beginner's luck

Well, I guess I should start out by thanking everyone for not nagging me about the loom that dropped into my life and why it dropped out of the blog. Although I guess I did explain that I was waiting on a shuttle and trying to grasp some of the many new-to-me concepts that weaving involves.

In other words, I was sitting on my ass, reading books about weaving, but not actually doing anything with the loom.

Well, thanks to the very generous and kindly help of my friend Kim, I was able to get started. She sent me a care package that included two shuttles and two weaving videos, on loan for the time being. I spent some time knitting and watching-listening to the learning to weave video (its by Deborah Chandler, the same person who wrote what everyone says is the best learn-to-weave book).

Then I screwed up my courage and actually tried weaving.

ta-da! I wove it myself!

The white  at the top is what I wove, with some Egyptian cotton knitting yarn I had lying around. The gray below it is what was already woven on the warp when it came here.

Okay, after I got over myself, stopped dancing around the room, and emailing pictures of my 4" of weaving to all of my close friends, I was pretty darn pleased with myself. (Yeah, yeah. It took a while to wear off. As a matter of fact, I'm still pleased with myself.)

I then tried out the second shuttle, and some wool yarn. The wool looks funkier, because its not as smooth or shiney, but it still worked out pretty well.

I discovered several things instantly about weaving.

• I like it.
• Its very good for getting out aggression. That's why they call that part the beater.
• I have a sneaking suspicion that weaving can make short work of a lot of yarn that I don't really care about anymore.
• It's not as quiet as spinning or knitting.
• It's got a definite rhythm, which is kind of cool considering I'm not very musical.
• I need a bigger house so I can get a bigger loom.
• I didn't say that and if anyone tells Jon that I did, they're in trouble.

I'm pretty excited about all of this. I'm going to work my way through the rest of the video so I get the basics stuck in my head, but already I'm not as scared of warping as I was when I had just read about it. [Those of you with more experience than I have, please just humor me for now, 'kay?]

P.S. Here's what I did late last night, after I wrote the above portion of the post. The brown is a shetland-style coned yarn, the peach is spindle-spun handspun, dyed with madder, and the white is more of the Fisherman's wool. Now, back to reading about weaving....

 

Comments

[Lee Ann]

I think you have a mighty fine excuse for whizzing through stash yarn, feeling satisfied with yourself about that, and then having to...you know...replenish the stash...

[Laurie]

I think this requires a visit to Habu to check out the cool and aberrant stuff they sell for these purposes. That looks like something one would see for sale at a fiber festival. I think you are a quick study.

[Colleen]

When I was at Habu on Friday I was thinking the same thing as Laurie: that place is a must if you're a weaver. And since, you know, it's not so far away for you.....

The cloth looks great! I would weave too, if I had a larger house.

[Kim]

And you went to bed, when?? hehe! You are going to find weaving every bit as addictive as knitting or spinning ;-)

[sara]

wowza - cool! I can't wait for blog documentation of you putting a new warp on. I momentarily decided to try and tackle the small "toy" loom that I have - but am utterly flumoxed at the warp part. So the loom quickly went back into hiding ;)

most excellent weaving though!

[Judy]

maybe we ought to be searching for the weaving blog rings.. hip, hip, hurray!

[margene]

Wow! You'll have woven all your 'bad' yarn up in no time. Of course, there was no doubt you would be good at weaving.

[Cheryl]

It's beautiful! I love that feeling of learning a new skill, feeling things click into place one by one...

[Carole]

Wow, Cassie, that's so cool! I knew you would be good at it but do you ahve to be so good at it so quickly?!? I love that this is a good way to use up yarn that you don't necessarily want to knit with. You'd better be careful or we'll all be sending you yarn for weaving.

[claudia]

And a weaver is born.

[Jody]

Darn you, that does look like fun. Like I said, gotta get the spinning wheel first and see if I have room for that. The rhythm thing sounds very nice.

[Nathania]

Oh yeah, you're a goner. Totally hooked now. Looks like a lotta fun.

[--Deb]

Very cool! You should be proud of yourself!

[Liz]

Very awesome. I'm trying to replicate the "loom-dropping-on-ones-head" experience myself. I should know if it pans out by this afternoon.

[Christine]

What Jon doesn't know won't hurt him. All of us fiber junkies have "those" secrets that we keep hidden from our significant others and when they discover it we simply say, "oh, that old stuff, I've had it forever", and brush it off like it's nothing.
The trick is to overwhelm them in other areas, to divert their attention, then when they aren't looking, bring in the fibery loot. If you get busted, just claim that you had to have it to make something for them, works everytime!

[regina]

You seem to have taken to this quite naturally and you make it all look so deceptively easy. Is this part of the grand plan to have fiber arts take over the world? I'm not saying that would be a bad thing by any means...

[Norma]

It's all fabulous. Weaving is something I've always, ALWAYS been fascinated by.

[Juno]

*crash*

That's the sound my snarkiness falling over in a dead faint.

All that's left is being very impressed.

[mamacate]

Then you'll teach us, right? :)

Looks great!

[Cordelia]

So nice! And how much fun that you like it as much as you thought you would! Enjoy the books, and videos -- and the weaving.

[Beth S.]

Gosh, that's exciting! Soon you'll be doing fancy jacquard weaves and such. Towels, scarves, tablecloths, blankets, maybe even fabric for curtains? So many possibilities. :-)

[Rebekah]

OH what fun! I can't wait to hear more about your weaving adventures. I eye the looms at my LYS each day, thinking of how much fun they'd be to play with.

[stephanie]

I'm just going to sit here quietly for a little bit, giving your awesome accomplishment the silence and awe it deserves.

(PS. Handwoven kitchen towels make good Birthday presents. My kitchen is lentil green. Infer at will.)

[Janet]

Wow, how lovely... are you sure you're new at this? I have long wanted to weave, but I have about this > < much space in my apartment with me, the two cats and the two wheels. (Hmm, how often do I use the kitchen table anyway?) Have fun -- this looks like it's something you were meant to do... loom falling from sky, beautiful fabric from the get-go... :-)

[carolyn]

looks like some very fun experimenting. :)