With a flick of the wrist, the shuttle glides across the warp. The curved, narrow end of a traditional Swedish boat shuttle slides right into my hand. This dice weave uses one shuttle for the plain weave background, and a second shuttle for the pattern weft.
From my bin of shuttles I choose the ones best suited for the warp that is on the loom. When a shuttle fits my hand, as the Swedish ones do, that’s even better. As the weaver, I am usually the only one who sees the shuttles at work, but that makes them no less important. The one purpose of a weaving shuttle is to carry weft thread across the warp, by the weaver’s hand.
How do you find your purpose? Discover your calling by putting others first. Like most people, I would rather put my own self first. But our grand weaver calls us to be last. He calls us to be servants of each other. In that role where we carry the thread without being noticed, we do our most important work. And that is where we finally find our great value in the weaver’s hands.
May your shuttles glide effortlessly.
On purpose,
Karen
I had my husband make my shuttles since they were so expensive. My favorite is one from a Cherry tree on our tree farm. It has a hole on the bottom, but glides along the race like silk and never snags the 20/2 or 30/2 I often use. so nice to talk to another weaver who has been there. I better get back to work, so many coverlets and Quilts to make and so little time. love, peace and Joy, linda
Linda, It’s a pleasure to weave with tools made just for you, isn’t it?
Karen
about that loose warp edges problem….great solution. Another might be to warp those r and l threads on a second beam. my Laclerk has two or I have also just shoved balls of yarn under the edges on the front beam, not pretty, but necessity is the mother of invention and us New Englanders are crafty. love peace and Joy, linda
A second beam would come in handy, for sure. Maybe I will add one some day. There’s always a solution to a problem – it doesn’t have to be pretty, it just needs to work.