Setting up for woven shibori

After carefully thinking things through, I decided to rethread using a point threading (shafts 1 through 24 and back again).  This will allow me to do woven shibori sections of a little over an inch in size, which is probably as large as I’d want to make them, in any case.

So I spent a very pleasant five hours yesterday, rethreading the loom while thinking about my  beautiful kitty, starting to weave the torn ends of our life together into the tapestry of memory.  I’d give almost anything to have her back again, but she’s gone, so all I can do is make sure that she is well-remembered, and properly grieved.

To my surprise, at the end of five hours, the loom was fully rethreaded.  Normally this takes me a few days at least, but the point threading went fast (no need to treadle the threading) and of course I was preoccupied, so the time went faster.  I have now sleyed 1/4 of the warp, and expect to finish later this morning.

Because the black warp does not discharge (I tested it a week ago, before Sweetheart fell ill), there are quite a few woven shibori “tricks” that I can’t do.  However, there is quite a bit that I can still do, like see what happens when the warp is dyed/discharged differently from the weft.  I should be able to create woven background patterns (instead of a plainweave ground) using this technique.

I have zero experience with woven shibori, and really don’t know what to expect, so I’m going to start with a simple pattern of hearts, in several variations:

I’m also planning to try one pattern with coordinated background pattern and shibori patterning:

And one draft with a simple, allover pattern of diamonds:

That’s it for now.  There are so many things to explore! but I think that will give me a good start.  I think I can get the first few samples woven today.