Mission Accomplished

The first sample on the Noble loom is finished. Washed and pressed, it is 255 x 18.5 cm (around 100 x 7 inches) with 15 patterns.

Most of the patterns came from the Thrilling Twills CD from Fiberworks. A couple were from handweaving.net . The yarn is classic 2 ply wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

Since this was my very first warp, difficulties were expected – and experienced! Getting the warp on was an adventure, and I’m hoping doing it twice will have moved some of the learning into long-term memory. I used a 16 shaft point threading and patterns direct from the sources (apart from adding a plain weave selvedge), since the focus was simply to achieve weaving, not design.

The weaving definitely improved. I tried the same circle design near the beginning and at the very end of the sampler. Side by side, it’s easy to see that the later ones (on the left) are beaten much more consistently and actually ended up close to circular 😉 I’m not sure if you can see in the small photo, but I also got much better with my footwork and the early troubles with missed or stuck shafts were much reduced, although not entirely gone. The selvedge loops were eliminated, although I’m not at all convinced by the plain weave I used. In class we used a floating selvedge with twills, but I decided to avoid that in this sample because I had the impression somehow that it would be more difficult to manage on the larger loom. I’ll have to keep looking for a better way to handle this.

The sampler has also provided the basic pattern for my first “proper” project on the loom. I want to make a scarf for Geoff (husband) – not just a supporter but an enthusiastic enabler of my fibre-y pursuits. He likes the feather pattern from Thrilling Twills (16SF055, if you have the CD), so I’ve been playing in the software to change it up a bit.
This is a screen shot of part of the plan. I’m still feeling my way with the software. At the moment I am totally confused by the different ways of ordering and reading a draft – starting at the top or bottom, reading from the left or right. The only solution I’ve found at this point is to make it totally symmetrical. Front and back of cloth and which I see as I weave remains a mystery. That’s still a way in the future – first I need to dye some yarn.