off the loom and finished...

See previous post.

On the loom, width 9".

Immediately after removal from the loom, width 8", length 120cm, still an open cloth as shown below.

Very little, if any loom waste, just about right to give a fringe.

Hem sewn using a fine spindle spun yarn of the same merino fleece as the warp.

 After finishing (vigorous washing in hot & cold waters) width 6", length 94cm.

 

Finishing left the fringe somewhat felted and tangled, see below, 

However, this is a temporary problem - I have been able to separate out the ends. All that is left to do is trim off excess weft ends left where I changed shuttles and trim the fringes to equal length. I'm make the next one using a longer warp - and I'll wind it on the warping board.

A Day in the Life of Looms 2015

Meg of Unravelling blog is co-ordinating A Day in the Life of Looms once again, the New Year's day look at looms around the world through the blogs of handweavers.

This took me hours and hours. Firstly choosing the yarns, I had other choices at first but there was a weft yarn I couldn't match a warp to and a lovely potential warp that turned out to be nowhere near long enough. Then I could only work slowly because my hands are not strong, they are slow and need rest breaks.

Both yarns are handspun from fleece I have washed, hand carded, and spun long draw from rolags. The dark warp yarn is from a coloured Merino fleece bought from Yvonne Hoskins (business name Woolaston Wooly Wonders, a member of the British Coloured Sheep Breeders Association, contact details in this list of wool producers). The weft is a grey Shetland shearling found through the Murmuring Wheel group run by Diane Fisher; it was shorn by her brother Phillip, the Singing Shearer. The Shetland was spun on my Haldane Shetland spinning wheel - it seemed appropriate - and the Merino on my Schacht Matchless. This loom is my 10" Cricket rigid heddle loom.

I wanted to use the direct warping method, I thought it would be easier for my hands than using the warping board. There's an Ashford video demonstrating the method if you haven't seen it before. Warp length is limited by how far you can put your warp post from the back of the loom. I have a 3 foot square table, but that isn't long enough to make a scarf, so looked around and found the ever useful G-clamps (every weaver should have some, in various sizes, so many uses!) and clamped an extra board to the table to achieve the length I wanted.

Happy New Year! I hope you will enjoy your weaving and other crafts in 2015.

The Henning Band Loom repaired

The history: link back to earlier post about the Henning loom here.

We got the loom repaired but it hasn't been used due to all my time and energy going into setting up and running a business for the past 4 years (YarnMaker).

However, this month Sue Foulkes is running a band weaving workshop for the Yahoo list "Braids and Bands" on behalf of the Braid Society and she got in touch to ask about the Henning loom.

Link here to the Braids and Bands list homepage.

So, to the loom, as it looks today.

It had certainly been used for some part of its life and banging of the beater had shaken it apart at the joints. It had to be taken apart and all the joints re-glued. Then we added buffers (A) for the beater with rubbers (B) to reduce the impact.

The beater was not strong enough, it wiggle from side to side in use, so we re-enforced it with a solid block of wood.

The beater's sides were wider than the base they were supposed to be fitted to, so we spaced them out from the sides of the loom with washers.

And the new cherry wood seat is a considerable improvement on the hard narrow bench!

Down on the floor you can see shafts and heddles, I'm starting to assemble the loom for weaving. More easily done on a table of course.

More on this another day soon, it's lunchtime here and then I have to get back to the "day job" of YarnMaker.

Meanwhile, if you'd like an introduction to band weaving, do join the Yahoo list and have a go! 

The programme for the workshop is:

1) An introduction to weaving methods (starting now).

2) From 22nd March, exploration of three ways of weaving narrow bands to highlight the differences and similarities. 

3) From 8th April, how to design your own patterns

Sue Foulkes has a particular interest in Swedish woven bands and has published a few books and articles in which she shares her research and skills. She also gives talks and runs Guild workshops. You can purchase her books from Blurb (print on demand and very nice quality!) - see here.