I thought I was terribly rambling and had way, way more things that I could have said, but the talk this week went really well. It was a small group so we encouraged questions along the way and passed around stuff to look at. I brought samples and equipment and books and all sorts of things. Everyone liked the loom and really really liked Alfred’s antique spinning wheel. The two of us could talk about historic textiles for days.
It’s official, we are finally on the updated calendar page. And I’ve even got the loom ready! Now to pull out the books and samples.
I’m making a model of a warp weighted loom for an upcoming talk. It’s hardly pretty, what with my carpentry skills and all, but it’s functional. This is the loom of classical antiquity and the Viking era. I recall a comment in an archaeology book how at many sites you can’t go more than a few meters without finding a loom weight. (Mine are bags of gravel.) One of the interesting things about vertical looms is that several weavers can work at one wide loom, passing bundles of weft along as they go. This can be found in fragments that have crossed wefts, jumping from shed to shed throughout the fabric.
I have a few more adjustments to make it really usable, my intention is to have it for demos and let people try it out. It’s portable (sorta) and not easily damaged. I can’t weave much because I can’t hold my arms up for more than a few minutes, but I can show people what to do with it.
Here’s a picture of mine. Much more information can be found from my friend Carolyn Priest-Dorman on her Warp-Weight Loom page.
I’m typically not prone to chasing after something just because it’s new, but I’m getting bored with the current project. I don’t hate it, I’m not about to declare it a UFO and hide it in the closet, it’s just not particularly thrilling. I’m sure it’s because I don’t know what I want to do with the yarn once I get it done. I’m almost finished with the second bobbin of three, combed dark brown Merino lamb. It’s tiny yarn, so there’s a lot of it.
I’ve been debating overdying it to get black, maybe brown is part of the problem. Originally it was going to be socks/stockings/legwarmers but now that I live in a real apartment and not a pit I’m forgetting why I wanted it. And remembering how much I find knitting tedious. I’ve determined that I have enough spare bobbins to safely start another 3-ply yarn. But I’m not sure what I would do with the new project yarn either, which could lead to all manner of trouble. The new blended batts aren’t enough alone to weave something. But when was the last time I finished a knitting project? I like the results, enough that I can make it through a hat once in a while, but that’s about where it ends. Maybe I just need to cultivate a knitting swap buddy.
The finished fiber is about 170g, enough for a small project. I made two color layered batts because I wanted a high contrast blend that would survive being spun fine and plied and not be totally a solid color by the time I was done. I have no idea what I will do with the yarn, so I went with a somewhat less adventurous color. One of my other possible choices was magenta.
The fleece has been sitting around for years, it came from South Australia and is some sort of Corriedale cross. I sorted out the rest by color and length but this stuff was shorter. I don’t even know where all the silk came from, other than several years of spinning workshops. For now it’s going back into the fiber closet because I still have some Merino to finish spinning.
Started with this pile of fleece (plus a little of plain white)
and this collection of workshop samples
a little blue dye and a lot of carding later:
