on the loom

I started a new project on my Dorothy with some of the cotton yarn I bought earlier in the month. The warp is made of a grey 8/2 cotton and a peachy/off white textured cotton. The weft is a much thinner denim blue 10/2 Astra. It's pretty obvious how much of a beginner I am, but considering this has all been self taught, I think I'm doing alright.

On my warping board, I carefully counted out what I wanted of the two colors. I'm glad I went with a smaller amount of the white. It is very delicate and breaks easily. It will make a better weft thread than warp. After getting my threads off the warping board, I began the tedious job of threading it through the heddles. I'm quite slow at this, but getting better. I really need some help with this job. Although I get it done, it is slow and sloppy.

I planned on using around 180 threads on the four shafts, and threaded 24 of the grey, 12 white, and then a wide patch of grey before ending on the other side with 12 white and 24 more grey. Well, I made it to the last 12 white and ran out of room with all the extra 200+ heddles on the loom that I'm not using. I managed to fit 12 grey, but not the 24, which would have made a matching edge to the other side. So, this ended up being an approximately 164 thread project instead of 176. It really makes a difference.

Oh well, live and learn.

I like the way the grey, off white and blue look together. The weaving is going well, but since the blue is so thin, I can't hand wind it onto the spindle. I've been putting the spindle on our power drill, but it's pretty unstable and I end up with really uneven tension on the spindle. It's also a two person job to wind it that way.

Anyway, I'm having fun. I'm going to make this particular project a little longer and cut it off. I'll see how it works as a dish towel. I would love some red, green or gold thread right now. I would like to make some things for Christmas, but I can't justify spending any more money right now.