Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Dressing the loom

Now we come to the Creeping Stage, threading all the little threads through the little metal heddles. Most folks don't have much fondness for this step, but I have come to enjoy it. In fact, I enjoy every step. This is the looking from the front of the loom.
See how adorable the groups of threads look. They seem so excited as if they can't wait to transform into cloth.
Here is a look at the back of the loom. I love seeing all the threads in order.

9 comments:

Marie said...

Your colors, desgins, weaving take my breath away. You have no idea how many times I come back and read your entire blog and go to the gallery and mentally roll around in your work. You are an amazing woman!

Charleen said...

I particularly like the last photo. The look of the warp going over the back beam, all in order. Oh, the possibilities!

Bonnie said...

Marie and Charleen,
Thanks for your comments. I am pretty new at this blog thing and really didn't know who if anyone would actually find and read my blog. I would love to see it evolve into a weaving community builder and a teaching tool. So please keep commenting. Any suggestions and requests will be appreciated and considered.

Lois said...

Bonnie, I check your blog almost daily to see what
beautiful yarn you are now weaving. I also love plain weave and color. You are an inspiration. Working with so many colors do you find it easier to warp f2b or b2f?

Bonnie said...

Lois, I have never warped a loom from front to back, so I have to say back to front is much easier :)

I use short warps 3-5 yds. Mostly I dress the loom with a 4 yd. warp. If one were putting on a very long warp (more than 6 yds),I think front to back would be easier.

Also it has to do with how you learned and what you are used to.

Which do you use?

Lois said...

Bonnie,
I inherited my loom from my mother in 1989. She
started weaving in 1949 (belonged to the Seattle
Weaver's Guild) and she warped f2b, so I do. I don't
think my loom would let me warp b2f after all of these years. 8^)

Bonnie said...

Lois, I am always surprised when I teach just how many students warp f2b. I am also surprised at how many looms are tailored for f2b as well. Grace is made for f2b, and I have had to make some modifications(make the breast bar removable for one thing) for me to be able to go from b2f.

Here's a question for you: Do you like warping the loom?

Lois said...

Bonnie,
Yes, I enjoy warping the loom. I also work in color
and like to do most of my designing as I thread the loom. I haven't figure out how to do that b2f. I took a
workshop once and we were 'required' to warp our
looms in class b2f. Needless to say I didn't get much
weaving done that workshop. I spent most of my time trying to get the thread on the loom.
I have read about people who see words/letters in
color. Are you one of these or have you assigned
colors to letters/numbers randomly?
Lois

Bonnie said...

Lois, I like to operate using what I call "the fudge factor". It if works for you, then it's good.

I have also read about people who see color in the letters of the alphabet. I am not one of those people. I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. It might be distracting to see color on a completely different level.

I say that my color system is semi-subjective. I found a book that had color correspondences, but I tweaked it a bit suit me. In my woven words workshop, I show students how to tweak and how to use the "fudge factor".

I suspect just saying the words tweak and fudge factor will be sufficient:)