Slow, but it is progress

Right. Threading is now all done, and I have a sample. (I wasn't sure I was going to do one, but I spotted a threading mistake after weaving about 3 inches).

There was a bit of a delay on the threading - I managed to get a bumblebee sting on my arm, which meant I couldn't do any threading for about a week. (It's a very silly story, but no sillier than things that happened to other people I know at around the same time. I think there was just something strange in the air that week...)

And now that I've worked out what I'm doing, and that it looks like it should work it might be time for some details.

The warp is 40/2 combed cotton, and the weft is a linen single (25 lea, from memory). It's a 6 shaft twill, and the sett is 70 epi. I wasn't sure if I was going mad with that calculation, but it appears to work. The sample has a nice soft-but-crisp feel. I think this is possibly the point where I should mention that I love the feel of linen...

The threading begins

Started threading heddles now. I suspect this will take a while. (About 60 heddles threaded so far, was interrupted to eat cake).

Will post again when I'm done. I'm still vaguely optimistic about getting everything set up by the 26th (next meeting).

Cake eaten, time to go back to threading!

Progress

Warp wound on now. Next marathon will be threading. I suspect I should set up all the right numbers of heddles before I start, to try and avoid at least one headache when I start.

Time to go and calculate heddle numbers!

Warp is all wound now. It may be too fine for me to weave competently, I hope not. I guess getting it threaded up by the next weaving meeting will count for something...

And in other news, my arms are tired. The cotton feels lovely running through my hands though.

And now I just need to clear out the stuff that's managed to get stashed inside my loom. Maybe tomorrow.

Plotting

Started calculating out the tea towels. I think I may possibly be a little mad, and I'm currently trying to work out how long a warp I want to make. I'm somewhat limited by the length I can wind on my inkle loom (one day I'll either make/buy a warping board/mill, or possibly just make some more inkle loom pegs).

I haven't worked out my maximum length yet, and I don't know how long I want to be stuck on a fine cotton warp for. I suspect I'll do it as long as I can.

(Just had a play, the maximum length I can work out at the moment is about 3.8m. I guess that'll do.)

And back to reality

Just got a weaving meeting reminder today, apparently it's tomorrow and not last week like I had thought. Oops?

I guess I should start thinking about tea towels, since they seem to be my destiny.

Some Clarification

Just to clarify my previous post. I didn't make everything in that photo. I didn't make the beaded lace, I'm just sewing it on.

I did do the lace shawl: (Pattern is Crown Prince shawl, from Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush. I am in love.)

I tried sizing this to fit, but it didn't shrink well. Not well at all.

And the embroidery: (Pattern is from Needle 'N Thread - a great embroidery blog)

There's a weaving link here - the embroidery is sitting on my weaving stool/bench in this photo...

I also didn't make the chair that it's all draped over...

Excuses...

Okay, here's my excuse for having done nothing for ages:



Still working on it, but getting there. Planning to be back to the loom in a couple of months (if not before)

Next project

Looks like the next project might be some more tea towels. I was planning to make something bigger, but I'm going to need to make more heddles for that. Thus, I will do the sampler version first (which is probably a smart plan anyway).

And with any luck the thrums will be adequate for making new heddles with...

Finally...

First of all, here's a photo of the blanket.


Still got a few small bits and pieces to tweak, but it's essentially done. (Has been for the last month, too slack to take photos until now).

Next project isn't going to be a bag after all. Instead, I think it's going to be some towels (or possibly tea towels). I'd like to make a start over the Christmas break, but I don't know if that will actually happen or not.