And Now For Something A Bit More Cheerful

17th April 2015

Despite the sadness of the previous post I have been able to get some weaving done and also to welcome a new loom to the collection. Yes my new Saori WX60 loom has arrived!!!

 

What a beauty! Such a simple 2 shaft loom yet it can help you weave such amazing cloth. I was weaving on it within half an hour of sliding it out of it's box as it only needed the warp to be attached to the back of the loom and to tie it on to the cloth beam. The built-in bobbin winder is fantastic, no need to get up from your seat when you need a new bobbin. I'm smitten.... it's the old drop spindle thing all over again I'm afraid. Can you hear me eating my words? I have already woven off the warp that came with the loom ( already threaded and in the reed I might add) and at the moment I have a navy blue cotton warp which I did myself from yarn in the stash. Waiting in the wings are 3 more ready made warps purchased from Kim at The Saori Shed. This is what my first Saori loom woven warp looks like. The ends haven't been trimmed yet and I think I shall sew it into a summery top to wear with my linen trousers.

 

 

It was a black cotton warp and I wove mostly with cotton and some cotton mixes with a few additions of novelty yarns. I'm really pleased with the way the fabric drapes so I must get cracking and sew it up before the weather breaks! The next thing to show you is the first bit of Saori-style weaving I did on my Louet Spring loom. The warp is black lambswool and the weft mostly wool with a bit of mohair including quite a bit of hand spun. I was originally going to make a skirt out of the cloth (to wear with long boots) but after draping it across the dressform I recently bought I'm thinking of wearing it as a shawl.

 

 

It has a Scottish look about it.... you can almost hear the skirl of the pipes! And finally I wove a long length of fabric, again on the Spring, to make into a tunic-type top. The warp is a mixture of lambswool and a few ends of Jaggerspun Zephyr left over from scarf projects.

 

 

A lot of the weft yarn is my hand spun taken straight from the spinning bobbin and used as a singles yarn. It seems to have worked alright and I really liked the mottled effect of the merino/silk mix top that I spun. I have started another warp on the Spring, which I'm hoping to get finished soon, in greens and yellows and I'm only using hand spun yarn for the weft this time.

 

 

The green-blue yarn is some that I dyed a long while ago and chain plyed it to knit a jumper but never got around to it. The yarn making the warp floats is some that I corespun from a mixture of merino tops, alpaca and glittery bits mentioned in a previous post. It's going along quite nicely and I would like to get it off the loom soon as I want to wear it to Wonderwool in a weeks time. Yes. It's showtime again!! Yippeeeee!