S And Z

Day 281: I spent a large part of yesterday pacing a U-shaped path as I ran individual warp threads from the back beam to a post roughly 12 feet away, around it and up the other side to the cloth beam, then repeating my route in the opposite direction. This is the process known as "direct warping," i.e., dressing the loom strand by strand, as opposed to measuring threads on a warping board and then transferring the whole warp to the loom. It is a technique common to rigid-heddle weavers, but used less often when weaving on a floor loom because of the space required. After a period of trial and error, I decided that direct warping worked best for the Leksand loom even though the threads must follow that U-shaped path. By evening, I felt like I'd taken a 15-mile hike, back and forth, back and forth, and was almost too tired to finish tying on so I could begin weaving. However, I was anxious to get started, so after I'd had a rest and dinner, I finished the job. Here, I have used doubled warp threads for the light green S-and-Z pattern with single strands in the coloured border, both in 8/2 weight. The dark green background threads are slightly finer at 10/2. The photo doesn't do the vibrancy of the colours justice. The band is 1.5" wide.

Polliwogs On Parade

Day 192: After roughly 20 hours spread out over two days as I tried various warping systems for the Leksand loom, I finally hit on a combination of techniques which, while not perfect by any means, at least let me put a new band on the rollers. During the experiments, I used up a phenomenal amount of "throw-away" crochet thread (those partial balls too small to use for a project) and the full range of my father's tractor-starting vocabulary as I tried to coax slack threads into behaving. Once warped, I settled in to weave, drawing out any remaining droop once I had an inch or so completed. I had in mind to use two different patterns alternately (they shared a common break point), but as luck would have it, the transition between the elements was less than attractive, so I abandoned the idea to use only one of the two elements. I dubbed it "Polliwogs." Having completed a foot or so, I set the loom where I could take a picture of the band against a dark background, and that was when I noticed a mistake five and a half motifs back. Don't bother looking for it. It's not there any more. Yes, I picked my morning's work out to fix the "oopsie," and wasn't satisfied until I had woven it all again. This band is 1" in width, with 13 pattern threads. All coloured threads are 8/2 cotton on a ground of 16/2 perle cotton. The weft is also 8/2.

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.