Triumph

Here is the baby blanket, currently being woven very slowly, but as carefully as I can. I have to admit I was surprised to find that I had all four plain coloured squares on one side. I had imagined I would get a combination of plain solid colours and a mix of colours. I haven't got the right sort of brain to work it out theoretically, and have to actually do the weaving to find out the outcome. Anyhow, I'm very pleased. The cloth is woven as two layers, simultaneously, and each time there is a colour change the section is separated from its neighbour. I could put some filling in each of these pockets and it would be like a duvet. I have seen pictures of weaving with this structure which have objects enclosed within the pockets.

The fabric is soft and thick, and presumably the two layers will trap air and be lovely and cosy. The edges of the squares look like they are stitched, a bit like a quilt, which effect I like.

I made three threading errors, including putting one thread through two heddles and threading a heddle but missing the "eye" so that the shaft could not lift it. All mistakes recoverable, and not a bad error rate, I think.

The picture on the right shows the heddles and you can see the colour threading order.

Within these webs

Well, I got fed up weaving the single-unit micro chequerboard double weave. My new tex-solv loom cord arrived and I decided to set up a new tie up while I was replacing the bootlaces. I kept the original weaving going on the loom while I was re-tieing.

I know it doesn't look very impressive, but I am mightily proud of myself as I accomplished what I had set out to do. The broader reddish band at the bottom of the picture contains a bit of lumpy old string and the narrower stripes above it contain lengths of hardened loom cord. This can be quite easily felt through the cloth as a distinct ridge.

Two layers of cloth were woven simultaneously. When they were wide enough to contain something (string - but I had considered some little beads), I pushed in the string between the layers. Then I switched over the layers by depressing different treadles and the string became trapped in between the two cloths.

I was particularly pleased that the loom actually worked with this tie-up. I did not want to change the threading of the shafts so I changed the treadle tie-up in a rather unorthodox way. Each pedal either raised two shafts and lowered six shafts or vice versa. Normally, I believe, countermarche looms are tied up four against four. However, I couldn't see any way round this with the threading I'd made and I wanted to weave double weave weft stripes.

~After that I had a bit of a play around with various treadling patterns and weft combinations - which produced variable results as you might expect.

I think, that being done and dusted, I shall re-thread the remaining warp and do another tie-up, with the aim of achieving my original goal - a double weave checkerboard. Here goes.