Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Trials and tribulations?

Well, it's been a trial, not sure about the tribulations part.  I was making great progress weaving plain weave in the first wrap of 4.  The warp was beamed and the weaving begun.  I wove the middle marker, a brief section of twill patterning, and headed down the road of the second half of the first wrap.  I keep repeating myself because each wrap requires close to 170" or close to 5 yards, 15 feet of weaving plain weave.  It's the easiest weave structure to weave and the least forgiving if you make an error.

You know where this story is leading.  I hit a poorly tensioned section of warp and the weaving went totally wonky.  I thought just a few threads were off and discovered that several individual threads throughout the warp were tensioned poorly.  They probably got hung up in the reed for a second or two during the beaming process as I wound the warp onto the back beam.  That's all it took.  Just a few seconds and that one thread had less tension than it's neighbor.  Creates huge problems when you are weaving.  You're thinking, okay, a bump in the road.  Think 3 foot deep pot hole you cannot avoid and each tire falls in one at a time.  Jolting to the whole system.

I corrected the errors I could find and continued weaving.   I noticed a few skipped threads and unwove.  Then, continued weaving.  I wove a few more inches and noticed several different threads that skipped over several rows.  So, I unwove again.  You get the idea.

By shear determination and some skill, I completed the first wrap.  Okay.  Tension issues behind me.  I wound part of the warp forward to correct some of the errors and re-tension the next section of warp.  Wound it back onto the back beam and continued.

Here is a brief video clip of my progress, if you can call it that.

The weaving continues forward for now.  I'll keep you posted as I weave on.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

And the weaving begins

The warp for the next 4 baby wraps is on the loom and a sample was completed a couple of days ago.  There are numbers on each different color weft.

In addition, I have another video about weaving the first wrap of 4. This is the warp I blogged about last week.  Enjoy the update.
Claudia and Janet

And the weaving begins.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

And the warp goes on

The warp was wound in 4 sections or bouts, threaded or sleeyed through the reed and through the heddles.  Now, it's time to wind it onto the back or warp beam of my loom.  I'm using my Glimakra Standard which is my favorite loom.
Here is a llittle podcast about getting the warp on the loom so I can start weaving!  This will take a little time because the warp iis 20 yards long.  
Feel free to leave commentss after the post and enjoy the video.




Friday, November 1, 2013

Warping the wrap

We are busy getting the next warp on the loom for 4 custom baby wraps.  I decided to record a podcast for this week's installment of Lotsaknots Studio.  Hope you enjoy sharing our weaving adventures.

Here is the painting that inspired the warp

From this painting, Janet created a mock-up or sample to follow while winding the warp.

The next step is to move the warp from the warping reel to the loom and tie it on to the existing warp which I explain in this little video.  Enjoy!