With nine shades of blue, four shades of gold, and mixed strands of white / grey / lavender, in various weights of wool, the rya is a tactile and visual delight. There is a lovely surprise under the shaggy rya tendrils that you will not see unless you spread the strands apart and peer down to the cloth. The wool background weft forms a delicate repeating pattern underneath. And that hidden ground weft is the very thing that secures every tedious row of hand-tied rya knots. Like the background weft, when we choose to build others up, we weave a lasting foundation into our relationships.
Shaggy pillow top. Each row of rya knots is made by slipping individual strands of wool yarn around pairs of warp threads, snugging them into secure knots. There are 47 rya knots across each row.
Sure, more knowledge and experience improves my skills. Skills that I can show off. Knowledge without love is a danger zone, though, that leads to arrogance. I can puff up myself through knowledge, or I can build up others through love. Wouldn’t we rather be the background weft that allows the rya to stand out? Our knowledge, with love as the operating system, has the capability of building up others. What love builds, lasts.
(More thoughts about rya knots, and love as an operating system HERE.)
Every time I use my bobbin winder I am reminded of how fortunate I am. It’s electric. No one has an electric bobbin winder quite like mine, because no one else has my Steve to invent things like he does. He watched me using my nifty hand-turn Swedish bobbin winder many times. Steve decided he could make something better. A motor and an on-off light switch, with a variable-speed foot pedal. It’s perfect! I love it. But mostly, I love Steve.
Electric bobbin winder holds any length of quill. The quill fits tightly onto a tapered dowel that extends from the bobbin winder.
The leather quilting thimble keeps me from burning or cutting my thumb as the thread speeds by while I guide it onto the fast spinning quill on the bobbin winder.
I am on my very last tube of this shade of light blue. Will there be enough on this quill to finish the last blue section of the last of four towels in this color scheme, plus enough for the light blue hem?? Somehow, I think a tightly- and perfectly-shaped quill will be able to weave just a little bit further… (You can see the beginning of this set of four towels HERE.)
Small amount of light blue left on the quill. Maybe I can use the remainder for a couple of small stripes on another towel.
Yes! Finished the hem with a little bit of light blue left to spare. This is a good day!
To request Steve’s parts and source list for the electric bobbin winder, click HERE to send me an email.
Have you thought of using the camera on your phone to help you recall details in your weaving design? I want the simplest way to remember this narrow blue and honey border stripe at the beginning of the towel so I can weave it exactly the same when I get to the other end. What better way than to take a detail snapshot with my iPhone? It’s handy, descriptive, and quick. There are some things that are best remembered with pictures.
After the red cutting line, a new towel begins with a honey-colored hem. The narrow blue and honey stripe will be repeated at the other end of the towel.
When our heavenly king walked the earth, he was a living picture of heavenly goodness. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. These threads of royalty stood out in humanity because of the contrast next to common threads of envy, selfishness, and prideful boasting. Considering this living snapshot of true royalty, we, too, can wear the clothes that are fit for a king (or queen)! Better than capturing a design element with our iPhones, is capturing the design for our lives from the heart of our grand weaver.
Five towels down, three to go. Or maybe only two to go. Because of my initial threading error, I had to start over. Now, I am not positive if there is enough warp left for three more towels. (Remember the threading error? I wrote about it HERE.) Mistakes cost us. If the warp runs short before the weaving is done, I will have to blame it on my own mistake.
Thin black lines separate rows of color to give this cotton towel a stained glass effect. The thin red line will be the cutting line between towels.
Errors have consequences. Even when the mistake can be fixed, we regret the mistake. “I should’ve-would’ve-could’ve” kind of thinking. The good thing about weaving is, you can usually fix your way out of a mistake. And I can make something out of a smaller woven piece at the end. When someone you love makes a mistake, surely you offer kind help and patient assistance to lead them to a workable solution.
What if you were on the receiving end of that kind of loving attention? Good news. You are on the receiving end of kindness and patience. You do have someone treating you like that. Our creator is rich in kindness and patience toward us, even when we keep making mistakes. Even when we think we may have wasted too much of the warp, he lets us start again and get the best out of what remains.
May seeds of kindness and patience be planted into your life.
When I was a girl I dreamed of being a flying trapeze artist. No fooling! I practiced stunts on our backyard swingset, including hanging from my toes. I grew out of that. My new stunt now, is with a different kind of trapeze. A warping trapeze. (Some people call it a warping valet, but let’s call it a trapeze, okay?)
The warping trapeze is used for beaming the warp. The warp comes over the breast beam, under the foot beam, and then over the cross bar of the trapeze. I use two-pound walking weights and S-hooks to weight the warp bouts, since the warp needs to be under sufficient tension as it is wound onto the warp beam. The warping trapeze makes it easy to single-handedly beam a warp with even tension.
Warping Trapeze: Two tall boards set into place just inside the sides of the loom, angled at the base, between the cloth beam and the breast beam. I clamp them on the sides for extra security. The top piece slips into a cut-out opening at the top of the side boards. Reed will be moved to the beater before beaming.Two-pound walking weights are perfect for hanging from S-hooks to weight the warpbouts. I can easily increase the amount of weight by adding more walking weights, as needed. For a longer warp, I tie a piece of texsolv cord in a slip knot around the warp bout, and hang the S-hooks and weights on that cord, moving it down as the warp is wound on.The trapeze is ready, with the warp weighted. Next steps: Remove the support sticks; move the lease sticks to behind the reed; straighten warp ends; place reed in the beater; slide lease sticks toward the reed. Okay, go! Wind the warp onto the beam.
Enjoy this little time-lapse video I created of myself dressing the loom using the warping trapeze. (You will not see me hanging from my toes.)
I fly through the air with the greatest of ease, my threads all in place with the warping trapeze…
Thank you to Becky Ashenden for introducing me to a warping trapeze at Vävstuga Weaving School. Many thanks to my talented husband for creating my very own warping trapeze. He’s the best!
