To make the stash reduction happen I decided to weave a rug or saddle blanket in Flame Point Twill with dimensions of about 32 inches by 32 inches; seems a simple enough plan and it will use up lots and lots of my wool!I fear however, that my Louet Spring Loom is just not sturdy enough for the job. The Louet Spring is a wonderful loom for almost all weaving, but the moveable front beam is not ideal for rug weaving and my Leclerc Minerva is just too narrow. What to do? Ask a friend!
My friend Eileen has just moved back into the area and has a Counterbalanced Cherryville loom unassembled in her garage; she was kind enough to lend it to me.
Here it is as a pile of loom! Why do they never come with instructions or photos?After about an hour with my husband, daughter and me this morning, looking much better now!
The loom comes with heddle horses or these bars from which to hang the shafts - I've chosen to use the bars. Frankly the horses scare me!The warp beam came already warped with an unknown length of 4/8 cotton, but it looks like a lot – A Mystery Warp! I can’t just toss it, that would be criminal after someone went to so much work! So I had to figure out what I could do with the warp. First I counted the warp ends – 315 ends.
Now to figure out what to make with it? My first step was to look up the suggested sett for 4/8 cotton and found that the sett guidelines are 16 epi for tabby, 18 epi for twill and 20 epi for lace weave. I then measured the width at which the warp was beamed, and it came out to 27 inches. So dividing the ends by the width, that means that it was beamed at 12 epi – what the heck could I make? Well, when life hands you warp - make placemats! If I changed the sett to 20 epi that would give me 15-3/4 inch wide very firmly woven placemats – sounds good to me, especially because I have some 4/8 cotton I can use for the weft.
Now the hunt to find a pattern on 4 shafts! I sat down with A Handweavers Pattern Book by Marguerite Porter Davison and my PCW Silver program and came up with Landis Valley Linen. I will do borders on all four sides and I think it looks great. I was able to use 305 of the 315 warp ends, so I’m pretty pleased with myself!
Now for something completely different!
We went for a drive to Salmon Arm yesterday and came home with these lovely boys. They are handmade in South Africa with glass beads and baling wire.
I’m a huge fan of frogs and lizards and these two will fit right in with the other three on the wall….
Now we are five! Stop me, stop me now!
Weaving Words
The word corduroy has two possible derivatives, from the French Corde du roi meaning kings cloth or from Middle English Corderoy meaning kings heart.
Now we are five! Stop me, stop me now!Weaving Words
The word corduroy has two possible derivatives, from the French Corde du roi meaning kings cloth or from Middle English Corderoy meaning kings heart.
13 comments:
The lizards are great! :)
Oh, too cute... it's a herd!
My guy is darn lonely so I guess we'll have to hit SA again when next up that way. I have a small gecko on the window sill and a chameleon....they sure put a smile on your face!
Nice old Cherryville! It reminds me of your old loom.... have fun with the mats! Wanna come and weave mine off? I guess if I was to simply sit and weave them it would be okay...but it's the getting there.
I'm struck by the fact that you space to set up that borrowed loom.
The Landis Valley is quite nice. I did a runner for the local church using it and it came out beautifully.
Love the Lizards!
Well, I shouldn't be surprised that you have lizards at your house. After all, there are wild cacti growing on the hillsides within a kilometer of you. We probably have lizards too, but they would be salamanders and live under logs near the stream where I saw two 9" Brown Trout on Sunday.
By the way...where did you find room for another loom...? Oh, silly me...you're a weaver and weaver's can always find space for another loom.
You sure a lucky to have space for another loom and a friend who just happens to have one she doen't need. I agree, no way you could throw a warp away. I think your place mates will be terrific.
Lizards on the wall. Very interesting and original!
I love that you borrowed an unassembled counterbalance loom! And that you'll weave off that warp first!!
The beaded lizards are really cool! I just bought running socks with frogs on them. I think you'd love them!!
Happy weaving!
Sue
Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment -- always appreciated:-)
You are brave to tackle that loom and put it together. I've only woven on a counterbalance a few times but I think it will be great for the saddle blanket.
The lizards are a delight!
The lizards are too cute!
That yarn will make great rugs. And how nice to get the loan of the perfect loom to do the job.
Talk about the mountain coming to Muhammed! I'm impressed.
Hi! Did you ever get that Cherryville working? It disappeared off your blog. I'm looking at buying one and wondered what you thought of it.
Hi Lindsay,
The Cherryville loom proved to be not what I was looking for in a loom. I was borrowing it to do a few rugs because the Louet Spring doesn't really like to be beat hard. Regardless, the Cherryville loom was rather loosely put together and I gave it back to it's owner without ever having woven on it. I must admit that I feel that a Leclerc Nilus would have worked out better.
I was just given one and wondered if you had any directions that you developed to assemble it.
Post a Comment