Some of the ends had become a little tangled or seemed to be a little tangled. So I have separated the 4 bouts into the 20 bunches of 18 ends. And that went well.

I am really amazed at the stickiness of this yarn. I can’t wait to see how it behaves in the actual weaving.

But before that, threading, then sleying, then tying off. Have I said how much I enjoy this process?

I beamed the warp today. My, this unmercerized cotton is sticky! I think I am so used to the mercerized cottons or bamboo or just about anything else where the ends slip and slide with contentment against each other. These ends are very argumentative! No terrible tangles but it took me a long while to beam with my husband helping with the last foot or so.

But now it is beamed. Next, threading. For this huck weave, I am using a pattern from the Dixon book - page 167 actually. The threading is:
2-4-2-4
2-4-2-1
3-1-3-1
3-1
That should be easy to manage! Famous last words I am sure.

I am glad for this project! Thank you, Meg!

I have begun to dress the loom. There are 4 bouts to manage, and the warp is 6.5 yards in length. I am working with a width of 18 inches.

I hemmed the final hem today. I’m getting better at sewing evenly. I’ve never been a seamstress. Something about junior high home economics has lingered too long with me. But I am actually enjoying sewing my own handwovens!

4 of the placemats make one set. Their dimensions are pretty close with the length being 18 inches. (Bear in mind, the color is off. My blog header is more accurate!)

Then there is a set of 2 with the length being 19 inches.

Here they are with the table runners from the previous project:

Here are some pictures of the placemats but they are not finished yet! I have yet to hem them! I am pleased because their dimensions are fairly consistent - all roughly 20 inches by 13.5. There’s one that’s a bit longer, but not by a whole lot. I think the hemming will bring them even more into line!

Then, here is the warp for the dish towels waiting its turn! I do look forward to this dressing of the loom! One, because it’s been a long time since I have dressed my loom. And, two, because I love doing it! I love all the steps! and process!

And only six in all, not the seven I thought. There was a certain amount of loom waste with cutting off the first. So about 5 more weaving repeats of the pattern and off the loom we go!

Not finished by any means! I will do some off the loom measurement. Then the placemats will be cut apart, hemmed, and washed. I feel I’ve been consistent. Time will tell.

Pictures tomorrow! I’ve been a long time in weaving this project - since April! I am eager to move onto the dish towels!

The fourth placemat is finished. I think I will get two more out of this warp, which really means seven in all, which falls into my plan almost perfectly. I did warp extra after all, not knowing I would cut off the first mat!

The warp for the dish towels is ready. No further excitement there, just four bouts ready to go.

Vacation comes to an end. I perhaps didn’t weave as much as I thought I would but I did weave almost every day. I was reminded that I should not make assumptions in my weaving - when I begin to do so, I will make errors in my work. It’s that lesson of humility again. By the end of the week, I felt my shuttle fly! And that felt good.

So onward to the last two. I do not assume no errors but I will pay heed to the process, not the product.

Not on the placemats although I made another error on the 4th one, right at the beginning. Forgot where I was for just a moment and wove some repeat picks which shouldn’t have been woven. But I will live with that error.

The step back was with my warping. I had just finished my third bout and was tying it off. As I was tying the last bunch, I noticed a rogue end. It approached the weaver’s cross but then turned back! So I had the right amount of ends in the weaver’s cross, but then there was an extra end. I studied the situation long and hard, wondering if I could fix without unwarping (if that is even a word!). Further study showed the rogue end occurred in the third group. So even further study revealed I could unwarp back to that point and pick up the rogue.

The unwarping went surprisingly smoothly. Cotton is sticky so the ends did not fly off the warping board as perhaps a silky bamboo might have! I unwarped to the rogue and then rewarped (word????), ending with the four groups I should have. Careful examination showed no rogues!

I tied off and removed the bout from the board. And called it a day. I will finish the last bout tomorrow and I will continue weaving the placemats. So all is good once more.

Weaving has been going so smoothly and without error that it was almost too good to be true. Alas, perhaps that allowed for the error to sneak in. It’s an extra repeat of one sequence. I did try to repair by unweaving but I didn’t unweave enough. And then, I had a broken selvedge. Sigh. The broken selvedge is fixed but the error wasn’t. I don’t think it will be too visible to the nonweaver but I am sure any weaver could pick it out!

As a break, I began the warp for the dish towels. Now that is going well! It feels like a very long time since I have warped anything and I do think it’s been since late April! Yikes.

Happy 4th of July to all and a special Happy Birthday to my husband who rather thinks the country has always done a splendid job of celebrating his birthday!

Is what a friend said after I showed her my weaving and then explained this virtual network of weaving. Pretty apt, I think.

It was a great visit. She came to drop off the corrugated cardboard I had purchased at a Guild meeting I had gone to (many many months ago). I was able to show her my loom, the project on it, and some of my completed pieces. In the middle of the visit, I got my delivery of new yarn so she could see my future projects!

She helped troubleshoot a “problem” I thought I had with my loom. It seemed the brake on the rear beam released too quickly and too much. She showed how releasing the tension on the front and then releasing the brake would be smoother which it was. Duh! Such a simple solution and so very sensible and logical.

She is newly retired so looks forward to her weaving, once a nasty wrist break totally heals. We will go to Guild meetings together in the Fall.