Crossed Thread – Broken Thread

I had something very weird happen today. I had a warp on the loom for two scarves. I wove one scarf, cut it off and finished it. Then I tied on again and wove about 35 inches when I made a mistake and had to unweave about an inch. While I was unweaving I kept catching a thread about half way through the warp. I finally figured out that two threads were crossed between the heddles and the reed. However, I saw no evidence of this in the first scarf or the first 35 inches of the second scarf! In fact, I looked back on the scarf on the loom and only one “cell” had a float in it that would indicate a problem – everything before that wove correctly. So, …, did the weaving gods visit during the night and cross two threads just to make the project more interesting? Or, did the cross somehow stay back where it wasn’t obvious and just managed to work its way forward after 120 inches of weaving? Who knows.

Anyhow, I had to cut the two threads and resley them. I then had to treat them as broken threads. I don’t use the '”book” method for broken threads because it just leaves you with two sets of ends to needle weave in. I just get a new thread (or in this case two threads) long enough to finish the scarf and T-pin them in with weights on the back of the loom. Then, I just forget about the original thread unless, e.g., I had a third scarf on the loom, in which case I would reattach if for the third scarf. This way I only have one place where broken warp ends overlap instead of two.

Here’s the new set of threads (the ends of the old threads are already woven in:

Just-in-time Gift

Finished weaving Thursday night about 10:30 pm. Friday morning into washer and dryer. Came off the ironing board at 1:15 and we were out the door on the way to the wedding at 2:15. Whew! They loved it, though.

Busy Week – Table Runner

Too many deadlines this week. Friends are getting married on Friday and last week Dolly said why don’t we weave them something. So, I took her up on the offer and she wound the warp, I beamed it, she threaded and sleyed, and now I’m weaving. Goal is 20” per day for the next three days and then off the loom and into the washer and dryer Friday morning.

On top of that, I’m twisting fringe on three scarves that just came off one of the looms and I’m starting to weave two deflected doubleweave scarves that I hope to have all done by Sunday because Monday is jury day at the gallery. I’m thinking the beginning of next week will not see much weaving – I’ll need a break.

My amiga, Catherine Mayo, who has a great writer’s blog, just had a post about blogging, and she advises writers to write about something other than their new book. I’m thinking it might be nice to blog about something other than what’s on the loom – maybe I’ll post more.

Anyway, here’s the design for the table runner. It’s basically a shadow weave design with some variations.  I’m pretty sure these friends don’t read my blog ;-)