I am weaving on a Schact table loom that’s been converted to a floor loom.  It is an eight-harness loom, but I’m only using four of the harnesses.  Unlike my previous project, which I wove on a four harness table loom, this loom uses floor pedals to control the raising and lowering of the heddles.  If you remember, the heddles are what control which warp threads are up or down for each pass of the shuttle; this is what creates the weave structure (like, for example, a houndstooth pattern or herringbone).

For my Quesquemitl, which is a type of shawl and poncho, I am weaving a 2-2 twill:  this means that 2 harnesses are up and 2 harnesses are down for each pass of the shuttle.  Twills are characterized by movement, meaning that the patterns are created by something called a “twill circle.”  This is in contrast to a balanced weave, like plain weave or basketweave.  (If you made potholders as a child, that is plain weave:  an equal amount of threads on the warp and the weft, and an equal weight to both.)

Here are some pictures that will illustrate what I’m talking about.

Here is a view of the fabric.  The bottom two-thirds of the image is the actual fabric, and you can see the diagonal striping leading from the bottom right to the top left.  This is the characteristic of the twill family of weave structures.  Beyond the fabric, at the top of the image, are the warp threads waiting to be woven.  The warp is a darker tonal family than the weft (the warp are the vertical threads, the weft are the horizontal ones); the combination of the two is surprisingly pleasing.

Here is a closeup of the same fabric, showing the apparent ‘movement’ of the fabric.  This fabric is a 2-2 twill, which means two warp threads are up, and two are down, for each pass of the shuttle.  For the weavers among you, I’m using a floating selvage for this project, which is a first for me; I like the edges very much.  They’re a lot cleaner than my last project, where I didn’t use them.

Here is a view of the fabric unwound from the front beam; I included my hand in the shot so you can get perspective on the sizing.  I’m holding this fairly taut; in the next image, you can see more of the drape.

It feels a little bit like denim, but much softer.  It’s a rayon blend and I love it.  As I weave, it creates a lot of fuzz; I hope that isn’t a property of the finished fabric after blocking.

As I mentioned earlier, the heddles are controlled on this loom by foot pedals.  The cool thing is that the foot pedals are variable:  you select which heddles correspond with which pedal.  For my project, you can see there is an A, a B, and 1 through 4.  A and B are set up for plain weave, and the 1 through 4 are set up as a 2-2 twill.  That means that for each pedal, two heddles are controlled – this way, I just have to press 1 through 4 in succession and I have my pattern.

I’ll admit that was very difficult for me to grasp when I first sat down to weave on this loom; my instructor set up the heddles.  The geometry of it just refused to penetrate my brain (I think it’s that old 2-D/3-D problem).  But now that I’ve woven this project on it, and am nearing completion, it makes a lot more sense.

Here is a view of the back beam, for those of you curious to see where the warp goes.  The left foreground shows the warp threads traveling over the back beam and down onto the roller.  The gray paper is there to keep successive rolls of the threads from knotting across each other; each layer is protected by paper (or one could use clear plastic or even newsprint, whatever is handy).

This final image is the boat shuttle, so named because the bobbin of thread sits inside the shuttle on a peg.  This allows the weaver to load multiple bobbins and not have to get up each time the end of the thread is reached.  It’s taken a little bit to get used to how wide this loom is; my last project wasn’t this wide.  But once I got the hang of it, it’s rather fun to whiz back and forth.

Sorry, weaver’s joke.  (Harnesses hold the heddles, which are how the fabric is made… get it?  Yeah, it’s not that funny.)  (MAN, maybe I need to get out more.)

ANYWAY.  So, I’m going to give an update in reverse order of my weaving progress.  Why?

Because it’s Friday?

I went to class yesterday and did some more work on my placemats.  I am learning to make balanced-weave patterns and twill, which is actually kind of fun once you get the hang of it.

However, THIS was my view on the train.  Talk about PACKED – this dude’s butt was in my face, practically.  I mean, nice butt, but jeez.  I’m sorta married, and anyway, I’m not gonna sample the merchandise on the train without asking first, and it’s sorta public, an’ all…

But riding the train is sometimes like you and four million of your closest, smelly friends all mashed into a sardine tin on metal squealing wheels.

On to the weaving:

This is the breast beam of the loom, which sits toward the weaver.  My instructor jokes that is because it’s where you put your breasts.  ~smirk~

Mine are a leetle big for that…

The balanced weave is every other strand of the warp (the vertical threads) is lifted, and the weft goes in between them.  There are as many threads vertically per inch as there are horizontally, which is why it’s called a balanced weave. 

The thing I’m learning about this art, is that it’s very logical.  The explanations make a lot of sense and aren’t like trying to figure out calculus.  Once you get familiar with the terms (warp, weft, shot, shed, etc.), then it’s much easier to understand.

These are the three yarns that I’m using for this project.  The other two, which I used for the warp, (the vertical threads that are tied into the loom itself), are a dark rose and an ivory.  These threads are used for the weft, the horizontal threads.  Starting at the center and moving clockwise, the dark blue is for the narrow stripe that runs across the width of each single placemat and intersects with the narrow strip I wound into the dark rose warp.

The light blue is a very narrow gauge yarn that is used to make the hem allowance between each placemat.  My instructor had me use this narrow thread so that the woven area for the hem won’t be as thick as the main fabric.

The pink is the thread I’m using for the main part of the weft.  When it’s woven, as you can see from the other photographs, it’s much less PINK and makes a nice blend with the dark rose and ivory.

Also in this image are several of the tools I used.  Again, going clockwise and starting next to the dark blue thread is the “boat” shuttle, since it looks like a little canoe and the bobbin sits inside it, like a canoe.  Next is the tape measure, used to check the width of the textures that I’m weaving.  I am weaving balanced weave for four inches, then a pattern weave, then balanced, etc.

The book I recently purchased on the recommendation of my teacher, Learning to Weave.  I like it.  It’s very easy to understand and set up like a class itself, so it adapts well to use in lessons.

This is showing the measurement of the narrow band in between the two mats.  As I mentioned above, I used the narrow light blue thread to weave this portion; as you can see, it’s a great deal narrower than the main pink thread.

Here is a view of the twill that I wove.  I love the diagonal look of this weave and if I needed to select a pattern to weave all over a design, this would probably be the one I’d select.

My instructor had some leftover yarn, so I’m going to knit her a scarf in a new cable pattern, from my new book by Barbara Walker, A Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns.  I’m going to attempt “Cable #2.”

We shall see how this experiment goes in future articles.  For now, have a Happy Labor Day weekend and enjoy your craft!