Okay, actually 2 months late and I could always use more money!  Anyways, I bought a new loom (an Ashford 4 shaft table loom) for taking on trips in our motorhome.  I needed a small one that would fold flat enough to fit under the bed.  I decided that any loom I bought had to fit there, and I wasn't going to budge on that.  I found a couple of 8 shaft Ashfords, but they were a couple inches too tall.  So I went ahead an ordered a new one.

The first project for this loom was to be summer & winter, which I promised to start in April for this WAL.  After assembling the loom, I wound the warp on (10/2 cotton sett at 20 epi), using the profile draft from Interweave's WAL on summer & winter (I also want to try using the profile draft later on my multi-shaft loom with other weave structures like lace, twill, etc.). 

I started to weave and the loom worked fine, but it sure didn't look like what I expected.  I was using a variegated yarn (8/4 rayon) for pattern weft, so thought maybe that made me not see the pattern.  So I got some 4/2 bamboo and tried that, but it still didn't look right.  I wove some plain weave, just to see how my beat was, and then I REALLY looked at the and saw that when I pulled the levers for shafts 1 & 2 down, shafts 3 & 4 went up.  I had the tieup reversed!  Doh!  So I fixed the tieup and now it's looking much, much better.  What a rookie mistake. 

The picture below shows what I wove first on top, then plain weave (warp and tabby is gold), then where I finally got it right, weaving only block A.  Now to try the variegated yarn again and try to weave the pattern.

But at least I've started.  I hope it's okay to keep this weave-along going.  It's very much summer here in Indiana with temps near or over 100 and no rain.  We only got .09 inches of rain in June.  The yards are brown, the water bill is going up just trying to keep it and the flowers from totally dying, and I'm spending too much time indoors trying to stay cool.  But at least we have power here, unlike the poor folks on the east coast.

Comments

Erica

It is fine to continue the WAL. With the move and the pregnancy, I haven't started at all! Thanks for sharing your story, it is always good to know that no matter how much experience you have you can still make rookie mistakes! It happens, especially when we're excited to have a new loom and to get weaving on it.

When we moved my Glimakra we got it all the way back together and I realized I had put the one square support in the wrong way. Fortunately my husband is very undersatnding and helped me rectify the situation, so I didn't have to have a peg sticking up in the air for the next 10 years!

I'm looking forward to seeing your finished weaving!

Cheers,

Erica

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