Monday, March 29, 2010

Not there yet

After almost a week of working on the loom itself, (related reading Here , and Here). I was ready to wind on the warp this weekend. It didn't go well and I had to rethink how it could be done, (related story here) . Success! I got the warp wound on, 30 yards/27.4 meters.
I then threaded all 240 threads through separate heddles and then sleyed, (scroll down a little) them through the reed. (Note, the author of the sleying entry threads their loom from front to back, my loom is done back to front, so all their steps in warping the loom are the reverse of what happens on my loom.)
I tied the warp on to the lease stick,
wove a couple of inches with old loom waste and string to spread the warp threads evenly,
wrapped the chosen colored rags on shuttles,
and commenced to weave.
I'm not pleased. I'm using 8 threads per inch/3.2 per cm, 1 up - 1 down and find the resulting rug just too thin. I think I'll go back and rethread the heddles to 2 up - 2 down and try again.
A lot of work to reach a point where you realize you need to go back and do it over sure, but, better to fix the problem now than to try and go forward to an end result that you already know is going to be a disappointment.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

that you use more rags, 2-3 stipes every insert (there must be another word). When I was tought how to weaw rugs I was tought to twist the rags when I changed heardle. You will have a more firm edge if you have 2 warp threads in the 2 -3- last heddel on each edge. Ofcourse yiu are waawing america rugs but they looks very scandinavian on the pictures. Ulf

Anonymous said...

I suggest, was supposed to be the beginning

Lars said...

I tried that Ulf, but it looked wrong to me. With the warp threads so close to each other the weft became more like a cord, with a little valley between them. The warps were also pushed up, exposing them to more wear in usage.
I consider it a great compliment that you think my rugs look Scandinavian, thanks!

Lars said...

P.s. we would use the word strip. A strips of cloth, a strip of beach, etc.
Peter Collingwood also suggests doubling up the warp at the edges.
I'm expecting a book tomorrow specifically on rag rug weaving, written my Janet Meany and Paula Pfaff. I'm hoping it contains as much information as touted.