Weaverly things

Okay, the chocolate was fun. Back to weaving!

I spent yesterday morning trying (unsuccessfully) to get the auto-advance and the fly shuttle mechanism onto my loom. To get the auto-advance on, I had to remove the rolling temple, which required removing the beater to make room to work. And then I couldn’t get one of the screws on the sandpaper beam off. And so on, for about an hour and a half. Very frustrating.

In the evening, however, I got Mike to help me, and we managed to get the auto-advance onto the loom. We also figured out how to get the rolling temple back onto the loom (we need a half-inch block under the bracket to give us some extra clearance) and how to keep the fly shuttle from hanging up on the shafts, which requires a block or two to move the beater forward. Once all that is done, hopefully the loom will be working again! The next several yards will be testing out the fly shuttle and learning to use the auto advance. I feel bad about wasting that laboriously-made color study warp, but better that than trying to debug the fly shuttle on a 140/2 silk warp. One shudders to think what an out-of-adjustment fly shuttle would do to that warp! And perhaps I can continue weaving the color study in appropriate colors.

In anticipation of getting the loom working again, I have been working on drafts. So far they have mostly been doodles, but I’m starting to like them! Here is a shadow weave draft with the color gradients applied:

I really, really like this. It is a really complicated weave, though – two warps painted in different color gradients, and two wefts, also painted in different color gradients. I would need to use a pair of knitted blanks for the painted wefts. In 140/2 silk that is apt to take quite awhile to knit. But what price beauty? I think it will be gorgeous – if I can pull it off.

The fabric will be cut on the bias, however, so the diagonal pattern will run vertically in the finished flames. I don’t think that will be quite as attractive, though, so I’m considering making the flow vertical rather than diagonal in the fabric. That way the pattern will appear diagonal in the flames.

On the other hand, the flames are only an inch and a half wide, so the pattern may disappear if I make it diagonal. There’s only one way to find out: weave it and see! I love trying new things.

Speaking of new things, there was an alien visitor to the household recently. Two friends came over and brought their adorable babies. Here is Fritz’s “E.T. moment” with the visiting alien and its spacecraft.