Such A Lovely Day

Chouwa: my new loom!

Here's the latest addition to my loom family - just arrived today! She's a Saori loom, the 60 model (floor loom, , square frame, non-folding).

 

The wood is birch, and just lovely, with beautiful figuring. Tiny footprint, too - 24" deep by 26" wide, with a 23" weaving width. Only 2 harnesses - this loom comes in either 2 or 4 harness models, I opted for the 2. I wanted this loom for plainweave shawls and scarves and blankets, and didn't need more harnesses on it - I have the Macomber and the Baby Wolf for complex patterns.

Her name is "Chouwa" - it's Japanese (because she's from Japan) for "harmony, balance, tranquility". My spinning wheel has a similar name, from the Navajo - "Hozho"... the name of my blog, too. Spinning and weaving keep me grounded and centered - balanced.

The mechanics/ergonomics of the loom are wonderful. The brakes for both cloth and warp beams are hand-operated, it has an on-board bobbin winder, and the action of the loom is SO quiet.

I look forward to many years of making lovely peaceful loom music together!

Warped Rainbow

The warp is on the loom, and I love the look of it.

I've started weaving the first towel - pictures tomorrow when I've made some progress.

Never Enough Rainbows!

I enjoyed weaving those rainbow dishtowels a lot! So yesterday I wound another rainbow warp. I'll weave this on my Baby Wolf, in a huck lace, like the last set of towels. Like that last warp, this is a randomized rainbow, designed as I selected threads to wind on the mill. I'm spending today threading the heddles and tying on the warp:

I wound the warp in 5 bouts, because it's a 13 yard warp (for 12 towels) and I couldn't fit more than 110 threads at a time on my warping mill.

Editing to add the draft info: It's from the July/July 2000 issue of Weaver's Craft, #3 - I used the draft from the "Carribean Plaid Huck Towels", but converted it to use 10/2 cotton and a 19.75" weaving width. More details in my Ravelry project page.

It's cool here today - temps in the upper 50's F.  Such a lovely fresh breath of air - it finally feels like Fall!

Lego Loom

Displayed at International Lego Exhibition "Fanabriques 2012" at Rosheim the 29, 30 June of 2012.

All I can build with Lego is a tower...

Handwoven Napkins - Chocolate Covered Cherries

I've participated in several weaving exchanges with the Jane Stafford Textiles group on Ravelry - we've done towels, placemats, and this spring we did napkins. The group chose lace as the structure, and 8/2 cotton as the yarn. I prefer a finer thread for napkins myself, but as I have plenty of 8/2 in stash, I decided to go with it.

I chose a light brown and a good medium red, and a 4-shaft draft from the Best of Handwoven: Atwater-Bronson Lace ebook. I wound the entire warp at once on my warping mill - I prefer doing that, rather than winding in smaller bouts.

On the loom and ready to go! This is my Macomber loom from the back - you can see my hanging metal harnesses and inserted eye heddles.

The lace blocks alternate with plainweave in an easy-to-remember repeat. I'm not a fan of changing weft colors so often - those little end tails are tiresome to tuck in over and over!

The draft calls for a hem - I decided to hemstitch instead, and leave a 1" fringe. I think it adds a nice touch. Ready for mailing!

They're on their way to Canada, where the coordinator will sort out all the napkins received and send back an assortment. I'm looking forward to seeing the creativity of my fellow exchangers.

I'm planning to weave myself a few sets of napkins - our household is doing our best to move away from using disposable paper towels and napkins, and it's one step closer to my dream of weaving all our home textiles. My next set will be in finer/thinner cotton, and believe me, it won't have so many weft color changes!