2004 projects

June 2004 - 8-shafts waffle weave towels













October 2004 - Some coton placemats on my first Glimakra loom! A 20+ years old Ideal 90cm.













December 2004 - My first linen towels.

Apr 2004 - Great Aunt Rita

Great aunt Rita, now in her late 80's wanted me to weave her a little something. Affraid she would keep handwoven tea-towels hidden preciously in a drawer somewhere, I decided to make her a little mat or coaster she could display and look at more often.





I drew a little design with her name on it and explored a technique similar to Finnväv. I did not know at the time if it had a name but here's how the results will compare with Finnväv:

I wanted to achieve clearer pattern borders than what I obtained on my last project.

One drawback though is that it requires twice as many picks than Finnväv. Each pattern block must be picked up twice.







The finished project








Now upside-down.








Some more comparisons, here in Finnväv:








And in ... (haven't found it a name):








One of my helpers ;-)

Mar 2004 - Made it 10 shafts

This homemade loom is starting to fall appart, the glued joints are letting go and need to be reinforced with bolts.

I'll take advantage of the situation where the loom is dismantled to raise the breast and back beams and increase the number of shafts. Raising the beams is necessary to fit two levels of lamms.






I haven't seen the loom like this since the day it arrived home. It is also the perfect timing to move it into another room.










Here we see the replacement front posts (lighter colour). The back beam was also raised. I will need to back it out somehow to lengthen the distance between the beams. This loom is not deep enough...









Lots of shafts!











And also lots of tie-ups awaiting. Texsolv hasn't yet made it into this home.

Jan 2004 - Finnväv

I first read about this pickup double-weaving called Finnväv (or Finnweave) in an old Handicrafter issue article written by Mary M. Atwater (Vol VI, No I, Part II).

I probably had to read it at least 10 times to understand how it works. I won't explain it here but may write about it later.

To operate each shaft independantly, I had to convert my loom once again but this time into a counterbalanced. This picture shows the top roller holders, the roll itself (an old curtain wooden rod) and the horses I made. I recycle whenever I can.





I don't think I could built all of these devices without this old friend found through the local ads ;-)



















Bonnie is our inspector on duty today!











And I now have a place to keep my shuttles.