June 17, 2009
beginning weaving
last saturday i spent a few hours with vickie, a weaving teacher i was introduced to by jamie at urban fauna studio. i brought my +30 year old Beka rigid heddle loom (20") which grammy gave to me all those many years ago. i had never used it. i finally learned how to set up the warp and to do some basic weaving.
i enjoyed it so much that i finished this first piece by sunday evening. when it first came off the loom, it was pretty stiff but after washing and drying, it softened up a lot. i wore it to work yesterday. this scarf is done in cotton -- blue warp and purple weft which makes for a pretty electrifying color combination. The decorative part is done with a pick-up stick used to raise different warp threads to make the pattern.
after i finished the scarf, i decided that i'll be doing a lot more weaving so i sanded down the loom and refinished it with bee's oil. it's beautiful cherry and hardwood maple, soft and wonderful to the touch now that it's had a little loving care.
i'll be bringing the scarf with me to my next lesson so that we can go over some of the problems and little boo boos which occurred.
i'm going to warp up the loom again with some wool and begin another project soon.
Posted by lesleeroberts at June 17, 2009 09:52 PM