CH60 Inaugural Warp

Warp's on the new Saori CH60 and I'm back weaving again.



New Saori looms come with a pre-threaded, sleyed, and beamed warp so once the loom itself is assembled it only takes a few minutes to tie on and your're off and weaving. It was a welcome reward for the time spent actually building the loom!

The colourful blips in the first section of weaving have generated quite a bit of interest in the Saori forums I've posted the picture in, so I'll explain in more detail for those who do not frequent those forums.

The warp is the all black cotton pre-wound that came with the loom It's 150 threads wide and 6m long. It's threaded one end per dent in a 5dp-cm reed. It's a bit widely spaced for my tastes but I wasn't about to mess with re-sleying the whole thing over that.



The 'background' weft is "Dalegarn - Falk" (100% wool sportsweight) that I had on hand from a failed knitting project. The pretty pops of colour and texture that so many are raving over is from a ball of "Brunello Black" (67% wool, 33% acrylic) which is a discontinued super bulky weight yarn. The ball in the photo is obviously not the colour used in the weaving. I used that colour up.

My plan is to use this yardage to make hats. The main part will be woven but each hat will have a hand knitted ribbing. We'll see how that plan goes once the yardage is wet finished. I think this first section may be a bit stiff for the intended purpose. I've got another section done now and I'm being super careful to gently 'place' the weft so that there will be room for a slight fulling of the finished fabric.

Oh Happy Day!

It wasn't until 9pm, but we did get the loom assembled and I even managed to weave an inch or so before bed.

I love, love, LOVE this loom! She's so sturdy and beautiful and the mechanics of it are so nicely thought out. It was hard going to bed last night knowing I wouldn't have a chance to weave again until around noon today. I woke up at 4am just itching to get back at it but had to restrain myself so as not to disturb my sleeping husband.

Yesterday was a fabulous day for me. I mean absolutely FABulous. First off I got this lovely little loom and I'm so, so happy with it, but that wasn't all. A large part of my day was spent at an eye surgery centre having tests done. How is that fabulous? After all the testing was done I learned that I qualify for Lasik eye surgery! Squeeee!

The actual surgery will be scheduled for near the end of September. For the first time since I was about 7 years old I won't have to wear glasses or contact lenses for distance vision. I'll still have to wear reading glasses for close up work, but that's better than having to wear glasses ALL the time. For me it's not at all about vanity. It's all those little, annoying things about wearing glasses. For instance, I'll be able to walk the dog in the rain without wishing my glasses came with windshield wipers.

Yesterday was such a great day that I was practically bouncing in my seat with excitement. A new loom AND some great news.

Some Assembly Required

This could be -- interesting.

                        Perhaps even --- Challenging!


My new loom arrived yesterday afternoon. I was warned. Yes I was. I knew it was coming in pieces and would need assembly. Perhaps I was unprepared for the magnitude of this job?



This is how far I've gotten so far.



Yes, so far I've only unwrapped most of it and identified (most) of the pieces. To be fair I spent all day yesterday, and well into the evening, decluttering, organizing and cleaning my weaving room. I only got around to opening the box this morning. I have a lengthy eye exam scheduled for today so I'm not likely to get the whole loom assembled, let alone operating, until tomorrow, but I'll pick away at it whenever I have a moment.

Temporarily Loomless

I’m currently loomless. I sold my SAORI WX60 and with the funds I’ve purchased a SAORI CH60 to replace it. There are some much desired ergonomic features to the new loom that will become even more important to me as I age. Hopefully I’ll have the new loom by next week and then be able to find the time to build a loom and get it dressed with this very mixed warp before the end of August.

I pulled a thick and thin handspun skein from my stash as the colour inspiration for this one. I didn’t actually use the handspun in the warp, that will be saved for inclusion as weft as it is too loosely spun, and too thick in places, to stand up to the tension and abrasion of use as warp. I felt the skein had a nice mix of colours though so I pulled 10 threads from my stash and wound them as one with the intent to sley them randomly in the reed.

The skein I used as inspiration is the one at about ‘3-o-clock’ in this picture. As I chained the warp off the warping board I could see that I had my mix emphasizing blue a little heavily and neglecting brown, but m’eh, I can adjust that with weft choices if I feel like it come weaving time. Some of the yarns seen in the picture will only be included as weft. I’ve bagged them all together with the chained warp and now they await the arrival of the new loom. I may decide to wind as many as 5 more varied  warp chains while I’m loomless and therefor have a bit more room to move around in my tiny bedroom of a ‘studio’.