weaving

So I bought a loom!  In the middle of moving, exams, and a million summer visits I've been eking out little bits of time to weave lately.  The process has been a pretty slow learning curve, and I'm sure I'll look back on this project and cringe in the future, but I'm so happy to be doing it!  All the steps are so methodical and simple - it's a great way to zone out and repeat the same thing for an hour. 

Here's a brief overview of the weaving steps: (1) Get strands of the right length for you warp (the long direction).  You can use more official methods than this, but I found the fence  posts in front of our place worked really well.   (2) Make sure the strands cross each other like this, so they stay in order and don't get tangled.  (3) When you're done, tie the cross point, and move to the loom. (4) Attach the threads to one end of the loom, get a friend to hold the threads with tension, and wind all the thread onto the back bar. (5) Pull all the threads through the headles, in whatever pattern you've decided on.  Tie them on the other side to make sure they don't pull back through. (6) Feed all those threads through the reed next.  (7) Attach the threads to the front bar, and then start weaving! (8) As you can see, my ends are totally uneven, and the weaving is a little streaky and wavy, but I'm happy with it anyways!  My first knit scarf was pretty terrible, too.

I love that I can now make both knit and woven fabrics!  I like feeling one step closer to the materials I wear. 

Next up: knitting machine and spinning wheel (ha, I'd need a bigger house if that happened)