Weaving

I realise that I have made a few people curious about this business of weaving – namely my blogfriends kcinnova, Jenn, loveanewideas and maybe a few others.

Well, who can resist an opportunity to teach others about something – especially if you ARE a teacher! Not me!

Almost precisely a year ago, I wrote this post which was when I began to see how my future studio would look. Little did I know at the time that I would only finish one warp of about 20 meters, before that would come to an end. However – getting back on topic:

This is where it all starts. I buy my warp ready-made but one day I’d like to start from scratch – just like Mom, her sisters and Grandma used to do. I’m sure I could learn how to – but the steps from this:

to where you’re ready to to the pre-reeding, is probably the trickiest part. Here I’m using pictures from last year – sorry about the sad quality!

Pre-reeding is done to space out the warp to the intended width.

Now it’s time to transfer all of those threads onto the warp boom. The braid in the background is the warp and all of it will be pulled through the reeds.

This looks like a mess – and it is. Threading some 240+ threads through an equal amount of little hoops takes concentration and a sharp eye. Not something done after a glass or two of Chardonnay… I’ve tried, and it doesn’t work. It’s all too easy to make mistakes even without the wine involved – and I’ve never managed to pull the threads through heddles and reeds without making mistakes.

Here I’ve done 2/3’s of the reeding. This is done, sitting on a chair inside the loom – not at all a comfortable position. You can see the top of the batten (where the reed will be fastened) at the front of the picture.

At last! Now the fun begins – deciding on colours and how wide the stripes should be, figuring out how many patterns the material on hand will make…

My Kitchen Sofa

The other day when I was looking for something to use as a suitable background when photographing my reed hooks, I dug out some material my aunt had woven quite a number of years ago. I’ve been meaning to put it on my kitchen sofa for the longest time… and since no time is better than the present…

… here it is! I just tucked it in around the seat for now, because I’m reluctant to start cutting into it – just in case I’d like to use it somewhere else later on.

Oh. You did notice the up-to-date colour of my kitchen floor? No???

I’ll have you know it’s the original flooring from mid 70’s – so if we’re just patient, it’ll pass the halfcentury-mark in no time.  And this pukey green colour might become highest fashion again!

Testing, testing

I feel as if I’ve been running the gauntlet these past days. Through some extremely poor planning on our part, we managed to invite all parents to a thematic evening – right in the middle of a week with bi-annual meetings between parent-student-mentor. This also happened to be the same week that saw the Grade 9 students write the essay for the standardised test in English….

Over the weekend I still managed to get the warp through heddles and  reed. This was the point where I realised that I had a couple of mistakes to correct…

… but after that I could make the first pattern. The beginning is always sort of wavy and weird, but it’ll all work itself out by the time the whole rug is ready.

Hook

While pulling the threads for the warp through the reeds, I broke my mother’s old reed hook… I’m sure this was one she bought some time during the 50’s – or maybe even earlier – and I can’t even begin to explain how it upset me!

I can still use it, but it doesn’t fit my hand as well as it did before and when I put it beside the plastic and metal hooks, I also realised how worn it is…  Hopefully one of the master carvers around here can make a new one for me. They mostly make knives and sheaths from bone but I’m sure someone could copy this hook for me.

BTW. The material I used as background for this shot was woven by my aunt. I’m still not sure what I’ll use it for – but it would make a nice bunting for my kitchen sofa.

Too Much Work…

…not enough play.

Or that should be not enough relaxation, recuperation – I’m sure there is a re-word pertaining to the state you’re in when your brain is over-taxed and over-heated and you haven’t done enough physical work for a long time. To that end, I’m going to get the loom ready this weekend so I can start making some rugs again.  I know of no better therapy than sitting there, making rugs from old sheets, curtains and clothing. The first one usually is so tightly woven that it can almost be leaned up against the wall…

Now that the light is returning, I won’t risk getting headaches from straining my eyes over the work in the loom – not to mention that the tension in my shoulders should be all but gone after a few days of slamming the batten up against the breast boom…