A bit more weaving

Well, I've had the loom for 5 years, and after last month's very enjoyable two weekends at the Handweaver's Studio in London, I figured it was high time I got to grips with it. I wasn't expecting to have any time free today, but went to teach a student and couldn't make anyone hear (and of course, my mobile 'phone was at home) so had to come home again, after losing a quid in a payphone calling home to ask the Cog to call them for me (he'd gone to the supermarket, alas). The minimum payphone call is now 60p, so that was the end of my quid. Drat! 

I don't have a proper warping frame, but I did buy some warping pegs a while back so clamped them onto a spare knitting machine table and it worked ok once I figured out the best configuration. My first warp didn't go so well - I've left some two thirds of it hanging off the back of the loom because I somehow messed up the cross at the important end, and couldn't figure out how to untangle it. Also a warp thread snapped in that bunch - I'd put elastic bands on the raddle to secure everything and forgot to remove them when I started winding on. The second warp went a lot better and made it onto the loom. Then I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting any kind of shed - until I realised I'd completely left out the front beam when tying on at the front. Whoops. Cue some tricky reversing of the whole beater whilst leaving the reed in place (it didn't help) and a small hissy fit until I calmed down and realised what I'd done. Doh!

There are some loose warp threads, and owing to my awful first warp it's going to be narrower than I had planned, but it's not bad for a first attempt. I deliberately did the cream as an advancing twill (1-2-3-4 and 4-3-2-1) and the burgundy as a 1-2-3-4-3-2 repeat, to see what effects I would get.


Second warp in progress

All tied up and ready to go

In progress (the green was just some chunky yarn to get it started)

Close-up

The only down-side of this loom apart from its not folding is that I have to stand to weave, so after a few hours it gets quite tiring. We don't have any bar stools here and even if we did, they'd not be tall enough. Another reason to trade it in for another model I think. The warping part is still pretty tedious but I suspect it'll get better with time and practice.  Oh, and I managed to get a splinter from one of my shuttles, so I need to dig out some sandpaper I think.