Naked Looms

As a weaver, you are never supposed to let your loom sit naked overnight. At least that's the story I was told back when I was a beginning weaver. Of course, for someone with a serious inertia problem like me, it makes sense. If the loom sits naked over that first night, then it's more likely to sit naked for many more nights until you get ready to put on the next warp. All the weaving grinds to a complete halt if there is nothing on the loom to weave.

I've already mentioned how after being mired in inertia for months, I tried to fix the problem warp on my loom and it didn't go well. I cut the tangled mess off the loom and offered it to the weaving gods. At least that's what I said. I did not dance around the bonfire naked while the warp burned to release the energy it contained back into the weaving universe. I don't know any of my neighbors very well so that just didn't seem like a good thing to do.

What I did do is put a warp right back on the loom and get to weaving. That was just three weeks ago. Yesterday I finished weaving 10 kitchen towels and was half way through winding the next project onto the loom by the time I went to bed. It's actually the same project I cut off the loom three weeks ago - lovely kitchen towels made of 8/2 cotton and woven with cotton boucle in shades of green and white. I'm excited to see how they turn out.

I am trying to get all the winding done today. Well, tomorrow at the latest. I need to return the warping wheel to Peggy this Sunday when we get together to dye some spinning fiber. I sold mine after we moved here to this much smaller house. Peggy only lives 5 minutes from me now so sharing works really well. even though the wheel is awkward to move.

This is the first time I've wound a warp using a warping box that my husband made for me. It holds four yarn spools. Since I usually warp with two strands at a time, if I'm only using two colors, I don't need to spend much time changing spools while I wind. It's amazing how much easier it makes the entire process. Thank you, Ron!

It is all I can do to keep warping the loom. I really want to cut those recently finished kitchen towels apart, serge the cut edges and get them hemmed. No, right now I need to wind a warp.

Really. I just need to wind the new warp.