Tuesday, July 06, 2010

My First Weaving Project!

finished sampleI'm so pleased. I did my first woven item on the 4th of July. I had started warping at the end of June, but waited till I got my shuttles in the mail before finishing the warp. I'm using "Learning the Weave" by Deborah Chandler, which is an exceptionally great book. She really covered every question I had as I worked through the process. (I also skimmed through "The Weaving, Spinning, and Dyeing Book by Rachel Brown)

I was really concerned about getting started because everyone I've talked to has left me with the impression that warping is a nightmare. I looked into classes, which were very expensive and long (6 weeks). I did however find a willing Weavers guild member who will teach a small group of us starting in August. I couldn't wait that long. I have this shinny new toy and I just i have to play with it NOW.
plain weave green

The warping went very well, I had to re-slay two threads which I crossed. The tension wasn't too bad. I did have a little wabble on beginning of the weaving, but I got it even. I should say, I do have a little experience with warp tension from my bead weaving days on my Indian Bead Loom, so I knew I had to get good tension.

I started with a plain weave. Then I did 2 warp threads up, which is a basket weave with only one weft thread, and finally I did a 2/2 twill. I used an 8 dent reed and all 4 shafts. I used two green yarns as stripes on the warp, one a fresh green color, the other more olive.
twill close up

I did have some uneven edges on the right side, but the 2/2 twill went beautifully.

1 comment:

sahara said...

Whooeeee! Gurl you're cookin' with gas! (as my late father would say). Very nice work. Warping isn't bad. You just have to pay attention to what you're doing, so your doing will pay attention to you, lol!