Davey Finished Weaving His First Project

 I am so proud of my grandson Davey.  He is eight years old, and when he came for a weekend at the end of November, we did some weaving.  He had been practicing on the rigid heddle loom, and was doing a great job, so I thought he was ready to start a pattern on my little four shaft loom. 

Here he is demonstrating the proper way to hold a shuttle.  He is doing very well throwing it through the shed and catching it.

Davey finished weaving today.  He is pretty proud of what he made.

I showed him how to wet finish it in hot soapy water till the water looked clean.  After rolling it in a towel to get most of the moisture out, he straightened it out on the counter and rolled it hard with the marble rolling pin.  It is hanging to dry now.  Hemming will be tomorrow after I get home from work.

Sample for chenille scarf

The loom stand is finished enough for testing.  I wound a warp for a rayon chenille scarf and wove about 8-10 inches with white, blue and black weft.

The sample on the right of the serger stitching is not washed and is quite stiff.

The sample on the left of the serger stitching has been washed and dried in the dryer.  It is nice and soft.  I'm having a hard time deciding whether to use the black weft or the medium blue(above the little tail of white yarn).



I'm leaning toward the medium blue because I like how the blue varigated stripe looks.

Table Loom Stand About Ready to Test

Bob is just about finished with the small table loom stand with treadles.  Tomorrow, I will wind a scarf warp to test it and see if we need to make any adjustments.  A nice chenille scarf sounds nice, since it is still so wintry up here.

I'm tying up the treadles with tex-solve cord but need about 2 more yards of it.   I will have to make do with some heavy linen cord for three of the tie-ups until I can get some more cord.

I'm pretty sure there will be some adjustments needed because the left couple treadles are a lot harder to raise than the others.

All in all, for not having any measurements to go by, I think it is turning out pretty well. 

Once the testing is done and adjusted, I will stain the stand to match the loom and then get some varnish on it.

It cost us about $50 to purchase the maple wood and some hardware and the cord, and now I will have another six treadle, four harness floor loom that will be portable enough to take to workshops.  It's just in time for taking to the linen workshop on March 10-12th.

Stand for My Table Loom

It is so nice to have a husband that is handy.  I have been wanting stands for my two table looms for quite some time.  Last weekend, Bob and I went to a local hardwood place and purchased enough maple to make both stands.  He has been working on the first one off and on this week, and finally progressed as far as attaching the loom to the stand.  The legs angling off the back of the loom are  ones someone else added to the loom.  It was fine for getting the loom off a table, but it was still hand operated to raise the harnesses.

Bob gets the night off tonight to go visit a friend, but hopefully he can start the treadles tomorrow after he gets out of work.  This is the test project, since we are just going from a picture with no measurements.  If this one works well, he will make another one for the wider loom.  If adjustments need to be made, at least he won't have to change both loom stands.

It will be so nice to have a handy loom to take to workshops, or to weave narrow projects such as scarves.  I hate tying up my bigger looms for those kinds of projects, but hate weaving on a hand operated table loom.  It's way too slow.

I signed up to take a linen class, taught by Kati Meek, early in March.  I may be asking for too much to have both loom stands done by March 9th, but am hoping they are. Then I can decide whether to take the 15" or the 22" loom.