Monday, May 13, 2024

Step Three: Planning That First 8-shaft Project

Continued from here.

Once the Italian manner crackle sampler was in progress on my table loom, I turned my thoughts to the serious planning of a first project for my Glimakra. I've forgotten more than I remember about dressing  this loom, so I'm thinking:
  • Something simple
  • Something with 8 shafts
  • Something useful
What caught my eye, is a throw rug pattern I found in Mary Meigs Atwater's Recipe Book: Patterns for Handweavers. I bought my PDF copy on a USB drive from the Mary Meigs Atwater Weavers Guild. At $20 it's a real bargain. It includes the entire original Recipe Book (printable) plus extras such as fabric photos and wif files. You can follow that link to get a copy.

I was browsing the fabric photos and liked this one (series IV, No. 12)  . . . 

One of the many photo samples from the Atwater
 Guild's PDF Recipe Book by Mary Meigs Atwater.

It's labeled Dornik herringbone. 

Click to enlarge

Patterns include options for 4, 6, or 8 shafts. I'm going to use the 8-shaft pattern.

Click to enlarge

It looks pretty straightforward, doesn't it? I'll have to re-learn how to dress this particular loom back to front, which will take some time (but needs to be done).

For my yarns, I'm going to use 4-ply cotton, both for warp and weft. The variegated cone below caught my eye, and I was pleased to find that it coordinates with one of the curtain ideas I'm contemplating for the room.

Yarn for proposed throw rug warp on proposed window covering.

The window covering I have in mind is a quilted bedspread. It's just an inexpensive pre-printed store bought spread that I once used on our bed. I kept it to have extra blankets in case of company. I actually have two of them: one full size, the other queen size. I'm thinking these would make pretty but warm window coverings, which of course, is another project!

So the variegated yarn would be the warp. For the weft, I settled on a sage green.


It will work well with the warp, walls, and quilted bedspread.

It's been a slow-go to get to this, because I'm still going through the boxes that were stored in that room and sorting their contents. It's a job which may be ongoing for awhile considering our busy summer season. But at least I have a project planned, and I'm excited about that. I have this idea that if I can always have something to weave on one loom, I can be planning the next project for the other. While I truly enjoy every step of the process, sometimes I just feel like weaving! My goal is to have one loom in the weaving stage at all times.

It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so that may be a good time for measuring the warp and re-learning the step-by-step process of getting it on the loom. We'll see.

4 comments:

Michelle said...

"Sometimes I just feel like weaving!" Yeah, I don't think a second loom would help me with that. 😉 Right now my loom is waiting for me to wind a new warp which will be tied on my dummy warp....

Leigh said...

Michelle, both of my looms are waiting on me too! Busy time of year, though, isn't it? I just keep reminding myself how fortunate I am to have such an interesting hobby in the wings. :)

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

I really like that photograph sample, Leigh. The colors are striking.

Leigh said...

Thanks TB. I hope it weaves up the same as I'm picturing in my head. It fascinates me that weaving threads together combines colors in ways that neither paint nor light combine. Always something new.