Back then, I only had a 4-harness loom and these were all 8 harness drafts. Eeek. So I put it away. (Thus, my weaving stash was born -- it still fits in a tote bag! Just ignore that box of Louet Gems Merino in the corner... it was purchased as knitting yarn, really!!) Then, I got a Baby Wolf, 8 harness, and two Mountain Looms - 18" and Aeroknot (8") -- also 8 harnesses. So with the Baby Wolf dressed for tea towels, and the scarves only 8" across, I thought, well, little Aero can handle this.
I thought the kit would be lovely husband & wife scarves for the hubby and me. He, of course, gets the cashmere :-) so I showed him the three patterns and he picked Dimity.
I duly warped, threaded, sleyed and wove, 58 inches of Dimity. Nice pattern to the treadles, but the surface pattern -- not for me. I love twills! No sweat, I thought, I'll just cut this one off and re-thread the heddles.
Uh-oh, I though, once it was cut... how do I keep all the strings organized once I've pulled them out of their existing heddles? Well, they all looked really nicely organized on the back beam, so I took a handy ruler from DD's craft box and my cross-saving pipe cleaners, and stabilized the threads on the back beam by tying the ruler on top of the back beam with the pipe cleaners.

I am happy to report it worked great! They all kept their positions, and I dutifully re-threaded in the advancing twill pattern for scarf number two.
Now, if I can just find my fringe twister, DH will have his scarf in time for Christmas...
~~~
Yep, this is the start of my journeys into weaving! There's a new topic in the topic list so you can track just weaving posts, if you want to. I see I'm not the only one ... Master Spinner Dave of Cabin Cove has redirected himself into amazing weavings, see them at The Weaving Studio.
3 comments:
found the fringe twister! yay :-)
I once saw someone use a long piece of tape across the back beam to hold the threads in place.
Back when I pretended to be a weaver (have since sold the loom); I would warp from back to front; so I'd leave my lease sticks in behind the heddles; moving them back as I advanced my warp. You simply pull out the warp yarns from the heddles in small groups, and retie them in front of the lease sticks. Then re-threading is just like it was the first time around. I read this in a book somewhere - Chandler or maybe Osterkamp?
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