Cutting It Close

It's been 17 days since I began weaving two panels of "Cornerstones" for a lap throw, and I just finished the second one. In fact, I rationed myself to two motifs per day when I saw how fast it was working up. I have enjoyed it so much that I will be making another one in shades of green as soon as I finish weaving the "leftover" warp still remaining on the loom (I always warp extra in order to have a sample at the very least, or another small item). But this brings me to a drawback with boat shuttles: they don't hold as much as a stick shuttle, and it's pure guesswork to know if you've wound on too much or too little to finish out a project. As it turned out, I ended the last pattern throw with about four inches to spare on the bobbin, by pure luck. Yes, I had more thread in the colour, but it would have been annoying to have to load just enough for three or four throws. I probably would have wound enough onto a stick shuttle (i.e., a known length) to finish out the project.

Warpsy-Daisy

With all that's been going on lately, this warp has been waiting to be strung for over a week, Daisy standing empty and reproaching my conscience every time I looked up. It's unusual for me to leave my primary loom idle for more than 24 hours, so I hope she'll forgive me. This project will be an experiment in colour or, as I put it to my weaving buddy Ed, "Read, 'I didn't have enough of the light grey for both warp and tabby, so I'll be using a pale blue weft against a dark blue for the pattern threads.'" The draft will be Bertha Gray Hayes' "Cornerstones" which, although she calls it a miniature overshot, that description looks to me like it could be refined to call it a summer-and-winter (technically, summer-and-winter is a type of overshot). I'll be weaving two panels roughly 22" wide and 64" long, to finish as a lap throw 44" x 56". I wound the warp on yesterday and threaded half the 399 heddles before bed. I only have to thread the remaining half of the reed (quick) before I can begin weaving.