Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Loom Lesson

When there are too many decisions and not enough experience to make a choice about weaving, it tends to get ignored.  I read the recent article in HandWoven magazine about using handpainted thread in the warp.  I have some of that.........I wanted to try the technique.  I didn't have the exact results of the article but I was happy with it.  I thought I would up the degree of design and make it an overshot pattern.  I worked for hours to come up the the right pattern on the narrow (189 threads) warp.  I got it all threaded on the loom and began weaving.  It looked awful.  I began to wonder about experience and me in the realm of weaving. 

Experience =  the wisdom and abilities gained by doing

I have this definition of experience in lots of arenas-sewing and quilting, even knitting.  So I began to think about my choices in relation to knitting and I knew where my mistake was.  I would never combine a busy yarn with a busy textured pattern.  They would cancel each other out!  So I cut away the overshot weft-4" of ability gained by doing- and began to weave with plain weave-the piece just glows!  I am happily weaving away on this cloth that I am making myself.  I have gained some great experience with this weaving!

3 comments:

  1. It's always fun for me to see you practice what you have preached to me a million times when I have needed a pep talk. :)

    Your project is very pretty!

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  2. the second part looks lovely - like watercolours! what are you making, just a trial piece first?

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  3. Good call and smooth save. I personally am not a big fan of busy patterns. I prefer a more Zen approach to design. However, I do love to weave intricate patterns. So how weird am I? I'm just a bit conflicted, lol!

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