Something Borrowed, Something Blue(ish)
It seems that life is absolutely FILLED lately, but not necessarily with loom time. I recently borrowed a Band Loom from my Weaving Fairy Godmother, Barbara Hurley, and have been weaving away at a band that will serve as an apron neck strap for my friend (another fiber goddess) Gail Callahan. I have been enjoying the inkle loom so much that Barbara lent me this wonderful tool. It is warped more like a regular loom, and has two treadles, so the weaving goes a little faster. It is an expensive wee tool and isn’t (by far) as portable as the inkle, but you can see how lovely it is above.
The Blue/Green(ish) warp is ready to go on the AVL. It is a 16-shaft draft adapted from a deflected doubleweave sample I saw on the Proweave site that was woven by Dini Moes. Dini Moes has since passed away and what a sad oss for the weaving world! I highly recommend that you check her deflected doubleweave and diversified plain weave sample out – incredible. I have my big son cheerily working away at the more tedious chores in the studio before he returns to Providence for the summer art intensive. Wow – look at how bowed that reed is – and sit up straight son!
I am also tying onto the 40/2 napkin warp to weave 4 more napkins. The first four feel wonderful, but my selvedges are a little bumpy. I have received a lot of excellent advice which will (hopefully) improve my selvedges for this next batch. Ellen advised that I moisten my bobbins before weaving and Barbara Hurley advised following Becky Ashenden’s method of using pirns and winding them tightly, not putting too much weft on at a time and not pre-winding a bunch because linen’s memory is so good that you don’t want it sitting on the pirn for too long before you weave with it. I am still tying on so I will tell you the results of these techniques soon.
I have to go now and make sure that my employee isn’t shirking!
