Gaining Confidence

After I relinquished the Cricket looms borrowed from class, I turned to the 25" table loom and wondered what was next.

I knew I could warp it for another plain weave scarf or possibly a shawl, but I was itching to see how difficult it would be to dress it using four of the eight shafts.  So, I dove into the stash and came up with these fingering lovelies:

(Pagewood Farm Chugiak Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in Army Girl and George's Hat.)

With a draft (weaving pattern) in hand, I successfully warped over four shafts, and jumped right into the weaving.  Instead of a loose plain weave, I wanted something more fabric like and substantial, so the pattern I chose had lots of repeat weaves that did not require changing the harnesses after every pass.  I was also trying a new type of floating selvage.

Admittedly, my current set up is less than ideal with the loom on the coffee table and me sitting on a footstool, but until I can purchase or build a loom stand, the only alternative is to place it on a table and stand before it.  (There are plans afoot to rectify this situation.  Hopefully, this weekend!!)

In any event, in several small bursts of weaving, I ended up a piece of fabric 11-inches wide and 33-inches long, just right for cowl!

Once I had it off the loom, I used a sewing machine with a very wide zig-zag stitch to secure each of the ends before I did a closed seam to make it round.  In all, the finishing took about ten minutes, tops, and I had a finished hand-woven cowl!

While it has not been soaked or blocked yet, the fabric has a lovely silky feel.  This one is going into the gift pile for Christmas!

I could not be more pleased!

Now what?