I set out yesterday to get my rigid heddle loom warped for a set of placemats. With many other things to accomplish first, I got a late start and thought I'd be lucky if I had time to do any of the weaving at all.
I had the loom warped by 3 pm and thought I'd weave for a wee bit before I had to start cooking supper.
A couple of hours later the project was going so well and looking so pretty that I had to tear myself away to cook, feed the family, and clean up after dinner. Then I was back at it, weaving, weaving, weaving until by bedtime I had totally finished the yardage --- and then some even. Wanting to utilize as much of the warp as I could I actually wove past the heddle blocks by holding the heddle up or down with one hand while pushing the shuttle through with the other.
I'm loving the finished result. I popped it in the washer this morning, into the dryer for a few minutes, and have it all pressed and waiting for cutting into placemats, machine stabilization of the ends, and hand hemming.
The weft is all Sirdar Denim Tweed DK in shade # 0636. The warp is mostly the same, but with a small amount of handspun wool (the darker, solid, vertical stripes), and a small amount of Sirdar Denim Tweed DK in natural (the white stripes on either side of the dark, handspun stripes).
Woo, Hooo! Gotta love it when a project goes so well.
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Here's the loom set up on the old door and peg warping station I have improvised.
And back inside where it was warmer I got to work threading every other end into the holes in the rigid heddle, tensioning and tying on to the cloth beam. I'm using an indigo dyed cotton denim yarn.
After cutting old jeans into 1/2" strips I was off and weaving. 2 shots of the denim yarn, one of a bright orange acrylic, 2 more of the denim yarn and then a strip of the recycled denim jeans. Nice, simple tabby weave.
Of course once the loom is warped I become obsessed and weave like a mad woman. I had the whole thing woven and off the loom by the next day --- all 1.7 metres of it.
