Yep, another boring warping and weaving post. Apologies – this is mainly for my own records.
Where was I? Oh, yeah. Sleying the reed. Or is that Sleighing? Must be that time of year…
I ran out of heddles on the first two shafts, so had to put about a quarter of the ends on the third and fourth. Which made no difference to the weave, but meant I had to flip two pegs each time I changed the set, instead of one. (It does have me worried if I’ll have enough heddles for weaving tea towels, though.) Once I’d finished I started threading the ends through the reed (at 1+1+1+0), which was quick and the warping was soon finished.
The loom sat untouched for a few days, then today (Sunday) I got stuck into the weaving. I actually found myself worrying a bit too much to fully enjoy it. I was sure my selvedges were pulling in, and that tucking the ends of each colour in would distort the fabric. I began to believe this was going to be a shoddy excuse for a baby blanket, and wondered if a bit of binding tape around the edges might be in order, which got me all grumpy because I don’t like sewing.
When I had woven as far as I could (still worried that I hadn’t allowed for tying the warp on when I measured loom waste) I cut the warp. Before it slipped out of the reed I knotted at intervals along the top so the last pick of weft wouldn’t start to slip out.
Then I pulled it out, finished the knots, knotted the starting edge and finally laid it out on the table and trimmed the fringe. That’s when I realised the selvedges were fine, and there was no distortion. And in fact it was a little longer than it was wide, so I hadn’t miscalculated the loom waste.
It’s a plain blanket, and I was restricted to these colours because of the whole not knowing the gender of the baby thing (which is a pity, because the pink and blue in this yarn are so pretty), but it’s soft, hopefully practical, and I won’t be embarassed to give it to the recipient – well, except for the usual uncertainty over whether the recipient appreciates handmade gifts.
Right now it’s having a quick soak, then I’ll spin it and lay it out on the table to dry. Then I’ll take a final photo for this blog.
Love your posts about weaving. I bought a vintage table loom a couple of months ago, and haven’t used it yet. You are motivating me to actually do something – but short on time at the moment….
Well done – it looks good. I wondered what you did with the ends when you changed colour!
Janet McKinney
WOW!Your weaving just blows me away, amazing. I hope to find some time next year to experiment with my loom
How many hours did it take you to weave this from beginning to end? I made many knitted baby blankets, but quit a few years ago, seemed like people were getting pregnant just to get a blanket. One teacher told her husband I have to get pregnant while I’m working at this school so I can have one of those blankets. They started consuming my life.
Goof job! After you wash it, give it a really hard press (unless it is acrylic). Use your steam iron and lean your whole body weight onto that iron. This will flatten and smooth the fabric and make it drape nicely. If it is acrylic, I would “kill” it. That is, use steam and press it but do not lean on the iron and move quickly from place to place.
In sewing, what turns a home-made look to a professional look is the pressing. Same with weaving.
Janet – I think what I’m going with the ends is right! Get a hold of a good book before you try the loom, though there may be some good tutorials on the web as well.
Kebeni – If you want a hand with the loom let me know.
Jomammma – It probably took about 5-6 hours. Maybe a little more. But a heck of a lot less than the last crochet blanket I made!
Peg – THANK YOU for that advice. The blanket came out of the spin cycle covered in creases. Though most have disappeared as it dried, I’ll give it a good iron as you suggest.