As promised, here is a picture of the Cricket loom with two rigid heddles in play. Not an ideal situation, but it can be made to work. Two 12-dent heddles, 10/2 cotton @ 24 epi.
Today the sun came out and we escaped from our lairs and drove to Lockhart, South Carolina, home of a defunct mill and a millrace over the Broad River. Good photo ops for Bruce and an opportunity for me to dust off my sketchbook.
In an effort to try to force a Cricket loom to do something it wasn't designed to do (accommodate two rigid heddles), I devised the following workaround for threading the heddles:
A spool of thread and a C-clamp holds the front heddle in position for threading while the back heddle rests in neutral position:
In the following photo the rear heddle has been threaded, and the front heddle is in position to receive its threads.
It worked, and the loom is now completely warped and weaving 24 epi with two 12-dent heddles rubberbanded together. Pictures to follow (some day).
And in other non-news, it is still raining.
With my rigid heddle students I try to stay one step ahead. I don't have much experience with RH myself, so it's a challenge, of the best kind. This past month has been all about honeycomb weave. I seem to have amassed a lot of samples, which in turn have become pillows. This morning I finished stuffing the last one. Here's a quick group portrait on the ironing board.
Most of these yarns are handspun, so there's a bit of stash-busing happening too.
I think I"ll be able to eke out another few samples on the turquoise warp before the loom goes in for minor surgery.
This weft is deep wine-colored cottolin, and the lift plan repeat is quite short.
Feathers, maybe?
Just finished a book I'd like to recommend: Rachel Cusk's Outline. A novel in conversations about life, relationships, and the art of writing.
The turquoise warp is behaving better as it nears the end. Who can figure these things out? Here is an amalgamation sample with a magenta cottolin weft.
Meanwhile, at OLLI, the rigid heddlers are learning a triple zig-zag stitch for joining narrow woven panels. I've never heard the room so quiet!
A nice sunlit patch in a corner for better visibility:
Aha! Success.
And this morning, yet another weft, this time yellow cottolin, on the turquoise warp. Yes, it's still amalgamation, but with a very short repeat in the lift plan.
A closer view.
Three more broken warps. And then I finally finished the sample with the mint green weft. A very depressing bit of weaving.
I've now begun another sample on the same warp, with a royal blue weft and a slightly different pattern. So far no breaks. It doesn't make sense, but I'll take it!
Click to embiggen.
Is it possible that I got a batch of bad yarn? I've experienced so many broken ends on this warp that I feel like an evil spirit is tracking me. The sample is a nice one, though; a new weft color, a tweaking of the liftplan. I do love the patterns I'm getting with this particular draft, but the breaks are driving me bananas.
Just click to enlarge and you'll see the telltale pin.
Meanwhile, the rigid heddlers are putting on new warps this week, amid much hilarity. This group is fond of puns and wordplay. Who knew warping could be so much fun?
A brand new warp, and I immediately broke three warp threads.
Repairs made. Moving on. Another weft. Now, that's better!
Oops.
Life is better in the Department of Books. I recently finished Barbara Tuchman's Stilwell and the American Experience in China. Quite a slog in places, but ultimately a very rewarding read. Highly recommended. Add that to Simon Winchester's The Man Who Loved China and Peter Hessler's River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, and you will know more about China than you did before.
The Red Heddle. Now doesn't that sound like a good title for a movie? There was certainly plenty of drama involved in its installation. Maybe a bad word or two. A challenge to my character.
But the excitement is over. Now I am weaving a few yards of hemp weft (white) on this natural cottolin warp. The pattern barely shows up unless you light it from the side. But as in most things weaving, it will look better after it's washed.
Here's a closer view. Click to enlarge. 36 epi and 36 ppi. My spell checker insists on "correcting" epi into something else. Bad dog!
For the curious: amalgamation. Eight shafts.
Get your greens today! Here's some new green in my front yard, displaying a wonderful contrast with the old green. I love their spikiness, and the fact that they look like a hastily wrapped birthday present. Happy birthday, you-know-who.
Now down to the studio. My 8-shaft loom is finally reassembled after its move, and it's in perfect working order. I put on a new warp this week, cottolin, for some amalgamation samples. It looks like an underwater pattern, quintessential network drafting. Click to enlarge.
And come even closer:
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