Ploshkin - Weaving Along

[Ouryve]

It looks lovely and I suspect there is more effort required to maintain the randomness than it appears.


I'm keeping my distance from that instrument of turture, mind. 

[Sewingsue]

that looks amazing - I have no idea what you're talking about, but it looks amazing 

Me too also.

[Cazlyn]

Beautiful fabric.

[Ploshkin]

@Ouryve I don't do random very well, I have a tendency to overthink it.  But with weaving the fabric is rolled on to the front beam as you weave so only the last 6 or 7 inches is ever visible ( on the loom I was using).  That makes it much easier because you can't stress over what you can't see.

[Ploshkin]

DH was busy hauling straw and didn't come home last night so I spent the evening at my new loom.  I had been threading the warp in fits and starts over the last couple of days and it just needed lashing on to the front rod.   So, I did that and had a play.  I started off very cac footed and got an inch or so of very poor weaving with loopy edges then I recalled that floor looms have much tighter tension on the warp than rigid heddle looms so I cranked up the tension and hey presto it was a different ball game altogether.
I've only got a 10" wide warp and it is a bit twisted on the back beam but once I got into a rhythm I didn't find it difficult at all.  I've got a couple of aide memoirs in the shape of painters tape which I have written on to remind me  which treadle lifts which shaft and the treadling order for the pattern.  There are a few things I am finding out - with some patterns the shuttle doesn't catch the outside warp thread but I now know how to avoid that in the future.  For some reason the cable keeps jumping off one of the pulleys for the first treadle, I have managed to resolve it by putting something on the floor undernneath it so that treadle doesn't quite go all the way to the floor as that seemed to be when it was happening.  I'll have a word with Haydn when I next see the shop open but in the meantime it works fine.

Here is part of my first attempt, I will just keep doing stuff until I run out of warp.  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]    [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

[SewRuthieSews]

That looks brill, super impressed!

[Flobear]

Wow, that is very impressive  Glad you're getting the hang of the footwork!

[Lowena]

Wow!

[BlueCat]

That looks lovely...you’re off to a great start 
When using a finer warp (usually 8/2 bamboo), I keep my warp edges as stable as possible, either with a floating warp (thread), or doubling my outside warps.
Looking forward to following your weaving journey!

[Ohsewsimple]

Wow that looks great!

[Ouryve]

Wow! That. Is looking lovely, to say you're just getting the hang of it!

[Bodgeitandscarper]

Looks good, I just wouldn't have the patience to do all that!

[Celia]

Looking fabulous @Ploshkin

[Ploshkin]

This is my first attempt at 4 shaft weaving on my new floor loom. 
Winding and threading the warp was all new to me and getting the warp wound tidily on the back beam is not easy single handed.  I ended up with the 20 warp threads on the right getting floppier and floppier as I wove.  I hung weights on the back (bags of coins that were waiting to be banked) that helped for a bit.  I must look for some fishing weights and/or improve my warping.
The 3 pictures going from left to right are my yard long piece of weaving - it's not pretty!  It started off as a bit of a car crash, improved greatly by the middle and then started to get a bit troublesome, mainly because of the floppy warp threads, at  which point I cut it off.  I did achieve my main aims which were to become au fait with treadling and throwing a boat shuttle, neither of which I had done before.  I started to find a good rhythm and with some of the patterns I could weave quite fast.  I've got a book of 4 shaft patterns and I just picked ones that looked easy to do.

I purposely didn't pay much attention to the selvedges as there were too many other things to think about but on my next sample I will make that my main aim.
A very dim light might aid the viewing experience 

  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]    [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]    [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

[Elnnina]

Well done Ploshkin that is excellent for a first go on the floor loom, as you say many things to think about as you attempt to weave.

You have mentioned the group of warp threads that seemed to get looser as you went, and you need to find something to weight them, have a look and think about getting some machine knitting ribber weights - they come in two sizes, and for some knitting machines there used to be a wire piece a bit like a figure 7 that you then hung a claw weight on - claw weights are flat as opposed to the ribber weights.