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Cases containing live silkworms underscore the humble origin of silk – the cocoons of Bombyx mori, the domesticated silk moth.  Behind these cases towers a replica of a Tang-era draw-loom, created for the exhibit by the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou.  Its dimensions [...]]]> As I was researching Persian Drawlooms I came across this!

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Cases containing live silkworms underscore the humble origin of silk – the cocoons of Bombyx mori, the domesticated silk moth.  Behind these cases towers a replica of a Tang-era draw-loom, created for the exhibit by the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou.  Its dimensions are impressive; nine-and-one-half feet high and seventeen feet long.  And yet it still wouldn’t quite measure up to the original loom after which it was modeled, which is twenty percent larger.  A silk-weaving expert accompanied the deconstructed loom to New York and assembled it in the gallery.  As a final touch, a bolt of partially woven cloth was attached, serving as a permanent work-in-progress.  Visitors can only imagine the time and effort involved in creating such intricate material.

” Twist Collective

Now I often times get the mick taken out of me for all my looms, but even if you took all my looms together, they’re nothing compared to this beauty! This is my kind of loom. People try to talk me into a vertical loom, but if I ever have a medieval loom, it’s definitely going to be a draw loom!

I learned a lot from this project. i learned [...]]]> I finally finished V’s Blanket. At this point it’s a toddler blanket, not a baby blanket, but it turned out so great that I think Mama and I will both agree that it was well worth the time. It’s still not perfect, but I’m very proud of it.

I learned a lot from this project. i learned that you can’t leave the warping process too long, as this project took me a long time to warp and the threads got fairly crossed. I was also reminded how important it is to keep with the proper pattern. When you get off the pattern your selvages stop getting properly woven. Once that happens you have to unweave to the point of the mistake in order to correct it properly. Finally I want to make a width template for my next project, so I can check to ensure that there isn’t too much draw in over the project!

I think between making such a nice fabric and learning these lessons, this project is a success. Cutting this project off the loom and tying the fringe gave me a very real sense of accomplishment!

It’s pretty simple and very medieval. Rigid Heddles are amoun the earliest weaving implements found by archeologists. The technique goes back to the Ancient era. Twills are also found in very early time periods.

I’ve [...]]]> I’ve been working more with my Rigid Heddle looms these days. I’ve managed to work out how to weave twills using two heddles.

It’s pretty simple and very medieval. Rigid Heddles are amoun the earliest weaving implements found by archeologists. The technique goes back to the Ancient era. Twills are also found in very early time periods.

I’ve drafter my own patterns for my use and welcome anyone else to feel free to use them. When I warp the loom, 1 indicates a thread that goes through a slot in the back heddle and a hole in the front. 2 goes through the hole in the back and slot in the front. 3 means slots in both heddles.

Straight Twill

Diamond/Lozenge Twill

I have done the first round of blue stripes on my colour gamp. As with all new waving endeavors there were a few hiccups in the beginning stages. It’s for this reason that I am eternally grateful to the wonderful folks who created and contribute to Ravelry and Weavolution. It was the great minds and Weavolution [...]]]>

I have done the first round of blue stripes on my colour gamp. As with all new waving endeavors there were a few hiccups in the beginning stages. It’s for this reason that I am eternally grateful to the wonderful folks who created and contribute to Ravelry and Weavolution. It was the great minds and Weavolution that hellped me sort out the issue I was having in getting nice sheds.

The problem was simply that the second and third sheds were not opening neatly. The threads that were through the front slot together were sticking to one another. I began with simply seperating these threads with a second stick shuttle. The worst was the third shed, when the two rigid heddles were pushed down. So I decided, and the decision was confirmed by weavolution users, to use a pick up stick for this shed. Other users pointed out that after a few inches of weaving the issues would likely sort itself out, which is mostly has. There is still a bit of tweezing the sticky wool threads away from each other, but I’ve adapted and moved on, with the weaving going fairly quickly now. I just wove the third blue stripe in under a half hour. Each stripe is the same width as the warp stripes, which are just under 2″.

Here’s a photo of the gamp with just over 5″ woven.

Progress on the Colour Gamp, I’ve got the warp onto the front warp beam and all in the right order now! I still can’t believe it took me so long to notice the red was out of place. Oh well. Nearly there now! In reality I’m over half way through the warping process. I’ll likely roll [...]]]>

Progress on the Colour Gamp, I’ve got the warp onto the front warp beam and all in the right order now! I still can’t believe it took me so long to notice the red was out of place. Oh well. Nearly there now! In reality I’m over half way through the warping process. I’ll likely roll it back onto the back beam tonight and do the front heddle this weekend!

Not tomorrow though, I’m off to London. I’m hoping to sneak in a few moments at the V&A, though if I do I’ll focus on the finding some knitted textiles to photograph for my knitter friends in the US!

This project started as a huck lace sett at 12 epi. However I decided that I was [...]]]> This project was a learning experience from two perspectives, I will learn a lot about colour interaction from the finished gamp. I also learned a lot about weaving with 2 heddle and particularly weaving a 2/1 twill on 2 heddles.

This project started as a huck lace sett at 12 epi. However I decided that I was most likely to use the rest of my shetland wools for re-enactment, so I decided to go with a 2/1 twill. That meant that I needed to figure out how to do a 2/1 twill on 2 heddles. Doing so was a rather long journey, but in the end I discovered that in doing so, I could sett the thread at 15 epi using 2 10 epi heddles, which is the appropriate sett for a shetland wool.

After rolling the thread onto the back beam, I noticed that I put the red in the completely wrong place! How did that happen, I know my colour wheel! Well I forged on threading the back heddle and now I’m winding the wapr onto the front heddle to get the threads in the right order. Then I’ll wind them onto the back beam again before threading the front heddle and beginning weaving! This is a slow process as the wool constantly sticks to itself and is not now the proper width on the back beam, from the change in sett. But slow and steady will win this race. So I will soldier on and hopefully be rewarded with a gorgeous colour gamp shawl that will allow me to plan many other cool shawls for re-enactment and cool fabrics for hoods and eventually…. perhaps a tunic gasp!