The Rug.. Beaming the Warp.. Starting the Weave

Beaming the warp.

Love seeing the pattern roll by.

And the weaving begins.  

As stated earlier.. this rug is warp faced.  Warp faced is where the warp yarns doubled, so there is twice the amount of warp to weft.  Since I had such an intricate dye pattern on the warp, that was the only thing I wanted to show.

A plain weave was all I needed to show off this beautiful chevron Ikat pattern.  

Ikat occurs when there is a pattern on the warp yarns and when they are wound up, the warp yarns shift slightly.  A unique, random, beautiful pattern occurs right before your eyes.

Stay tuned for the completion of the rug.. hopefully later this week!

Be Bold in your Designs.

peace&love

Rebecca

The Rug.. Threading the Heddles

Everything takes longer on a bigger loom...especially threading the heddles.

Now to wind it up and I'm finally ready to start weaving. 

peace&love

Rebecca 

The Rug.. Made it to the Big Loom

With all the preparations done, I headed to the loom.  The loom is 42" long and my rug will fill up 38".  The rug will be warped faced, meaning only the warp threads show, so I doubled up and tripled up the threads per dent.  My rug is 15 epi (ends per inch) and there are 6 dents per inch in the reed.  So I threaded 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2.  

The next step is to thread the heddles, but you and I will have to wait until Monday for that.

Be Bold in your Designs.

peace&love

Rebecca

The Rug.. A Touch of Blue

With the final color added, the yarns are ready for the loom.

So close.. It's the start of the end.  All the measurements, calculation and preparations have paid off.  I will pick up speed on Wednesday and in no time the rug will be complete.

peace&love

Rebecca

Weaving is Fun.. Day Four

the weave.. playing with patterns

get in the rythm

go with the flow

see what is created

Be Bold

peace&love

Rebecca

Weaving is Fun.. Day Three

Now comes the fun part.

After tying the threads to the breast beam it's time to weave in the heading.  The heading secures and evens out the threads.  It is commonly strips of rags or toilet paper.

Wind the bobbin with the weft threads.  I experimented with threads that varied in thickness and color.  The bobbin goes in the boat shuttle.  The shuttle shoots through the shed (the opening) and depending on what harnesses are pressed, different patterns will start to appear.

Tabby, Basket 

2/2 Twill, Reverse 2/2 Twill

1/3 Twill, Reverse 1/3 Twill 

3/1 Twill, Reverse 3/1 Twill

Experimenting with different thread thickness and color, and weave patterns, hopefully I can come up with some pretty cool stuff, and something that's never been done before!

Be Bold in your Designs

peace&love

Rebecca

Weaving is Fun. Day Two

Welcome to Weaving.. Day two

Todays task was to thread the yarns through the heddles in the harness.  It takes time and patience but the tedious part is almost over.  

There are four harness frames and the order in which you thread the yarn in the heddles will create part of your pattern.  We went one, two, three, four, repeat.

After all the yarns have been threaded, attach all the yarns to the warp stick that then gets wound onto the warp beam.  This takes two people to make sure there is the right tension when getting wound.

After attaching the threads to the breast beam...

Next step weaving!  

The farther I get into the process of weaving the more I enjoy and love it!  

It's been a long time coming but I think I've dicsovered my true passion.  

I'm so excited to see what I can create once I start weaving.  

All the wonderful patterns and colors, the sky is the limit.

Be Bold

peace&love

Rebecca

Weaving Is Fun. Day One

Yesterday I started weaving.  It is one of the oldest forms of art that in todays world can be manipulated and transformed into something completely unique and wonderful.  Weaving is very tedious and there are a lot of steps but I have broken it down into something comprehensible.  I will not be going into the steps in complete depth.  This is more of a introduction with pictures.  enjoy.

I am technically not starting at the beginning.  The first step is to measure and wind the warp thread which you see below.  I will show that another time when I remember to document it.  Basically the warp yarn is measured and wrapped around the warp board then crocheted into this neat bundle.  

Two sticks are placed around the cross of the threads and this is placed on the loom.

This is the loom.  Breast beam in the front.  Beater in the center which holds the reeds.  The spaces between the reeds are the dents, this is what we thread the warp threads through.  A sleying hook is used to sley the threads through the dents.

Place the warp threads on the sticks between the breast beam and the beater.

A close up of the cross that was created from the threading on the warp board.  The treads alternate, making it easier to count out when sleying through the dents.  The Sleying hook is to the left. 

Two hours later the reeds have been sleyed.  

Weaving is one of the slower form of the arts but it can yield beautiful hand made results.  With time and attention to detail, anything is possible.  Keep posted for the next steps in the weaving process.  

Be Bold in your designs.

peace&love

Rebecca