Saturday, March 15, 2008

Pleasing Purple

After staring at the loom for twenty minutes and sleeping on the question of what to do to improve my shed, I finally un-threaded the heddles (making a cross as I went) and re-threaded the loom.

Look at that shed!!!

The key point in putting in the work to re-thread the loom was my need to learn how to work with fuzzy threads. Now I know that fuzzy threads need to be in separate dents --especially if they are going through different heddles.

The new threading is straight twill (1,2,3,4) with doubled threads (two threads together in a dent, going together through a heddle). I chose to use a basket weave structure (raise shafts 1,2 followed by 3,4) is ease of treadling. This loom has direct tie-up (4 shafts, 4 treadles)...so by putting each foot on two treadles I can easily treadle "left, right, left, right" without thinking about the treadling--perfect for a demonstration situation!
Here's the finished scarf. The decorative "dots" are hand-dyed, hand-spun wool in shades of purple, blue, and yellow. The dots are like little windows of color that liven up the piece!

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