Weave away

 

I was given a rigid heddle loom by a lady here in town who had brought it over from France about 20 years ago and had not used it since. It was missing a few crucial parts and was designed originally to rest on a table. With the expert help of Manuel Neto we restored and improved on the design by building an adjustable stand and a few tricky little additions to make the weaving process easier. These kinds of looms are relatively easy to use and perfect for beginners. So I was set to weave. We also made a warping board to get the right number of threads and the right length of threads etc. I was given some books that helped with the setting up and also found lots of information on the net. Yet not all my problems have been solved and setting up the loom is definitely the most complicated and time consuming part of the process, the rest seems to come quite easily and the whole process is very intuitive. I am still learning. But once I started weaving it was impressively quick to finish a 2.5 meter length. Originally I wanted to make a jacket and that will be my next project. Meanwhile I have decided that maybe some workshops would be very useful and I have my sights on a couple of teachers :-).

All this to say, weaving is wicked! 

Two shawls/ wraps/ cosie wool things later and now I just need to figure out how to finish the fringes... macrame? simple knots? as is?... decisions, decisions.

Both shawls were made with 100% Portuguese wool. They measure 2.5m and 2m in length respectively by 60cm in width. The first I decided to keep but the second is for sale. If you are interested you can get in touch with me.