Time sure gets away from me....
I meant to blog last night, with pictures. But, as usual, what I planned and what happened were two different things.
The way things were going yesterday (bit by a deer fly which I have bad reactions to; the freezer unthawed; I was knocking things off of tables and such right and left), I debated whether I wanted to try warping the other rigid heddle loom. When I was comparing how many ends I was going to need, I discovered that the 'original' loom has a much larger sett than I realized - I thought it was a 10-dent heddle, but I obviously hadn't actually checked it since I came up with 5-dent. I sucked it up and warped the 'new' loom by myself, in every-other slot & hole, and it appears to have come out ok. I started weaving the same scarf that I'm doing on the smaller RH, and have about three inches done. I asked DH's opinion this morning, since the scarf is for him, and he preferred the originial version, so that ends that experiment. :-)
The things I've learned from doing this:
1) I can do shorter warps (this was 7') by myself;
2) warping every-other slot & hole works really well - I had wondered if it would be a problem but it doesn't appear to be;
2) I absolutely HATE weaving with this loom - the Kromski Harp has spoiled me! (this might explain why I've had the same project untouched on this loom for YEARS);
3) Using #10 cotton for warp makes a huge difference in the feel of the web - the scarf is much thinner, more flexible, and I like it better. The thinness is probably due to two things - I don't have to beat it as hard to cover up the warp (for some reason I warped with white on the original (I think it was the only color I could find) and I'm using dark blue on the new one); and #10 cotton is a LOT thinner than sport-weight acrylic.
So now I'm debating taking the warp off the original project and restarting with a blue yarn instead of white. It certainly won't hurt me to practice warping, but I sure hate to lose the progress I've made so far. Weaving on the scarf does seem to go pretty quickly though, so I ought to be able to catch back up pretty quickly. And it would probably be a good idea to be using wool with wool instead of acrylic with wool. I'll think about it for a bit, as I have a lot of time before it's going to be cold again. My only concern with a wool warp is that the original loom's heddle is made of wood and rather rough - I'm afraid it would fuzz it up quite a bit. I've tried sanding it and it helped, but it still isn't very smooth. If I do change the warp I'll be sanding the heddle holes some more. Then again, I might have a better smaller loom by the time I decide. :-D
As to what to do about the other loom, I'm not sure. I don't have any other projects in mind with that narrow of a warp in that color (I thought about doing a scarf for a GF, but that would be in an off-white yarn and I sure don't want to use navy blue for that! - but I could use the warp on the original loom since they would both be acrylic... hmmm...), so I'll probably just take that warp off. I'll keep it as a warp, and mark it with the length, fiber, and ball band info. The loom itself has a huge 'working area', and it might be ok for tapestry, but it feels a bit flimsy so I'm thinking about selling it and getting a better smaller loom (both this one and the original loom are toys). It's funny - I had originally really liked this loom, but not after weaving with the Harp! I even like the original loom better, though it's design leaves a lot to be desired.
I only did two other crafty things yesterday - a few rows on the garter stitch shawl (I really want to get that DONE!) and some rows on the waffle-weave rug. Since we're going to the movies today, I might not get any weaving done on the Harp, but I do want to start the third placemat. It looks like I also need to give the dogs pedicures, which we all look forward to (not!), so that will suck up some free time as well.
I'll take a picture of the 'new' loom warped, before I take the warp off, and then look around the 'net for smaller RHs. :-D
The way things were going yesterday (bit by a deer fly which I have bad reactions to; the freezer unthawed; I was knocking things off of tables and such right and left), I debated whether I wanted to try warping the other rigid heddle loom. When I was comparing how many ends I was going to need, I discovered that the 'original' loom has a much larger sett than I realized - I thought it was a 10-dent heddle, but I obviously hadn't actually checked it since I came up with 5-dent. I sucked it up and warped the 'new' loom by myself, in every-other slot & hole, and it appears to have come out ok. I started weaving the same scarf that I'm doing on the smaller RH, and have about three inches done. I asked DH's opinion this morning, since the scarf is for him, and he preferred the originial version, so that ends that experiment. :-)
The things I've learned from doing this:
1) I can do shorter warps (this was 7') by myself;
2) warping every-other slot & hole works really well - I had wondered if it would be a problem but it doesn't appear to be;
2) I absolutely HATE weaving with this loom - the Kromski Harp has spoiled me! (this might explain why I've had the same project untouched on this loom for YEARS);
3) Using #10 cotton for warp makes a huge difference in the feel of the web - the scarf is much thinner, more flexible, and I like it better. The thinness is probably due to two things - I don't have to beat it as hard to cover up the warp (for some reason I warped with white on the original (I think it was the only color I could find) and I'm using dark blue on the new one); and #10 cotton is a LOT thinner than sport-weight acrylic.
So now I'm debating taking the warp off the original project and restarting with a blue yarn instead of white. It certainly won't hurt me to practice warping, but I sure hate to lose the progress I've made so far. Weaving on the scarf does seem to go pretty quickly though, so I ought to be able to catch back up pretty quickly. And it would probably be a good idea to be using wool with wool instead of acrylic with wool. I'll think about it for a bit, as I have a lot of time before it's going to be cold again. My only concern with a wool warp is that the original loom's heddle is made of wood and rather rough - I'm afraid it would fuzz it up quite a bit. I've tried sanding it and it helped, but it still isn't very smooth. If I do change the warp I'll be sanding the heddle holes some more. Then again, I might have a better smaller loom by the time I decide. :-D
As to what to do about the other loom, I'm not sure. I don't have any other projects in mind with that narrow of a warp in that color (I thought about doing a scarf for a GF, but that would be in an off-white yarn and I sure don't want to use navy blue for that! - but I could use the warp on the original loom since they would both be acrylic... hmmm...), so I'll probably just take that warp off. I'll keep it as a warp, and mark it with the length, fiber, and ball band info. The loom itself has a huge 'working area', and it might be ok for tapestry, but it feels a bit flimsy so I'm thinking about selling it and getting a better smaller loom (both this one and the original loom are toys). It's funny - I had originally really liked this loom, but not after weaving with the Harp! I even like the original loom better, though it's design leaves a lot to be desired.
I only did two other crafty things yesterday - a few rows on the garter stitch shawl (I really want to get that DONE!) and some rows on the waffle-weave rug. Since we're going to the movies today, I might not get any weaving done on the Harp, but I do want to start the third placemat. It looks like I also need to give the dogs pedicures, which we all look forward to (not!), so that will suck up some free time as well.
I'll take a picture of the 'new' loom warped, before I take the warp off, and then look around the 'net for smaller RHs. :-D
Labels: Mattel, RH weaving, rug frame
posted by CL at
10:21
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