Saturday, April 30, 2011

Weaving news!

I'm not really good at writing often, but the past few weeks have not been very inspiring, and has been very busy with end of contracts running late, new contracts being offered to me (I was not going to say no!), a supervisor in Italy and another one in Brazil. So, my expected 2½ days off a week have not started yet.

Spring was also supposed to arrive back in March, but our last snow storm happened last week. I love winter, but when it's over, it's over.So, as I was saying, a rather uninspiring month, until yesterday,

Yesterday was the day I FINALLY warped my loom. It had been there behind me, nagging me since I bought it a few months ago. Lately, all the threads I bought had joined in. Even my parents, who can see the loom each time we talk on Skype were asking me every week, when they saw it still empty: not yet?

Yesterday was the day. And it was a long day. My weaving teacher arrived before 10:00am, and didn't leave until 7:00pm. And we worked all day, without really taking breaks, except for a short lunch. And I was lucky most of the bobbins I needed were ready, because I think otherwise, I would still be at it. I'm also lucky I had finally decided last week what design I wanted for my first dishtowels, because my teacher arrived with a clear idea of what to do.

Warping a loom is a very long, tedious and precise job. We spent most day without talking much, both totally concentrated on what we had to do, but still managed to make a few mistakes that we hopefully all corrected before it was too late.


At the end of the day (and when I woke up this morning) my whole body was aching from spending so much time bent on the loom. Basically, we had to warp 24 threads per inch X 23 inches = 552 on the spool rack, then on the warp beam, then through the draft, through the beater and we finally attached them to the cloth beam.



But it was all worth it, we warped 15 yards of thread, so I should be able to get 14 dishtowels out this. Many more hours of fun ahead of me!


I love the fact that I can just spend a few minutes in front of the loom, and see beautiful patterns appearing.

But, today was too nice to stay in and weave. It was the perfect day to knit outside instead.


Have a great weekend!

4 comments:

  1. i love that you have a blog!
    i also love how crafty you are Gen. The loom is super cool. Enjoy those dish towels!
    a

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  2. i should add that Kenji loves your sweater you knit. it's his go to outfit when walking outside!! merci

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  3. I'm happy it was cold for most of the month, so he could wear it often! :-)

    It's much easier to be crafty in a 6½ than a 2½...especially with a loom! (but the knitting yarn takes a lot of room too...)

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  4. love it gen - a whole day devoted to yarn! laura

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