Resources for beginning weavers
Showing posts with label shuttle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shuttle. Show all posts

Friday, May 20, 2011

A tale of two shuttles

I am busy this week working on a bamboo pinwheel scarf for a friend leaving for graduate school.  She has that wonderful Irish coloring and red hair, so this should complement her very well:


Working this pattern is really fun.  It's wound with 8 ends of one color, 8 of the other; and the weft is the same.  I'm catching the non-working weft along the right selvedge as I go, which slows things down just a little.  Using Jane, rather than a loom that is not direct tie, means I have to flip multiple levers as I go.  I keep track by using high-quality scientific tape (used to label tubes and samples) that leaves no residue and is very, very sticky. 


I have 2 small shuttles from Schacht for this project.  They look very similar, don't they:


But in reality, one has no bottom and the other does:


And one is an 1/8th of an inch wider than the other:


So the dark shuttle really flies and the light one struggles to make it through Jane's smaller shed.  The nice thing about this pattern is that there are distinct reminders to advance the shed -- every 3 pattern repeats, which equals an inch.  This helps me have even weft and keeps my shed regular.

Beyond weaving, I like everyone else here in New England am wondering when the rain will stop.  I'm thinking of building an Ark and gathering the animals two by two.  It makes for gray days:

Low tide at Wolfe's Neck State Park in Freeport, ME.
But also makes everything wonderfully green!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Weaving Underway

Today's post is about weaving -- actual weaving, the part where warp magically becomes fabric.

Here in Maine we've finally got our first snow -- but Mother Nature put forward a pitiful effort.  If it's gonna be cold, I say bring it on!  I want enough snow for skiing, throwing snowballs, and sledding!  This was just enough to get sand and salt all over the floors at work . . . .



In the studio, although there are lots of distractions, I'm beaming my Alpaca/Silk warp.  It's a bit sticky, and although I doubled up the threads in the cross, I had one end almost break (you know what that means later on, it will break once I start weaving.  Bummah.



Here's one of my distractions!  Can't you just hear her?  "You want to play with my Kong, right?  Isn't it awesome?  Throw it.  Throw it.  Throw it."
To the resources.  BTW, my next post will focus on problem solving (so I'll know what to do when that warp thread breaks, which it will).  

THROWING THE SHUTTLE

TRACKING YOUR PROGRESS

RHYTHM AND BEATING

ADVANCING THE WARP

WINDING/CHANGING BOBBINS
Laura Fry Here, Here, and Here
Weaving Today Here and here


WEFT ANGLE

TREADLING


STARTING -- WEAVING A HEADER