Weaving Again ... After All This Time

Finally!  The new 12-dent stainless steel reed came (Thanks to The Woolery who shipped it out the day after I ordered it.  Boo to Webs who promised much more than they could deliver -- I'd still be waiting for it in July, 3 months after the initial order.)

My husband cut off the excess (see the separate post on that process) part of the reed.  We installed the new reed, and Lynda helped me finish warping the Shetland wool color gamp.   2 strings run through each slit in the 12-dent reed.  Originally, I was going to use a 10-dent reed with 4 strings running through each slit in the reed, but Lynda and I concluded that would cause problems, as this wool likes to stick to itself, and we thought that it would be a good way to felt it right on the loom--bad idea.  So we opted for the 12-dent to give us a little more room to work with.

We set up the treadles optimally for doing double weave (according to Jennifer Moore); We got the tension all worked out, and threw the initial shots.  And ...   to my utter amazement and sheer delight ...  It worked!

 

 Left side of double weave, with top layer folded over to make bottom layer visible.

2 layers of fabric with a join on the right side.  I'll need to be careful with that join area so I don't wind up with a gap or a line :

The Fold.

PHOTO BEADS
I set up my bead system to help me remember where I am in the treadling sequence.  [This brilliant idea came from the 4-shaft Weaving FaceBook Group.]  Since I only have a 4-shaft loom, this is only going to be common weave.  If I had more shafts to work with (or a wider weaving space, it could have been in a twill or tweed or other fancy weave structure pattern.  In practice, this sequence is relatively easy to remember.  I haven't been using the beads with each throw.

I set up a 2nd string of darker beads to help me track what pic I'm on.  This project requires 24 pics of each color, amounting to 2 inches of fabric.   1 sequence of the treadling pattern equals 2 lines of weft, therefore I have only 12 beads instead of 24.  It doesn't take long to do 24 pics.

And I'm getting pretty good at fixing broken warp with the T-pin method.

Hurray!

It's easier to DO double weave,  than to explain it, so I may post a video of the process.  Stay tuned!

At long last, I'm weaving again!