re: #130 Sionainn

I’ve only just learned how to warp my loom. I have no idea what I’m looking at!

Drawlooms give you a lot of patterning possibilities. There are 2 sets of shafts.

The ones in the front give the weave structure (usually satin, but it can be twill) and the key is that it has to be 1 warp thread up and minimally 3 threads, but more commonly 4, 5, 6 or 7 threads down, progressing through however many warp threads you have so that it is a balanced weave, but you see mostly warp on one side and mostly weft on the other.

The second set of shafts, in conjunction with special long-eye heddles on the front shafts, let you change which groups of warp threads weave warp faced as opposed to weft faced. It is how you get the patterning woven into damask linen tablecloths and the like.

This is a test piece I’m doing-it is 10/2 cotton, so not particularly fine and I’m paying no attention to minor errors, or the selvedges. It is the lower half of a bird in flight, as in not yet complete, but will let you see what it produces.

And I thank everyone else for their patience during this episode of “Weaving Talk”