I had a deadline for weaving these towels. Eight days. I finished dressing the loom at our Texas hill country home on Monday afternoon, and wove in long and short increments throughout the week. Mostly short increments. After all, I had little grandchildren to enjoy at the same time. And sweet interactions with my daughter and her husband. I finished weaving the four towels on Saturday evening, and cut them off on Sunday morning, just in time to bring them back with me to Houston to do the finishing work.
Cloth beam fills up with double weave towels.Four towels woven. Time for cutting off!Cloth puddle.Aqua is the main color on the front of the towels. The reverse side has Poppy as the main color.Ready for finishing. This week I will be mending errors, wet finishing, hemming, and sewing on labels.
I was highly motivated. I knew this may be my only chance to finish these towels for Melody before she and her precious family move to Chile in the near future. Now, she will be able to take a woven piece of my love with her. Know your roots. Where are you rooted? When your life takes root in good soil it will grow. Rooted in love, your life will blossom to bless others. And those are roots you can plant anywhere in the world.
Threading twelve shafts in three blocks is like having three four-shaft looms all in one. The three simple block patterns can be arranged in various ways, giving me infinite design options for these towels. There will be no two alike. Double weave gives us crisp lines between colors, producing amazing cloth! This is another instance where weaving on this Glimåkra Standard feels like sitting at a big pipe organ, where glorious color patterns are the music of the loom.
Exciting color combinations!First towel on the warp has multiple weft color changes.Second towel has squares and fewer weft color changes.As the first towel wraps around the cloth beam, the second towel nears its hem.
Faith. Faith in the powerful working of God is like exploring the possibilities of handweaving. You know the systems are in place for something amazing, but you find it takes a lifetime to discover all the glorious wonders. Double weave is just a glimpse of that glory. I have faith that there is Oh so much more. Likewise, our faith in God is an ongoing discovery of his works and his ways. With every glimpse of his glory and goodness, we know there is Oh so much more. Eternity won’t be long enough… And maybe heaven will be filled with music that explodes in color.
Twelve shafts and twelve treadles are all tied up. I found and fixed one threading error. And I am still making some adjustments on the tie-ups to get clean sheds. But for the most part, the Standard is ready to go! I have a week with this loom, to weave towels for my daughter. This colorful double weave looks promising.
My helper this week peers up at me as I begin to tie on the warp.Lower lamms and upper lamms are connected to the shafts before tying up the treadles.Arrangement of the heddles on the shafts give a clue to the three blocks in this twelve-shaft double weave.Testing weft colors and patterns with granddaughter Lucia by my side.Two-year-old Lucia helps manage the shuttles.Design decisions for the towels will be made based on this beginning sample. It’s surprising to see the array of colors produced by only four shades of cottolin thread.
When the loom is properly dressed and prepared, the weaving is delightful. Every pick of color is a pleasant surprise. Our Father knows our needs. He is the loom dresser. Everything is set up for the threads to make gorgeous cloth. Do we think prayer is all about asking God our Father for things? Yes, he does invite us to ask for the things we need. But let’s start with admiring his ways and works, with a heart of gratitude. Then, with the threads he puts in our hands, the future looks promising!
It is not easy to see sleying errors in this fine-dentreed. I unknowingly quadrupled the ends in four of the dents, instead of the specified two ends per dent. When I check as I go, I find the errors while they are still easy to fix.
How to check and double-check for sleying errors:
Tie ends into threading groups, using a loose slip knot. (I do this before threading the heddles.)
Sley one threading group. (I sley right to left.)
Visually check the sleyed group of ends for skipped dents and crowded dents.
Do a Click Test. Use the hook end of the reed hook to count the dents by running the hook along the reed…click, click, click… Make sure the number of clicks matches the number of dents needed for that group of ends.
—This is how I caught my errors. When the dents came up short in the Click Test, I knew I had some crowded dents that I had failed to catch in the visual check.
Move ends and re-sley as needed.
Sley each remaining group of ends, checking as you go, visually and with the reed-hook Click Test.
Two ends per dent in this 70/10 metric (equivalent to an 18-dent imperial) reed.
As June comes to a close, it’s time to sign off for a short while. Meet me right back here the first Friday of August! And head on over to Instagram ( @celloweaver ) to keep up to date with all my daily happenings on and off the loom!
Some things are on hold right now. My “weaving studio” suddenly looks like the spare bedroom it used to be. The big loom is dismantled! Fortunately, it is not a problem for this smart Glimåkra Standard loom to hold onto the warp that I’ve already wound onto the warp beam. The good news is that this cherished loom is being relocated to our Texas hill country home, where it will take the stage as if it were a grand piano.
White sheet from my box of old sheets (for scrap rag weft) is used to wrap the warp on the warp beam. It is tied securely with some long fabric strips.Shafts are tied together at the ends with seine twine. Fabric strips are tied around to hold the shafts together in a bundle. The bundle of shafts is placed on an old Flintstones beach towel, and then wrapped up like a big burrito and tied up with more fabric strips.Piece by piece, loom is dismantled.Fully dismantled, the loom becomes sticks and pieces of wood. Ready for relocation!Loom essentials are in boxes labeled “KEEP WITH LOOM.” The wooden mallet will be one of the first things needed.
Hold. Several meanings for this word come to mind. Sometimes our familiar patterns of daily life are on hold. There’s a pause, a held breath. But during that pause, our plans and threads of normal practices are securely and lovingly wrapped up on a strong beam of hope. Wrap the spare cloth securely over your precious warp ends so that when it’s time, you can unroll the warp and finish dressing the loom for spectacular twelve-shaftdouble weave towels. Hold fast to Christ as Christ holds all your interrupted threads of being.
PS The Lizard tapestry is in full swing on the not-dismantled Glimåkra Ideal.
Lizard tapestry on the Ideal loom now has my singular attention. Thirty centimeters complete.
