Is this piece fated or what?

The piece on the loom; the 'ultra frustrating warping' project on the loom, is it ill fated or what? I am happily weaving, enjoying the forming pattern and the colour play between warp and weft when I notice my right side is loosing it's edge. My floating selvege thread has snapped. So backwards weave until the edges hold. Grrr. I wrote a note where I was in pattern and what to fix and walked away.

On a happy note my family heard my request and bought me the stand for the kniiters loom. I want to explore some pick up weaving techniques with my rigid heddle and possibly double rigid heddle patterns while away on holidays this summer. I know the knitters loom is designed as a lap weaving loom, I find that everytime I need to rewind a bobbin or change colour it is awkward to shift it from my lap. Or maybe I am just a clutz.

I was outside watering my garden at 5:30 am this morning. What a beautiful time to be up. The birds were singing and a Great Blue Heron flew over. The grass was damp from the morning dew and felt glorious on my flip flopped feet. Yes my garden needs TLC and would never be right for tours or a magazine but gardening is not just about the finished project but about getting outside, planning, changing, nurturing, and learning. (okay I really am saying my yard's a mess but trying to be okay with that, not)

Have a great day every one.

Fear and Weaving

A few months ago I bought a 2 harness Gobelin style tapestry loom. I warped it then my life got crazy. Now I am looking at this loom and I am scared to start. I have done tapestry on a small scale before on a frame loom. I need to get passed this and start. I have felt this fear before with painting. What I call masterpiece syndrome. Making sure my design and my technique is perfect. So when I am unsure or in doubt I don't start. I need to just try have fun and enjoy the process.

I also think time and beautiful weather is a factor. I am an Early Childhood Educator and this is a busy time of the year. I only have 4 weeks left before summer holidays and these weeks are so full. When the sun is shining I wish my looms were upstairs where I could enjoy the sunshine. If and when the kids move out...........

Happy weaving

Just a Few Inches

I did a few inches of weaving while my family cleaned up the dinner dishes and to test the pattern out. I am very happy say that after the hassle of my being brainless warping it looks good and I am very happy. It is a simple twill variation using tencil (ocean, wintergreen and white)and will hopefully become some scarves.

I just love the history of weaving and the weavers who are passionate about weaving. Our guild is 75 years old and I am a fairly recent returning member. It is an honour and a priviledge to use equipment that has been lovingly used by other weavers to create beautiful things. The bobbin winder that I have now attached to my loom was custom made by a now passed life member's husband. I hope that I can create beauty and continue the tradition.

Hope everyone has a glorious day.

it's done

It is done. I finished warping the loom. I had lunch had a hot bath had an Advil then I went back to threading heddles. I made myself finish or It would be long time before I got back to weaving. To all you fabulous weavers out there, does anyone have any suggestions or favourite warping methods?

warping disaster morning

I have a splitting headache. I am wondering why I even like weaving and am very close to tossing this warp into the garbage. Knowing that every once in a while every weaver has a difficult warping session is the only reason I want to persevere with it. I will learn something from it. It is a VERY simple warp so why was it causing me so much grief? My own stupidity and thinking I know more than I really do. I usually warp front to back, I was trying to think this method through to make it more streamline and I sleyed the reed, and for some reason tied it on tho the back beam and wound it up before putting through the heddles. (don't mention a broken warp thread) It was at this stage I almost took it off the loom and threw it away. Dum I know, How to solve, tie on cloth beam and beam it all forward again. halfway through beaming forward The cloth beam falls off. The screw holding it on fell out. Okay I am now kneeling on the cement floor trying to line up clothbeam, ratchet and screw. Done except the ratchet handle pusher is on the wrong side. Undo screw and do it again. This takes me a total of 30 minutes to get the cloth beam reattached. Once I wound it all the way forward I cut it from the back beam to make tidy ends and tied them in groups behind reed and left it ready to thread heddles another time.

Costumes done, warping started

Boy was that ever a hot and heavy time. But costumes for a production always gets insane just before the show. The Sunday before the Friday opening I had to make over three outfits (redesign preexisting outfits) for a main character and finish some odds and ends. I also work fulltime. I have only been able to catch quick glances at the blogs as well. Actually I have been done for just over a week but needed to do nothing. I am in the process of creating a warp for some scarves. I started laying out the warp on the warping board one day when I had a bit of sewing downtime. I was feeling tired and marked off 100 ends and left it for a wee break, but didn't realise I was getting sick. Then I got really crazy sewing. So there it sits on the warping board. Is it okay to have it sit there???
I will try to chain it off tomorrow as I am off for a conference in Winnipeg and won't be home until the weekend. Sewing passion input here, while in Winipeg I am hoping to get to Mitchell's Fabrics. As I will be designing and co-ordinating costumes for VOS' Gypsy in the fall I owe it to myself to look and see what is there (I am taking a big siutcase & they do mail order). Keep weaving everyone. Your an incredibly talented bunch of folks and an inspiration to move forward in the journey.