Little White Cats

Day 195: In this second version of cats for the rigid heddle loom, I played around with mirroring the direction of heads and tails to provide more visual interest in each row rather than making two rows of identical cats. The technique is a simple pickup using only one heddle. Each pattern throw (white in this case) is followed by a tabby thread to secure it in place, much like overshot. The pattern thread is carried out to the edges where it passes over/under a floating selvedge thread. I had hoped to be able to make tails and ears either brown or grey to match a friend's "little white cat," but didn't feel any of the options showed up well enough against the teal blue, and using a lighter blue didn't work with the cream-coloured bodies. I may give it another go with a different background colour, although my options are somewhat limited.

Stages Of Feline Development

Day 149: After seeing a cute design for cats woven on an eight-shaft loom, I set about hunting for one I could do on four shafts without having to weave it as false damask. I was unable to find a draft, but I was not ready to give up on the idea. Thinking in terms of both pickup and overshot, I figured I could effect much the same thing with only two sheds and a lot of patience, so I ran a short, narrow warp on my smaller rigid heddle loom, got out the graph paper and made a preliminary design. I knew it wasn't going to be perfect, but as it turned out, the first few attempts came closer to my vision than I'd anticipated. I still have a few refinements to make: longer tail with more curve, one additional row on the body, reduction of the left shoulder by one X, but at least I have a recognizable cat.