sweetgeorgia

Not my loom.

Ok, so the ultimate irony is that on the day that I got my loom I actually drove an hour (each way) to use the other loom at Place des Arts.

Yep. Weaving class is officially over but I missed a couple classes because of my dad’s exhibition and going to Vegas… so I’m a little behind and haven’t finished the Great Big Green Blanket (GBGB). Last night, I spent about two hours in the Fibre Room working on the blanket…

After about two hours, I found myself relatively comfortable with using the massive ski shuttle that I had originally found a little unwieldy. It really was the best solution though. I had tried using a boat shuttle and it just wouldn’t hold very much weft — and winding bobbins is significantly less fun than throwing the shuttle.

I also changed the tie up under the loom so that I could “walk” the loom. Basically all this is is tying the shafts to the treadles in a sequence that allows your feet to alternate (like you are walking). For example, my pattern is 12, 23, 34, 41. If the treadles are tied up in that order, I press treadle 12 with my left foot then treadle 23 with my right foot. Then I need to scoot over or cross over with my left foot so that I can treadle 34. That’s stupid. So, I changed the treadles so that they are ordered like this: 12, 34, 23, 41. That way, I go 12 with the left, 23 with the right, 34 with the left and 41 with the right and I never really need to change my position. You could also order it like this: 12, 34, 41, 23 so that you walk the two outside treadles and then the two inside treadles. Whatever you fancy. It seems to speed things up considerably or at least make treadling less awkward…

All I needed was maybe one more hour to finish weaving off the entire blanket, doing a little hemstitching and then cutting the blanket off the loom. Just one more hour! I’m delighted at how fast it is going. This is instant gratification, people. Instant.

Spring has sprung

It’s here… it’s here! Now… to figure out how to assemble it.

Spring this Summer

So, I had lunch today with an old, old friend — someone I haven’t seen in seven or eight years — and we got to catching up. What have you been doing? What are you doing these days? Blah blah blah. I think there was much verbal diarrhea on my part, but somewhere in the midst of all that, I blurted out, “I’m going to be a weaver.” And you know, it felt so good.

Yep. As an early birthday gift to myself, I ordered a floor loom. An 8-shaft Louet Spring 110 (44″) parallel countermarche loom. My excuse is that this birthday is a big deal. In a super cheesy way, it’s the beginning of a new phase in my life (although, did I just hear Jacey say that “30 is the new 20″ in her new podcast?) and this loom, both symbolically and practically, represents change, flexibility, new pathways and learning opportunities.

There was some urgency to place the order with Louet because they don’t keep the floor looms in stock (within Canada) and the containers only come over from Holland every two months or so. If I didn’t order by their deadline, I’d have to wait until September and you know how bad I am at waiting. Plus, I want to get a headstart on gifts. After placing the order, I talked to my weaving teacher and got her blessing for the new loom. I’m all set.

As for the loom itself, it’s a countermarche-type loom. I’ve been doing much research on the different kinds of looms (jack, counterbalanced, and countermarche) for the past few months and was positive that I wanted something quiet and versatile. Like different spinning wheels or different knitting needles, each kind of loom has it’s own pros and cons: Jack looms tend to be easier to tie up and use and they accommodate uneven tie-ups but they can be really noisy! Counterbalance looms are quieter, form better sheds (some of the warp goes up and the rest the warp goes down making a big shed) but don’t accommodate unbalanced weaves. Countermarche looms have the best of both worlds — they are quiet, give big sheds and accommodate unbalanced weaves, BUT they require twice as many tie-ups which often discourages people from ever changing the tie-up. In fact, after ordering the loom and then starting to read Peggy Osterkamp’s section about countermarche tie-ups in her book “Warping Your Loom and Tying on New Warps”, I thought “crap, what I have I gotten myself into?!?”. But, I am using this as a challenge to myself to become confident and efficient with all the little intricacies of the loom.

Thanks to Ahrisha, Stef, Arianie and Brooke who made suggestions and fielded my questions about floor looms. The combined knowledge of these lovely fibre artists is a force of nature.

And here’s a list of starting points and reference materials that helped me during my search:

• Learning to Weave by Deborah Chandler
• The Weaving, Spinning, Dyeing Book by Rachel Brown
• Buying Your First Loom (HGA)
• Which Loom Should I Buy? (HGA)
• Things You Need to Start Weaving (HGA)
• Selecting a Floor Loom (Joanne Hall)
• Countermarch Info (Joanne Hall)

The loom is scheduled to arrived sometime near the end of June — just in time for the transformation of our house into a real working studio. I’ve already picked a paint colour for the new weaving/spinning/fibre room. Now all I have to do is start dreaming up and planning new projects!