After only four hours at the drawloom I have a porcupine! That’s an hour a day, four days in a row. I enjoy the design-making process. It is rewarding to work out the details on the computer. The next reward is to see the printed version ready to take to the drawloom. When I first see the feet of the critter woven on the loom, I do a happy dance. And now that the porcupine is moving on around the breast beam, this feeling of accomplishment is the greatest reward. Nine more critter napkins to go, with many more rewards. Jackrabbit is next!
Day 1: Teal hem, gold border, black background, and porcupine feet! Happy Dance!Day 2: Porcupine snout and tail reach into border areas. I use single units in irregular border areas like these, instead of the simpler pattern shafts that I use for the rest of the border areas.Day 3: Second half of the porcupine is mostly the quills on its back. This is easy single-unit draw cords in combination with simple pattern shaft draw handles for the side borders. (Only 2 draw handles are needed for the side borders.)Day 4: Finish up the top of the porcupine, the black background, the gold border, and then a blue hem area (not shown). Now I’m hopping off to design the jackrabbit.
Look for daily rewards. What rewards are you seeing lately?
Gray Fox is complete. Porcupine is the next critter in line. We’ve seen evidence of a porcupine in our backyard, so he belongs in this drawloom parade.
My husband and I coined the word “lapkin” when our children were young. Lap + napkin = lapkin. We wanted our children to learn the courtesy of placing a napkin on their lap when they were seated for a meal. “Lapkin check!” was a fun game we made of it. The armadillo on the drawloom is a lapkin, if I ever saw one. This thirsty cloth will soak up any drips and spills, smeary hands, or messy mouths that come in contact with it.
Napkin starts with a dark blue hem and gold checkerboard border. I like this view which makes it look like the armadillo feet have really long legs. Single unitdraw cords are pulled (drawn) to raise warp ends that form the pattern in the cloth.Armadillo reaches into one border with its snout, and into the other border with its tail.
Armadillo is the first of a dozen critters that will parade across this loom. Armadillo napkin is the only one of its kind. I’m certain of that. (Fox is up next.)
Simple checkerboard side borders give a fun outline to every napkin.Just a few pattern shafts (six draw handles) are needed for making the horizontal checkerboard border across the width of the napkins.Six-shaft broken twill makes an interesting all-over pattern in the cloth.Teal blue hem ends the Armadillo napkin. Red picks serve as a dividing/cutting line. Fox is next!
Lapkins give us a discreet way to stay tidy at the table. Armadillo, however, doesn’t intend to stay discreet. I’m pretty certain of that, too.
It pays to check your work. I have reached a new level of experience in distributing patterns shafts. I know how to do it backwards and forwards now. Literally. Unfortunately, I moved almost all of the pattern shafts before noticing that the spacing between units is not quite right. Uh oh! So, one by one, I reversed the distribution of pattern shafts to get back to the point of error—the very beginning. The reverse move was …more complicated.
Distribution of pattern shafts is part of the setup for the drawloom. It is a multi-step process that moves the pattern shafts, one at a time, from the heddle bar at the back of the loom to the pattern shaft holders just behind the ground shafts at the front of the loom. Sound complicated? It’s not that hard, and is fun to do after you’ve done it a few times.
Lesson learned:Check my work. I am off by only one unit of threads. That small miss, however, is enough to sabotage the whole project if not corrected. The sooner I check my work against the master plan the better. Fortunately, everything at the loom is fixable. It’s never too late to start again.
First, I use an old inkle band to slip between heddles that I am separating to transfer to a pattern shaft. Because I am using a combination of pattern shafts AND single units, I separate the heddles on the “front” side. If I were usining only pattern shafts and no single units, I could separate the heddles from the back while standing behind the loom.I insert a pattern shaft through the separated pattern heddles. Then I remove the inkle band and hang it around my neck, ready for the next transfer.I slip the waiting heddle bar through the pattern shafts that have not been separated……and remove the first heddle bar. This releases the separated pattern heddles onto the pattern shaft, which is hanging in a pair of holding cords. From here, the pattern shaft is moved forward to the pattern shaft holders. (I also adjust the clip overhead that connects the thread unit to a single unit draw cord.)After backtracking and starting over, I now diligently check the number and spacing of units on the heddle bar after every pattern shaft is moved into position. Success!Twelve pattern shafts, plus one X shaft. This project uses pattern shafts for the borders only – top, bottom, and sides. The rest of the pattern areas will use single-unit designs.
The sooner I check my life against God’s master plan the better. Fortunately, everything is forgivable. It’s never too late to start again.
All set and ready to go! Everything works. After a bit more testing of weft colors and patterns, it’s critter time. Watch for Mr. Armadillo first!
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!
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.
