Where I've Been

Have you been wondering about me? I apologize for the prolonged silence - I've been spending the past few weeks doing battle with my loom, but after several difficult weeks I have emerged victorious. It all began with the shawl I mentioned in my previous post. It is a tencel stole I purchased as a kit from the Yarn Barn in Kansas. The yarn is beautiful and the draft is relatively simple - I have to admit that the problems I encountered are all my own fault. It started right after I sleyed the reed and realized that I had chained the warp incorrectly and inadvertently created a knot...and the only way to correct it was to pull out all 453 ends, correct the chain and re-sley all 453 ends.

Problem number two ocurred when I has halfway through threading the heddles. I had (wrongly) assumed that the ends would be balanced across all four harnesses, so I moved several heddles out of the way before I started. After about 200 ends, I actually looked at the draft and realized that there were many more ends on shafts 2 and 3...and I wouldn't have enough heddles on those two shafts. Once again, I pulled out the ends and re-threaded the heddles.

I eventually did begin weaving, but not before I learned a lot of lessons. I decided to wait on posting about this until it was safely off the loom. The stole is now awaiting wet finishing, so here is a photo of it as I was actually weaving it.


No worries, I still love weaving. I've also kept up on some knitting. I've started a hat for the baby and a hat for Lincoln.


...And here is evidence that I can actually complete a project...the very first scarf I finished on the loom!