June Already?

The first project is off the new loom!

It is a throw approximately 50" wide x 65" long!

The warp is made up of an assortment of fingering weight yarns, most with silk and/or cashmere along with merino.  There are 676 warps.

The weft is about 2,000 yards of Italian Grignasco Merino Gold dk in a lovely medium purple. 

It took me about two days to dress the loom properly and about two weeks to actually weave it.

I machine serged the raw edges before gently rolling the hems over and taking them down by hand.

The new loom is a dream!  I really love it.  Macomber certainly designed it with the weaver in mind. Unlike the LeClerc floor loom I had, the front beam unfolds all the way down to the floor to allow me to actually sit in the loom, if I wanted to thread it from back to front.

Alas, I warped it from front to back.  However, the back beam moves forward to allow easier access to made threading the heddles a more enjoyable experience.

My back beam is plain and not sectional. Instead of paper to separate the warp threads, I discovered that replacement pvc vertical blind slats fit perfectly on my beam.  My weaving width is 56".  The beams are free and clear for about 59 inches. The vertical slats are 58.5" long and 3.5" wide.  They are also much easier to place, wind, and keep straight, than paper!  

Bonus:  while you can reuse paper, the paper eventually wears out...these can be used indefinitely! 

Besides, the slats cost just as much as a roll of 60" kraft paper that I would have had to cut down to fit.

That actually makes me feel a bit clever.

As the following pictures will illustrate, I really need to work on my photography game.  It is obvious I have no idea how to take pictures of handwoven fabric.

At least, the dogs tried to help sweeten the shots.

Next up, the loom is already warped again and ready to go.

The warp is gold tencel and the weft is Miss Bab's Yowza in Ruby Spinel.