The last time I wrote, I had a hem done for my first rug on the Weaver's Delight loom. Since then, I have been too busy weaving to take time to write.
The hem that I showed in the previous post is is almost ready to roll onto the cloth beam, and the first rug is half done.
This is a closer view of the rug, which is called Double Seed, or Chicken Tracks. This one was woven with a regular rug shuttle, since I was trying to adjust the tension. The little crank at the right side of the loom is used to tighten or loosen the brake band. I have found that just a quarter turn can make a difference. If the tension is too loose, the beater ends up hitting the two front posts. When it is too tight, the fell line moves too close to the beater, and it is difficult for the loom to change sheds, and for the fly shuttle to pass through the shed.
These were the three fabrics I chose for this rug. I really like the mottled look the green check gives. I had a lot of yardage of both the green and the black, so I was able to work with long strips of fabric without too many seams. Each fabric was a little different in weight, so they were cut or torn at varying widths. I used three strips of green, half a strip of black, two strips of the yellow print, half a strip of black, and they repeated three more times.
This first warp isn't very wide--only 24" in the reed, and the rug is weaving up at 23" wide, without using a temple. The temple that came with the loom isn't that small, so I couldn't use it. Here is a photo of it prior to fixing the missing prong and before it was cleaned and varnished.
I started weaving the first rug on Friday afternoon, a week ago, and had it finished that evening.
A couple days ago, I started playing around with the fly shuttle, and just wove some short sections of thick yarn while I got the straps adjusted. I had to tighten them a bit, but it didn't take too long.
When I got home from a half day at work today, I started cutting my next fabrics.
Here are the fabrics, and a few of my notes for this rug. The long strips worked well for the first rug, so I'm using them again. This rug has a hem of black cotton which came from a recycled sweater. The tan and black weave fabric is heavier than the black gauze type fabric, so they are cut different widths. Once I wove one repeat, I was able to determine how many repeats to have in the rug. This time, I used three strips of tan and half a strip of black.
The fly shuttle worked! This rug is weaving very quickly. The shuttles are cast aluminum, with a tube that looks like a car exhaust pipe. They are kind of rusty, so now that I know they work, I will need to clean and paint them.
Here is a close-up of the pattern.
It is half done. The remaining fabric is cut, and loaded into the tube, all ready to finish the rug in the morning. It takes longer to prepare the fabric than to weave the rugs!
It's been fast and fun!
I attached the rug warp to the end of each clip and another couple pieces to each end of the stick. I attached the paperclips to the cords with enough tension to bow the stick when the clamps were attached to the fabric. Alligator clips could also work, but I just used what I had in the studio.
