Jutta's First Band

Day 181: Four days ago, I sat down for the first time at a Leksand loom to make my first few faltering passes in the creation of a band. My fingers were clumsy, holding an unfamiliar tool (the bobbin), and my mind was fogged with habits ingrained while working on the Bonker. The closest simile I've been able to draw would be the switch from driving a car with a clutch to one with an automatic transmission, although in this case, Jutta's solitary "pedal" complicated matters to some degree. More than once, I stomped on air when my foot wanted to raise a different shed because on the Leksand, the sheds are manipulated by hand and band knife. The instinctive response to the need to raise threads was not always the correct one. When operating in one mode, "up" meant "up," as in "point your toes up," while in another, it meant the opposite, i.e., push down with your toes to raise a shed. By the time I got to the end of my warp, I felt more comfortable with the method and was actually starting to build up some speed. But now comes the serious part. Having taken my "trial run" off the loom, now I have to hang another warp, and will be using a different system than the one Ed showed me. Wish me luck. If you don't see me tomorrow, listen for the sound of my head banging against a wall.