learning to weave
Originally published at ravnsdaughter. Please leave any comments there.
Weaving is one of those crafts that has been on my “to learn” list forever. I’ve done a bit of narrow band weaving - inkle and card weaving - but never anything wider or that would create actual fabric, as opposed to accessories (belts, etc.) I had been meaning to rent a loom off of my local spinners & weavers guild for ages, but I kept saying “I’ll do it once the house is clean”, and between that and the fact that they were being kept at a guild member’s house, it never happened.
Well, at the last guild meeting I went to, it was announced that a few of the members had gone into the guild’s studio space and reorganized it, making room for all of the stuff that was being housed at a member’s house, and then they moved all the equipment over to the guild’s studio space. So the loom I wanted to borrow was right there where I was for the meeting! Well, I didn’t waste any time in snapping that up right quick. I took an Ashford Knitter’s Loom home with me on loan from the guild that same day. I’d seen a demo of one of them at a previous guild meeting and they looked really neat, and I’m familiar with Ashford products as I have an Ashford Traditional spinning wheel as well as a pair of their wool cards.
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It turned out I was the first person to use that particular loom (the guild has two of them), so I got to do all of the assembly as well, not that there was very much of it. I warped the loom up with some eggplant purple and dark teal Galway yarn I had purchased last winter with the intent of weaving it up someday. The loom came with instructions and all the tools needed, so it wasn’t hard to warp it up with the warping peg and clamp that the loom came with. All total, I think it took me maybe a total of 3 to 4 hours from start to finish.
And this is what I ended up with! A lovely decorative scarf in a checked pattern. The colours in this picture are completely inaccurate, though, as I took the picture with my phone indoors at night, and couldn’t get the color correction to come out right. I’m going to try and get a better picture outside during the day sometime soon.