Another New Hobby - Weaving

Oh I've been busy!

Spring has sprung and all the little jobs spring up just like the tulips and crocuses.

My honey bees have been busy flying and I've been tending to them - spring feeding and taking their winter hive wraps off.

Between getting the taxes done, Red Cross training courses, a really bad cold and some other mundane must do's I managed to take weaving classes... and I purchased a used loom.

Her name is Fanny. She's a Leclerc loom made in Quebec and she's now resting, her maple wood polished to a high shine, in my living room. I think the loom was made in the 1970's, but I'll get more details on that later.

For now, I have a new vobulary, breast beams, beaters, shuttles, heddle hooks, and other parts of the loom. Then there's the different weaves you can make, the plain being a Tabby, the most common a Twill and my favourite so far, the most difficult called Broken Herringbone.

For the classes you learn to make four coasters.

Thoughts of coasters don't really get me enthused a whole lot but when I realized that the purpose behind the four coasters is to learn the four basic weaving patterns, I realized the method behind the (boring) coasters.

We used table looms for the classes and they're really nifty, portable too.

The final part of the class is the fun part and that's when you get to really make something.

I'm not big on table runners so I opted to make a scarf.

Hopefully my loom will be up and running in the next week or so.

I plan to make lots of blankets... maybe even some cotton curtains for my garage.

For the scarf I'm making in class, I'm using my own homespun wool.

How is your spring going? What projects have you been working on?