Weaving a Few Critters

Karen

I am imagining Texas hill country critters (and birds) that will make their way onto the family napkins I’m getting ready to weave. I am thinking of an armadillo, a jack rabbit, a gray fox, a roadrunner, a Texas longhorn, a Texas spiny lizard, a black-chinned hummingbird, and a few more. Designing each image for the drawloom is fun. Just wait till you see the armadillo!

All the pattern heddles have been threaded.

Preparation makes way for imaginative creativity. This is why I enjoy all the drawloom prep.

Six ground shafts hang in front of the pattern heddles for threading. Heddles on the ground shafts are long-eye heddles, which make threading a breeze.
Threading ground shafts is almost complete. I will move the six shafts to the front of the loom to hang from the countermarch. After that, I can start positioning the pattern shafts. And then…weaving those critters!

Everything we do today is preparing for something tomorrow. Enjoy today. Look forward to tomorrow.

What critters (or birds) would you include if you were designing these napkins? Tell us in the comments!

May your creativity soar in relation to your diligent preparations.

Happy weaving,
Karen

IMPORTANT NEWS for Those Who Receive Warped for Good by Email:
Email subscriptions are ending April 11, 2023. Warped for Good posts will not arrive by email after that date. Stay tuned! I will tell more about this change next week.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Warped for Good is the story of my weaving journey and is NOT ending! I will continue to share my weaving adventures right here.

No Trapezoidal Tapestries

Karen

When you see that you are near the end of the tapestry, the temptation is to hurry up and finish. I have done that before, unfortunately. When I rush, the first thing to go is adequate bubbling of the weft. The consequence is distortion because of draw-in. It is most noticeable after the tapestry is off the loom and looks more like a trapezoid than a rectangle.

Pictorial tapestry based on a simple watercolor and ink sketch.
I can see the end of the cartoon under the warp. There is still plenty to weave, but there is less detail in the image going forward.

Ending well is as important as beginning well. So, even though I can see the end of the Figs and Coffee cartoon under the warp, I am deliberately slowing my pace to stay attentive to the sweetly-satisfying technicalities that make a good tapestry. When this cloth beam is unrolled, I will be able to say, “I gave it my best.” And I enjoyed every minute of it!

May you have pleasant endings.

Here’s a link to last week’s post, in case you missed it: Glimåkra Standard by the Front Door.

All my best,
Karen

Glimåkra Standard by the Front Door

Karen

When guests come through our front door, this stately 120cm Glimåkra Standard Countermarch loom is the first thing they see. Many folks have never seen a weaving loom. “That looks so complicated,” they say.

Welcome to my weaving studio, which doubles as our home.

The appeal of a Swedish countermarch loom is its simplicity. Pieces of wood, held together with a few wedges, form the frame for an efficient system of synchronized moving parts. “Step on a treadle and see what happens,” I tell them. When you move one part, something else moves, which then causes other parts to move. Now you can send a shuttle through an opening in the threads and weave cloth. “Wow! That’s amazing,” they say. I smile and think, “Yes, it is.” It may be complex, but it’s not complicated.

Glimåkra Standard has a prominent position in our home, with a view of our front yard from the loom bench.
Spaced rep rag rug on the loom. This one will be a long runner.

The world looks complicated. What does God in heaven see when he looks on us? Does he see a complicated mess? God sees us through his eyes of love. We’ve all gone our own messy ways. He loved us anyway and gave his son Jesus to save us from our selfish ways. He appeals to us with this simplicity: say yes to Jesus and no to self. This one move sets things in motion and changes everything! God’s world may be complex, but it doesn’t need to be complicated.

May you be drawn to simplicity.

Happy weaving,
Karen

Revive those Handwoven Scraps

Karen

Handwoven remnants (aka scraps) do not get thrown away. Every scrap is good for something. Some scraps are so unusual it takes an extra dose of creativity to find a use for them.

Simple rectangular handbag made from weft-cord handwoven fabric. The cording produces ridges. Ruffled gathers form in between the rows of ridges. 6/2 Tuna wool for warp and plain weave weft. I used a bulky single-ply wool for the cording.

This remnant of blue wool fabric is something I wove a few years ago during my Big Book of Weaving adventure. This structure uses a weft-cord technique, which creates interesting ridges in the fabric. The original project is a simple handbag. The remaining fabric has been buried in a box of remnants. Until now.

Handwoven remnants from previous projects are used for the lining and pocket in the handbag.

I had a great idea to make a bench cushion for my Julia loom from this unusual remnant. Guess what? All those ridges are not so comfortable to sit on (fortunately, I tested it first). My next idea, though, is a success! The blue bumpy scrap makes a nice lumbar pillow, adding special comfort to the rocking chair that belonged to my great grandmother.

Remnant is folded over and hand-stitched, leaving an opening in the center for a muslin pillow insert that I made to fit. The weft-cord weaving produces natural loops at the selvedges, which I am using to my advantage here. Three buttons from my button box are used for closure in conjunction with the selvedge loops.
Buttons to the back, the wide and narrow pillow works beautifully for lumbar support in my great grandmother’s rocking chair.

May you find uses for all your fabric scraps.

Your friend,
Karen

Weave a Distinct Cutting Line

Karen

Four down, eight to go. It doesn’t take long to weave a placemat.

End of third placemat. Block pattern extends into the hem area.

I weave a two-pick stripe between placemats. The stripe is always in the red or orange family of colors (unless the item being woven is red or orange). The red stripe is my cutting line, and two picks helps me cut on the straight and narrow. I once got confused about where to separate two towels that I had woven, and I cut in the wrong place. Yikes! That’s when I instituted the red thread rule.

Orange linen thread is used for the cutting line. Two picks make a clear path for cutting placemats apart after all the placemats are off the loom.
Ending the fourth placemat. Eight placemats to go!

Our lifetime has a distinct red thread rule. A true beginning and end. Life is brief. It doesn’t take long to weave a placemat. But while it’s on the loom, it has the weaver’s full attention. And so also, the Grand Weaver is attentive to all the threads of your life.

May you pay attention to the cutting lines.

Happy Weaving,
Karen