First fabric in the workshop

I bought my dream Glimakra Standard in July from the well-known and popular Mr. Antik 🙂 An interesting and useful bonus is a lamp designed by the previous owner – I only had to replace the plug because it didn't fit the socket. The warp was set up on the workbench. On the one hand, it's good, but it's also a bit of a hassle. (“It's a gift… and a curse.”) The width of the warp is almost 80 cm, so it's quite a challenge to start with. In addition, the threads were threaded through 4 harnesses – I don't remember in which scheme.

I toddled around the looms for half a summer and the beginning of autumn. I didn't know how to start so as not to ruin anything. Someone had already done a lot of work on the warp, and I don't like to ruin someone else's work. Finally, I decided to remove 2 harnesses. I threaded all the threads through the remaining harnesses and the reed. Of course, I made a mistake about 3 times during the process - but I humbly accepted removing half the threads as a result of my mistakes 🙂

Tying the warp end and equalizing the tension came easily to me. Maybe because I came across a great tutorial on YouTube. It consists of three parts: 1, 2 and 3.

I chose the colors of the yarns – they were to be subdued greens, like in one of the ropes for the shelter, broken up here and there with some red and orange.

And so the polka began… 5 cm woven and unraveling, because I was not hitting hard enough, 10 cm woven and unraveling, because I was tensioning the weft incorrectly and the edges were fraying, 15 cm woven and unraveling, because I had installed the unraveller incorrectly, so it came out crooked on the edges – like waves of the Danube where the warp threads were too close together. After another 20 cm attempt, I had more or less mastered pulling the weft, setting the unraveller and hitting hard. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, at 20 cm I realized that the colors did not match. The 2 lighter ones are nice, but all together on the fabric they are not. If I had some reliable quantities of these skeins, I would probably have come out with something. Unfortunately, not much will come out of 300 grams of wool. But at least I know how much material is used.

With new knowledge and enthusiasm I started unraveling again and then combining the colors. And I won't write any more, because the next attempt was successful and relatively simple.

Here it is still on the loom, just after weaving:

The pattern is selvedge-like… probably out of habit.

Finally, one of many photos of a cat happy that I finally decided to take a break:

Honestly, I don't like turquoises and other marine inventions. I wanted to get rid of some of that wool. I was very positively surprised that the fabric came out freshly intensely green. Probably because of the addition of yellow... But so much?

The resulting table runner is 80 cm wide and 60 cm long. I tied the fringes with knots. My first fabric at the workshop was intended as a gift for Grandma Seweryn on the occasion of her 80th birthday.

P.S. The fabric was created in November 2013.