Weaving!!

Finally I am weaving!!! There is a story about this. About a month ago I bought this loom for a great price $250 (at least I thought it was a great deal). Anyway, I brought it home and since I didn't know anything about looms or weaving, I thought it was great. I went about finding someone to show me how to warp it and how to weave. There are a couple of places near me that do this sort of thing, but both those places could not accommodate my schedule. Not that I am so very busy, but I do have a Kinder who gets out of school at 11:45 on most days. I searched around and found a dealer of this particular loom in Berkeley (about an hour away). She would give me private lessons on my loom on the one day that I have some extra time, and she was very reasonably priced. We started talking about my loom and I discovered that there were many pieces missing. It was actually inoperable the way I got it. I was so BUMMED - I couldn't believe that the woman who had sold it to me would do that. She seemed so nice and told me everything was there. I called her and for a week or so kept stalling about where the pieces were and now does not call me. Anyway, there is a VERY GOOD ending to this story. I have a very handy husband who took a look at the loom and proceeded to make the missing pieces. Can you believe that!!
Firstly, it needed bottom heddle bars - those were made. Then we needed warp sticks - approx. 20 of them - those were made. Then I needed tie sticks and lease sticks - those were made. With all the "important" pieces made, I trecked up to Berkeley for my first lesson on how to dress the loom and warp the loom.

It took 5 hours to get the loom in shape and get the warp threads on the warp beam. We had to retie the whole loom. The ties on the beams were completely wrong and the cords for the levers and upper heddle bar were so old they were breaking. We replaced all this, but it was not easy. Since the old cording that was used was much thinnner than the newer, stronger cording it was extremely difficult to get it through the little holes in the top of the levers. Some drilling had to happen. And it was done!! I didn't have time to stay and learn how to finish warping and then to learn how to weave so I made an appointment and went home.

My homework from the first lesson was to thread all the yarn through the heddles in a specific order and then thread them through the reed. I eagerly did all that and went yesterday for my second lesson. WOW!! Most of the prep work was done so finishing up the warp went pretty easily and then I - GOT - TO - WEAVE!! How exciting!!

I am weaving a sampler so that I can get a good feel for weaving and for some different patterns and textures. I am a bit farther than this picture shows and am loving every bit of it!!