Stuff I Did in March, Part One: Back to the Loom

After a long break due to a rear-ender and the February Blues, I finally got back to the loom near the end of March. This is a loom I got with the warp already on, and I’ve been doing a series of wall hangings on it. I finished off the one I’d abandoned in January:

Then I picked out colours for the next one and started winding the bobbins:

That round black table is the one my grandmother used when she did bobbin lace.

I am pretty happy with the hem at the start of this piece; my hems aren’t usually so even:

These pictures are all of the backside of the work, hence the dangling threads where I switched it up. I like doing little patches of different colours to interrupt the plain bands, so here I put some silver streaks in the orange part:

And then, below, I added some more colour in the unbleached linen. Here and there I try not to beat the weft quite as consistently, to get a more open and irregular look. You can see that in the top third of the linen band below. Part of me loves the randomness and open look of this, and another part of me is bothered by it. I like the saori-ness of it, though, and will keep experimenting with this technique.

Below, the more open weave is near the bottom of the picture, and I’ve added more interruptions in the orange band. Then I worked the pink and yellow at the same time from opposite sides. This is as far as I got in March. Two more bands and this one will be done:

It felt good to work on the loom again. The pictures aren’t the best quality and the colours aren’t very true, since the loom is currently in the basement laundry room with little natural light. Once I’m finished with this warp, I’ll take some better pictures!