Sunflower

Sunflower

Monday, August 27, 2012

Oh, so close!

  Note the amount of bamboo blinds left on the roller?  I am so close to done, I hope the hurricane coming our way makes me have to stay home and finish this!
    Look at that lovely pattern!
   That is a lot of fabric around that front roller.

   Almost done!!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Aggrevation, thy name is tension

Tension is important in weaving, especially even tension on all strands. If you don't have even tension on all strands, it looks like this--

--and you can't pass a shuttle with the weft through there with anything like your normal speed.  This makes the weaving very slow.  And this is AFTER tightening the warp eleventy-million times.
  So I do this--
Chopsticks, pencils, pens, and fishing weights hung from paper clips.
  Ugh.  So frustrating.


Friday, August 3, 2012

This is what I do, part 2

  Ok, so I measured my yarn and I've put it through the reed.
  Now I need to put each individual strand of yarn through what's called a heddle.
  Those white things, those are heddles. They are attached to harnesses which go up and make the pattern.
  It's kinda complicated. I feel like I'm trying to explain a sport to a blind person or something.
  Anyway--
  So they all go through the heddles and you need to wind the warp onto the back rolly-thingy.  You have to put something between the layers you roll on so you can have even tension. I used bamboo blinds.



  It's all rolled onto the back. Now we go back to  the future-- I mean front! The warp is then tied to the front rolly-thingy (no, that is not the technical term, I just wanted you to be able to read this without a glossary).
  Adjust the tension. Adjust the tension. And again. Some more.  Linen is kind of fidgety when it comes to even tension on all strands.
  Now it's time to weave!

  It's always a good idea to make a sampler of what you are doing so you can refer back to it at a later date. That is the first bit of weaving with scrap, thick yarn above and below it.
  This is going to look pretty cool.
  The next post should be the end result.