Friday, September 8, 2023

Spillway - The Teaser


Day 330: It's a dam spillway! This is the teaser. I recently found instructions for a weaving structure I had always thought was impossible to create on a four-shaft loom, i.e., that it had to be woven on a minimum of eight shafts or on a drawloom. I won't give it away just yet, but having done a small experiment with the leftover warp on the floor loom, I am reasonably certain that I understand the technique. In any event, I decided it was prudent to warp it onto my table loom so that there would be less wastage in case everything goes pear-shaped on me, and that's how I've spent the morning. I chose the metaphor of a spillway for good reason: although the threads are each drawn through individual heddles, they pass through "penstocks," four in a bunch in each dent, separated from one another by an empty dent. It makes for quite a cascade! I need to settle on a design before I can begin, but let me assure you, this is the most excited I've been about a weaving technique since I discovered the joys of overshot some fifty years ago.

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