Monday, March 27, 2023

Well, we more or less got weaving

What with recent weaving references online, and Caro rocking her rigid heddle loom, it all reminded me that I have one . Then Modern Daily Knitting yesterday featured a self taught rigid heddle loom weaver and her scarf.

 I borrowed the book , ebook from the library, she recommended,  last night, started reading right away. Then woke this morning thinking must try this, must try this 

I never actually tried to have a rigid heddle loom. It was donated to the embroiderers' guild, who promptly turned it over to me, figuring I'd probably try it, and nobody else was interested 

I really like the compactness of the rigid heddle loom, so unassuming you can put it away.  And promptly forget you own it.

 I spent some time trying to figure out the order of business with it, supplied myself with the missing heddle blocks after I found I couldn't really thread it otherwise. 

Then I found I needed a sleying tool to fish the warp threads through the heddle, didn't have one, but found a very fine crochet hook did the trick.

I made this wallhanging, using all kinds of threads and little experiments. 

Then I got doing other things and the loom just sat, until today. 

Anyway, this morning I figured here goes with the math needed to figure out how much warp will be needed for a scarf. I found this, very helpful


I was operating with a few deficits. I no longer have a studio with a big worktop for clamping a warping c clamp to. I appear also to have lost or winnowed all the c clamps. And I had to work around this.  I've never had a warping board,  nor a warping peg, but my improvised clamps worked okay.

So here's the doings


Grey mixture cotton knitting yarn for the warp, some variegated knitting yarn for the weft. Nice shuttle, handmade by some artisan, lovely to handle. You can make shuttles from cardboard, and  I have, or used butterflies which I've tried and didn't like in this application. Nice for small tapestry though.

I spent quite a while just finding the tools and remembering how they went, then figuring out how to create a warp with the limitations at my disposal. 

One of the limitations was that my left hand kept locking up and going out of action, from overuse. So I had to keep stopping to work the joints back into place, but oh well.

Here's how I managed, in stages, using bathroom grab bars and a three pound weight , see how many parts of my life contributed today 




At this point the dumbbell is keeping the tension while I get lunch.

Using the grab bars involved cutting off the warp at both ends, rather than having a loop arrangement.  Next time I  know how to do it better. 

It made keeping tension harder, a lot of adjustments, but threading the heddle easier, all separate warp threads 
So here's the current state of play


And tomorrow is another day! If this turns out to be an actual scarf, acceptable and wearable, it's going to the Sock Ministry. 

This evening I'm knitting. I know how to do that.

Happy evening everyone, I spent the day wrestling with thread so you don't have to!











23 comments:

  1. It all looks very complicated
    I’m sure you’ll work it out.
    Please post a pic of the finished item. I’d love to see the end product

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    1. I trust there will be an end product, aside from the learning that's happening.

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  2. I've already had a couple of better ideas since I posted this. Onward!

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  3. I'm impressed with your weaving hacks and assistants!

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    1. I just had a good idea for a jury rigged warping peg from things I had around here.

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  4. I can't wait to see the finished product. I do enjoy my RHL. I'd love a floor loom but space and dollars make that highly unlikely.

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    1. They're really space hogs. You need a big area just so you can get around yhem.

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  5. And I meant to say that is one of my favourite books. I use it all the time.

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    Replies
    1. The person who recommended it said the same.

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  6. You are very adept to have done this much.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. It's pretty unskilled looking at the moment!

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  7. I appreciate your taking over of the task because there is no doubt it is beyond me.

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    1. I have some thoughts it may be beyond me, too!

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  8. Well, this is just a brilliant post.

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    1. Thank you. It may be the triumph of hope over experience!

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  9. I was amused that you are making a scarf after you winnowed out several but now I see, going to the sock ministry.

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    1. If it's good enough, that is. I didn't like to send secondhand things to the ministry, so the winnowed scarves went elsewhere. Also they were a bit too fancy rather than useful.

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  10. Thank you for messing with thread so I don't have to! You are creative in many ways, you engineered this very well. I made fish pie last evening. It was really good. Thanks for mentioning it.

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    1. I hope the fishdish made an appearance on your blog. I haven't been in there yet. Yes, you're free of the hassle of thread, having delegated it to me.

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  11. I admire your perseverance in getting this endeavor off the ground, Liz! I'm sure your pre-existing weaving know-how was very helpful, but still seems like it needed a lot of fiddling. I probably would have taken one look at the pieces and parts, and then tucked it all back into the box "for another day."

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    1. I'm not sure if it's perseverance or just perseverating, the inability to call it a day.

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  12. I'm with Quinn - another day would have been in my vocabulary, rapidly followed by 'never, never again'. It all looks, and sounds, way too complicated for me to even think about doing.

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    1. It's not as complicated as it looks. She said.

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