Technical difficulty delay

We wished a fond farewell to Haleakala and Awakea.  They are both off to new homes far, far away.  One is taking a long trip to Alaska via Ohio and Michigan.  I encourage everyone to keep their address on their Paypal account current.  It helps businesses, like ours, to send your purchases to the correct address.

The sample is completed for Dreamland which is the next wrap on the loom.  It will have one sister wrap.  After completing the sample weft for the client to choose her favorite and decide on a middle marker, we ran into several problems.  The most difficult issue was the front apron bar which had
gotten caught in its own strings which run over the knee beam and attach to the cloth beam on the front.  This caused all sorts of tension problems and the 2 feet that had been completed were removed, the apron rod was attached more effectively and weaving has begun again today.

We hope to make good progress now that all technical difficulties are repaired.  We lost a few inches of warp which means the sister wrap will be 3.3 or 3.2 meters in length.  We'll do a hand embroidered middle marker on the sister wrap.

I'll keep you posted on progress.  I get wrapped up in weaving and don't get to the computer to post very often.

Happy weaving!

First class success

Our first class session was a bit success.  I know, you are nodding your head saying, Of course, the teacher always considers her first class a success.  Well, let's break it down.

I had a syllabus, a plan of action for our first class and we achieved most of what was on the list.  We sat at the table and chatted to start and learned a little bit about each other.  Then, we began the introduction to weaving.  The looms were partially warped and, after demonstrating and explaining the direct warping process, each student began warping her loom.

Once the warps were on, we set at the task of learning to beam the warp under good tension.  I always spend a great deal of time covering the importance of tension in your warp and beaming it under tension.  We did it in teams but I also demonstrated various methods for doing it alone.

Next, everyone rethreaded the loom, bringing a thread through the holes in the heddles and we covered tying it onto the front apron bar.  Tension again became the focus of discussion.  I taught how to lash on since this is my favorite way of securing the warp to the front bar.  Once on and the tension evened up, the weaving began.

That's where we ended.  Homework was obvious.  Some students are process oriented and some are product oriented.  I have one of each in class.  I urged both to sample!! and sent them on their merry way.

Lots to cover this Saturday.  And pictures, for sure.