The winds of fate appears to be blowing in the direction of weaving suddenly. Turns out furniture trailers are booked out for the weekend, so I might have time to try out the new loom after all.

In the meantime, a bit of tidying up in my workroom and a wish to be decluttering motivated me to try something new on the AKL last night. I have a plastic tub of roving left from my spinning exploits and a few ideas how to use it up. Investigation on the internet confirmed I could, indeed, weave with roving. So, following these instructions (except I used a wool warp, not a cotton one) I ‘dressed’ the loom with Bendigo Classic 3ply:

Then I got out my trusty new bobbin winder. Funny, it looks like a drill, doesn’t it? Why spend $185 on a hand cranked bobbin winder when you can get a battery powered drill to do the job for $30?

The bobbin went into my lovely new boat shuttle. Oh, so much nicer to use than the old stick shuttles!

Then I pulled and separated undyed merino roving into lengths, adding a few whisps of burgundy roving.

I gave it a bit of a flip and twist and tucked it into the sett.

There are a few rows of the Bendy 3ply yarn to begin with, then alternating rows of two in roving, two in 3ply. The resulting fabric is SO soft. I could hardly stop patting it. And I tell you what, this is addictive. I can see myself, in the future, buying roving just to weave with.

What’s it destined to be? Well, it’s probably not robust enough to be a floor rug (and what a waste!) but I’m hoping a dip in hot and cold water and some massaging will full it a bit, and then perhaps I’ll make cushions. Perhaps even matching ones that are mostly burgundy with a whisp of white…