussie in America, and Scraps the Chihuahua crossed with¬† a¬† bat crossed with a¬† potbellied pig crossed with a pug.
• There’s another, but Jeanette says I can’t tell you about it yet… don’t worry, though, as soon as it’s ready you’ll hear about it in a BIG way. Gosh, I hope it’s ready soon!

That about wraps it up, I think, for now anyways. I’m sure there will come a point somewhere down the road a piece when we’ll add to or subtract from the list. Until then, enjoy the ride!

Popularity: 1% [?]

I heard, just the other day, a fellow about my age lamenting the fact that the modern world kept every one so busy that no one had time to neighbor.

Neighbor, he said. He used it as a verb. My alter ego -¬† a spike haired, multiply pierced, undercover agent for the Grammar Police… name of Punk Chuation – wanted to correct him. Another side of me – rather Yoda-ish – said “hmmm, with word choices he is good”

Neighbor. It’s something we all used to do. There’d be a picnic or a bar-b-que. Maybe folk would come over for a beer and to watch a movie or play canasta or rummy.

Not any more! Mom works from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Dad had to take a job from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and after those grueling days there’s still cooking and cleaning and helping little Timmy or Little Suzy with homework… let’s not mention band practice and cheerleading squad and the football team and the soccer team and the speech team. Its no wonder that, by the time all is said and done, the boob toob is thought by many to be a better alternative to the person just next door. Or maybe there’s just one more site to view or one more email to read or one more post to write. Or maybe *gasp* work had to be brought home to be finished.

If you fit in this category, don’t worry and don’t be offended. The people just next door are probably doing the same thing.

The next time, however, there is an opportunity to neighbor – even if it just to wave and say “Nice lawn, Joe.” do it. It’ll make you feel better.

You might like that. You might go out of your way to neighbor more. Maybe even miss that episode of the latest unreality show. Maybe you’ll scan through your email and not try to reply to every last one (were they really that important). Maybe you’ll write a shorter blog post.

Popularity: unranked [?]

I’ve heard a few reports of folks not being able to find this, that or the other on my site… they think it’s just a blog. They’ve emailed me saying “I love your blog, but I was looking for TriLooms (or Spirit Bells or Shawls or whatever).”

I can see where that confusion may be coming from.

Because of our varied interests and endeavors, we have several domain names picked out and registered… Lessee, there’s:

• Foxbriar Farm at http://www.foxbriarfarmstead.com
  • This is a site I created and prototyped, but did nothing else with. It‚Äôs supposed to be about life on the farm. It‚Äôs about to be integrated into my main site at http://www.laffing-horse.com.
• Sustainable Reality at http://www.sustainablereality.com
  • This is a site I created – never even prototyped – did nothing else with. It‚Äôs supposed to be about the steps we are taking to make the farm sustainable‚Ķ maybe I‚Äôll get a little political and express a view or two here from time to time. It‚Äôs about to be integrated into my main site at http://www.laffing-horse.com.
• Common Threads at http://stores.ebay.com/common-threads-fiber-arts-and-more
  • We had that one registered‚Ķ sort of‚Ķ seems there are a ot of folk out there with a name quite similar. We had a site set up, but it never got updated. Now, this is Jen‚Äôs ebay store and, aside from answering a question or two, I stay away from it. Originally, we had an eCommerce store right here (and some people have that bookmarked so I haven‚Äôt removed it, but you can only get to it through an old bookmark or a lot of finageling, now). However, I built the store on the premise ‚Äúif you build it, they will come.‚Äù and I forgot about the concept ‚Äúthere‚Äôs no sense in reinventing the wheel.‚Äù Ebay‚Äôs done a lot better for us than our store ever did so we tucked it away and now we send potential customers to our ebay store.
• Fleecyful Rugs
  • This was a site dedicated to Jen‚Äôs Fleecyful Rugs. These Fleece woven rugs never really caught on the way we wanted ‘em to and the rest of the stuff did. This site, then, went to way of a lot of our sites and has been integrated into the main site at http://www.laffing-horse.com.
• Lydia Elyse
  • I registered this name to celebrate the birth of my grand daughter, but time and a lack of pictures and the move conspired to prevent anyone from ever doing anything with it. Maybe it‚Äôll come back some day.
• Once upon a time we registered Leaping Lambs, too‚Ķ

After a while, with all these sites floating about out there and with our lives just screaming past in a blur, I realized I couldn’t track ‘em all. We still own several of the domain names… maybe a couple others I’ve forgotten… we tend to brainstorm and grab domains we think might be useful and then forget about them. So, to reduce my confusion, I decided to create a BIG blog with lots of pages to cover everything.

This is it. This is my bog and my website.

If you’ll look just below the header graphic, you’ll see a row of links. There’s Start ‚Ä¢ About ‚Ä¢ Critters ‚Ä¢ TriLooms ‚Ä¢ Pics ‚Äòn‚Äô Such ‚Ä¢ Contact us and More‚Ķ Those are the pages or categories. Click on ‘em and you’ll get where you’re wanting to be. if you’re only interested in my disjointed ramblings, you can dispense with all of it by clicking the RSS link and subscribing… have the goodies delivered to you instead of wading through the rest of the stuff.

If the item or article you’re looking for isn’t in those pages, look to the Links over on the right hand side, near the top. Those’ll take you to Jen’s Blog or Lena’s Blog or the ebay store or our CafePress store. As a matter of fact, there’s a lot of links down that column… enjoy.

Hmmm… You were confused? The opposite of con is pro. Does this mean you’re profused now?

If not, you can always leave a comment or drop me a line via email.

Oh, and remember what I said about brainstorming? Watch those links for an addition, soon… and watch this space for an announcement.

Popularity: unranked [?]

After a long day of shopping (livestock feed, plumbing parts, groceries) and errand running – which included a late lunch/early dinner at a roadside joint called Backwoods BBQ in Greenbrier, AR where we had all you can eat ribs… yum! – we attended our first meeting of the Ozark Foothills Beekeepers Association. We were invited by Sonny and Lynn – owners of the Lost Creek Apiary about 20 miles away… in Ozark driving that’s about a 2 hour drive

The meeting is held the third Thursday of every month at the Damascus Community Center. Since the feed store we like is in Damascus and there’s a cheap (HA! I’m calling sub $3.00 per gallon fuel cheap… brainwashed am I) diesel station, and a grocery store, and a hardware store on the way, this was easy enough to do… we planned the shopping and meeting and got a lot done in a few hours.

While Jeanette drove down, I sketched out and planned a materials list for the new shed were planning on building. We then discussed possible barn/paddock arrangements – we still want to rotate animals through pastures to maximize the health of the animals and the health of the pastures.

Ideally, we’ll have 4 paddocks – each about 4 or 5 acres and each will have about 80% pasture and 15% trees with access to the stream. Each will have its own small shelter, and each will be easy distance to the main barn where we’ll store hay and grain and have the milk room set up.

Something like this:

But I digress…

We joined the Ozark Foothills Beekeepers Association, paid our $10 and were immediately adopted. This adoption comes with:

• Offers of advice and help (since were out of town in June and July when the honey really flows several people have offered to drop by and check on the hives)
• Offers of honey (bad stuff from bad flowers that people won’t sell, but it’s great for feeding bees over winter)
• Offers of equipment (we’re told that the association has several items such as extractors available to loan to members)
• Magazine offers – kinda hard to get around that one any more… there’s a magazine for everything these days
• and a lot more…

Best $10 we’ve spent in a while, I think.

During the meeting (which was supposed to feature a speaker on insect noises – night music – but the speaker failed to materialize) there was a lot of discussion about cutting out bees or cutting down bee trees, mites and hive beetles and pesticide deaths and mentions of CCD… and no one ever frowned or looked worried or upset or concerned.

What I saw instead was a sincere love of what they were doing – caring for those bees and harvesting the tasty golden treasure.

This is a happy, helpful bunch of folk.

I’m glad to bee a member!

Popularity: unranked [?]

My Dad used to stand outside after dark. I’d look out from the living room window and see his silhouette against the moon- and starlit sky. I always wondered what he was doing up on that hill… My wondering, then, didn’t last long as there was always something exciting on TV or to read or homework to do.

Last night I caught myself standing outside, after dark… I think I get it now…

Here on Foxbriar Farm, we have an orchestra. Millions of animals and insects lend their voices to a peacefully sleep inducing, all-natural and organic lullaby.

Above the chirps and hums and drone and the occasional interjection of one of our sheep bleating in their sleep or the soft crunch of one of our goats getting a late night snack, there is the forest. It rises as a silhouette frame of swaying ebony with splashes of golden or pearly blue light from the fireflies and lightning bugs. Within the confines of that frame is the limitless night… we can see the Milky Way and I take a moment or two to pick out the Dippers and Polaris and maybe look for Orion…

It’s the perfect time to contemplate the day past and plan, just for a moment, the day that follows.

Popularity: unranked [?]