Weaving, Part 1: In which I branch out into alternative textiles.

First of all, let me reassure you that I will not be giving up knitting in favor of weaving.  It just ain't gonna happen.  If, however, the universe brings me a rigid heddle loom, I will now know what to do with both it and a whole lot of bits of yarn I have yet to knit...


Secondly, let me introduce you to our instructor Judy...

I love this pic of her because she looks so happy.  And you know what?  I'm happy that we crossed paths at one of my indigo dyeing workshops, because that led to this beginning weaving workshop at The Charleston Museum.  Plus it meant I got to hang out and learn from someone who has been weaving since she was a wee slip of a girl, in addition to studying Navajo weaving in Colorado for several years.  I told y'all that interesting people show up at my workshops--now do you believe me??

 These are only a few of the things she has woven--not all on a rigid heddle, but all gorgeous.

Once we put together our Ashford looms, we had to learn how to put the warp on.  There is probably another term for this, but I didn't retain it.  There were strings going EVERYwhere up in there!

Somehow I ended up doing mulitple warp colors and then weaving with more than one color, too.  It might be because I took 5 different colors with me since I couldn't make up my mind before the class started....

Before tying them down.

After tying them down. But before re-tying, since I didn't do it right the first time....

Me shuttle's been wrapped, arghhh, I'm ready to weave!

Say, "Weeeeave!!!!"

 

And presto! Weaving!  It's uneven and might be really really wonky when it comes off the loom, but it's been a fun project to play with.  My friends and I have been texting each other pics of our weaving and egging each other on, and thank goodness for that because the first time I turned that one wheel thing to give myself more weaving space, it darn near went ALL to pieces!  (As you can see, I could have paid better attention to the vocabulary. Sorry, Judy!)

The workshop concludes this Saturday and I will find out how well I did on my very first project.  If it's terrible, you can plan on seeing how all my friends' projects turned out instead....