I have had little loom time this week. But, I did spend some time at the warping board and wound the warp for the second purple wool panel. I finished the first a few weeks ago and took a break from such large projects spending time weaving lanyards. That was a lot of fun.
All I need to do is make the string heddles and this project will be ready to go. The patterns are in a supplemental-warp structure which requires two sheds and a lot of pick-up. I feel that the process is easier ”mechanically” than complementary-warp pick-up as there is greater distance between each pattern warp. Because of this, there is less risk of crossing pattern warps when selecting them and I don’t, therefore, need to set up a picking cross for each row. Not having to open two sheds for every pick to form the picking cross means less abrasion and a much smoother process overall which is particularly helpful when working with wool.
Here’s the first panel in its early days…
And here’s the new warp set up for heddle-making…well, not quite there yet. I realized that the center gold stripe was only half as wide as it should be. You can see it in the picture. I discovered this mistake by looking at this photo rather than at the warp itself. If I hadn’t wanted to take this picture for the blog, I would never had made the comparison. So, back I went to the warping stakes. As far as warping errors go, this was not a bad one.
The rest of my time was spent behind the scenes on my blog, or should I say blogS. Over two years ago, I started another blog which I intended using as a Gallery rather than as a blog to which I would regularly post updates. I haven’t been very good about building it and it has sat unattended for quite some time.
I added a few projects to it this week. They are mostly very recent things, many of which I wove this summer. It has quite a different format to this blog and allows me to post quite large pictures. I hope you will take a moment to go over and look at it. You will find it here.
In the meantime, I have put together a mini gallery of thumbnail images of many of the things I have woven in recent years. I sort of needed to look over my projects and decide what I would like to have on my Gallery page. I am going to try to add things more often.
It is sweet, joyous and sometimes even sad looking back and remembering the people, places and events that influenced and inspired some of the projects and the people I was interacting with online and in person at the times that I wove them.
I look at the black and white guitar strap and think of my ex and and best friend and the music he makes. I see the thistle pattern cell phone pouch and remember my visits with Angela, my Guaraní teacher. The Montagnard patterned pouch makes me think of a special birthday spent many years ago with my friend, Lisa, when we got to weave with Ju Nie. I see the purple double weave pouch that crossed the ocean to live with a fellow weaver in Qatar. The four-color pebble weave piece is like something from another lifetime when I lived at the southernmost tip of Chile weaving with those Patagonian winds howling outside. And, I remember a dear friend and my old roommate of two years, Teresa, who passed away just last week, when I see the red and white wall hanging that I made for her many years ago..
I will leave you here this week with that collection of thumbnail images….
