
weaving in progress ~ sampler #6
I’ve been a bit behind in blogging about my fiber projects, and today I had to smile, for I found my son sitting at my upright loom, with fork in hand, beating down the weft. It was precious, and I wish I had my camera. He was imitating me perfectly!
Anyhow, to back track, for my birthday this month, our neighbor Ron and my hubby Dave built me a small upright Navajo Loom. I had been using my mini loom for awhile now, but I really wanted to use some worsted weight yarns, and maybe possibly my handspun.
Well, I warped my loom with a 14″ x 20″ project, and starting weaving all the way to the middle point – 7″. Can I tell you that it was just coming out all wrong. I had a knot that kept slipping, my warp tension was off in some areas, and my selvedge edges were horrible. And, I was working with an interlock joint, and once I went to reverse, my brain just couldn’t do it. I was so frustrated.
Instead of just finishing it (which I’m glad I didn’t), I took it all apart.
Then I restarted.

close up of selvedge
This time I decided to try the sampler from one of Noel Bennett’s books. I had yet to make hooked joints, and I was happy to try a different joint before going back to the interlock joint.
I took my time and was very careful about warping the loom, and that the tension was evenly distributed. The project size was 10″ x 23″ and my loom had to be converted, adding extra pipes straps so I could wrap the piece around the backside.
The best part was that I loved doing the hooked joint. I really enjoyed it. I also practiced using scalloped bubbles to ensure there was enough weft amongst the warp, something that also plagued me on the piece I took apart.

the back
For some reason, I thought I missed the middle point of my weaving so I did not repeat the design, opting to do stripes.

the front
So, overall, my selvedges are getting better. I had some ridges, which after reading an article in Handwoven magazine, explained that I was not placing equal amounts of weft in each row. My rug was not even the entire length, in the middle and at the edge I lost between 1/8″ to 1/4″ on each end, and it is noticable.

the last inch
It took me a week to make the rug, and a week to do the last inch, and I now realize even if it takes me 2 weeks or longer, I must go very slow at the end. Otherwise I will lose width again.
The rug will be converted into bag as soon as I decide what kind of strap I want to put on.
I use Brown Sheep Yarn in Worsted Weight (I love the colors used in Two Gray Hills Rugs, so I tried to stick with that color scheme). The other cool thing about this project was that I learned approximately how many rows I use per inch, which will come in handy when I get brave enough to draw out a design.
So that’s about it. My loom is already strung up with another project! Tune back in about a month for the next one.
Related Posts & Links:
Raveled here.
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