The last few months have been a season for me to put my focus on writing a book about prayer. This has been a season of less weaving than usual. Still, I find a way to get to the looms–a little here, a little there. It adds up. The nice thing about handweaving is that you have something to show for your efforts. Every little weft thread counts. Every day is a gift from the Lord, and every season is an opportunity to acknowledge Him. Thank you, Lord, for every season!
Here’s what I’ve been up to in this weaving season:
Eight different weft colors for this goose-eye twill. 7/2 Brage Wool.Cloth beam filling up.Standing back and enjoying the colors.Roadrunner on the drawloom. Cottolin and linen. Six groundshafts.Beginning the top half of the roadrunner pattern. Chart hangs for handy reference as I move up the chart, row by row.Roadrunner complete. Next chart to design is the Texas Longhorn. And three more critters after that.Curtain fabric, 24/2 cotton M’s and O’s.Cloth beam filling up.Take a step back and enjoy the process.
Three looms are active right now. The drawloom has the napkin project, with a wild turkey on this one.
Wild turkey feet and legs weave up quickly. There are only a few single unit draw cords to pull at a time, plus one pattern shaft draw handle for the side borders.Wild turkey feathers require many more single unit draw cords. Even the borders at this place in the pattern are done with single units. The cast shadow on the loom from the bell that hangs in the window makes a funny face at this time of day. Could be a silly turkey face? 🙂
The Julia has the wool goose-eye twill fabric that I plan to use for making myself a simple winter cape. Next winter should be here soon enough.
Last but not the least at all is the GlimÃ¥kra Standard with curtains for our remodeled bathroom. This is a big project and I will be weaving on this for a while. M’s and O’s is enjoyable to weave. I like the counting for the squares and stripes, and the trading off of feet that this project gives me.
Armadillo, fox, porcupine, jackrabbit, and deer are leading the critter parade. The twelve napkins will include the most common, the most interesting, and the most unusual animals that visit our backyard here in Texas Hill Country. The white-tailed deer are the most common, by far.
Feet first. The white-tailed buck is taller than he is wide, so his feet touch the bottom border. Pulled single-unit draw cords are seen on the hook bar pegs above the beater.Just past the midway mark on this napkin, as seen on the measuring ribbon pinned on the side.Having a large chart beside the loom helps me keep track of each row as the weaving progresses. One pattern shaft draw handle is pulled, which forms the pattern on the side borders. The single unit draw cords form the center image.
This white-tailed buck is one that Steve photographed on our property. I use Affinity Designer on my computer to turn a photo into a silhouette that I can use for my drawloom chart. It is a thrill to see the image emerge in the threads on the loom. From animal in our yard, to photo, to graphic chart, to threads on the loom! The common is made extraordinary.
The draw handles are pulled for the checkerboard pattern that goes across the bottom and top borders of the napkin.Antlers of the buck reach nearly to the top border. Hem area is teal blue.Before the buck, there is the jackrabbit. And before the jackrabbit is the porcupine. And the fox and armadillo before that are in hibernation on the cloth beam.
Even more extraordinary is what our Lord Jesus does with a common human like you or me who puts faith in him. As you look at the threads on his loom, you begin to see that it is his image being woven in you.
Jack the Jackrabbit is ready to hop on over the breast beam. It is time to design the next napkin. I design one at a time and then weave it. We have the armadillo, the porcupine, the gray fox, and the jackrabbit. Up next is a white-tailed deer. Steve took a photo of a white-tailed buck on our property last week. I will use that photo as the basis for my deer design.
Finished to the top of Jack’s ears.Chart shows row-by-row pulls for pattern-shaft handles and single-unit cords. One draw handle is pulled for each row of the side border.
I enjoy paying attention to the amazing wildlife around us. Some, like the porcupine, are seldom seen, and others, like the white-tailed deer are in view all the time. These napkins will be a record of the critters we have purposely noticed here on the property around our home in Texas Hill Country.
Black border hem finishes off this jackrabbit napkin. The fox looks us as he turns ’round the cloth beam.
We notice what we want to notice. When we make a point to notice the blessings of the Lord we start seeing his hand in less obvious places. When we turn our heart to understand his ways he starts filling in the gaps of our understanding. It’s good to keep a record of the blessings that we notice. Thank you, Lord!
What blessings have you noticed lately? Let us know in the comments.
Jackrabbit. This critter is one I would like to see more often. We call him “Jack,” or if there are two of them together, they are known in our family as “Jack and Jackylina.” The jackrabbit makes me smile because of his tall ears and mischievous-looking face. The nice thing is he doesn’t cause any mischief, like some of the other critters around here. He will sit completely still, without a twitch. I’m sure he wants you will think he’s a rock, and pass on by without noticing him. But if you get a little too close, he hops up and quickly dashes away.
When we have all twelve napkins at the dining room table for a family gathering, how will we decide who gets Jack the Jackrabbit? This one could be everyone’s favorite.
Teal blue linen weft. The jackrabbit is one of my favorite critters in our Texas Hill Country area. I like their humorous profile.Just reached the halfway point on this jackrabbit image. This is all single-unit draw until I get beyond the area where the nose and feet are in the side borders. After that, the borders will be the simpler pattern-shaft draw.
As with the other critter napkins in this series, the borders at top and bottom, and some of the side borders, use the pattern shaft draw system. The jackrabbit in the center and the “broken borders” use the single unit draw system. I am very happy to weave with this Myrehed Combination Drawloom Attachment. The possibilities are endless…and fun!
