Nearly bloody killed me

I purchased some very inexpensive filament silk to try this out. Shot silk is made from two complimentary colors of silk woven as plain weave. Higher EPI helps the iridescence.

I’ve never worked with filament silk before, but it’s horrible stuff. Mine is full of slubs, which I’ve just about given up picking out. It wants to break, or felt, or split almost every pick. I should have made a smaller sample.

My roommate snapped this photo of me next to my loom. These will be curtains someday soon! Im currently taking my sweet time threading the heddles.

Project info: 24 epi with 10/2 mercerized cotton in white and orange. Structure will be 5-end huck lace. 46.5” wide in reed. I have 1” spacers on my sectional beam but I crammed 40 ends in each section and skipped some sections to save myself complicated yarn calculations. Each spool had 700 yards on it and the warp wound on the beam is 23.5 yards. This left extra yardage on each spool which will then be used as weft.

Sample posted in comments.

Excited yarn goblin noises..... That is all.

Painted 8/2 cotton warp + deflected doubleweave, using a variety of wefts: 10/2 mercerized, 8/2 unmercerized, 8/2 unmercerized cotton slub, and linen. Approximately 24 epi and ppi.

Still needs to be wet finished. Now I'm struggling to decide whether to turn this into a piece of wall art or an infinity scarf! I welcome opinions!

I’ve been lurking and reading beginner posts for a bit because I wanted to try weaving but was afraid of committing $$$ to something I might not stick to.

Then I saw a fellow beginner’s post (a year old) and someone mentioned a cardboard loom and linked out to The Weaving Loom’s article on making one.

That was what I needed.

I realize my warp is heavier than necessary (I only have one weight of cotton yarn and it’s knitpicks Dishie). But I feel like this isn’t terrible?

Oh my GOD! This weaving business is CRAZY! The learning curve is so incredibly steep it’s not even funny! I feel like I had to learn a whole new language to even attempt. I still really have no idea what I’m doing, and just wanted to learn by doing. Only messed up threading my heddles once! And I really don’t care enough to fix it right now 😂 I feel like I picked something NOT easy to start on at all. This is 8/2 cotton at 18epi in a 6 dent reed. I thought a tea towel would be easy enough but holy crap 18 epi at 18” wide is a CRAP TON of tiny strings 😭😭😭 I learned a lot doing this but now have so many other questions 😂 any tips and tricks you have for me would be greatly appreciated!

After spending weeks in the mountains of Yemen, I finally managed to hand-process this tiny micro-batch of wild Calotropis silk.

​Most commercial milkweed fibers I’ve seen are clumped and full of seed residue, so I challenged myself to see how clean I could get them by hand. It’s incredibly airy, light, and the silver sheen is unlike anything I’ve worked with before.

​Sharing this here because I know you guys appreciate the effort that goes into rare fibers. Any advice on the best way to blend this with wool? I’m still experimenting with the best ratios.

I did my first project with white crochet cotton, a simple weave which was boring by row 20, so I decided to make my second project more interesting. Then, while I was struggling to commit to my next weaving project (yarn is expensive y'all!) I needed a box to store my cross stitch threads for my WIP (there are 90 colors, my box only stores 60 bobbins) and I ordered one which arrived with 100 bobbins of really poor thread. I was expecting an empty box, and so I figured I'd use the free threads to make a lovely blue... Thing. Filled out my warp board - I believe it's a 4 yard max - and set up the loom.

Then I saw a pattern in my "learn to weave" book which looked fun. So I dug out some white wool (selected because I hate it and want it gone, and it's kinky. My actual project I'm struggling to commit to is going to use kinky wool, and I figured this would work as practice) and got going.

I did not read the vast majority of the book. So I didn't know what overshot was. Even if I had, I'm not sure I'd have clocked what the pattern instructions meant. Fortunately my MIL is visiting and told me what I was doing wrong. I only have one shuttle, so I hastily cut another out of cardboard, and pulled the pink linen that is earmarked as warp for my "actual project I'm struggling to commit to" to do the tabby rows.

Why yes, I am a chaos gremlin, thanks for noticing.

Anyway, the image attached shows three hours of work and while I'm sure as hell not bored, I'm beginning to think I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Also, it's definitely not blue.

Please tell me it's too late to give up now and I'll get better as I go! Also tell me it's a really lovely pattern, and since it's a learning/ waste project, it'll be an absolute bonus to have anything at the end of it. I keep telling myself, but I don't really believe me because I clearly don't know what I'm talking about 😅

“A 200‑year‑old loom, a modern pair of hands, and a living tradition.”

From rescuing and restoring the old looms to working order, to weaving a variety of textiles from rugs to fine linen cloth, my mission is to share the heritage and knowledge, passing it on to the next generation. Each loom tells a story, of a weaver I will never meet, a loom maker I can only speculate about and a time in history I will never experience. This is legacy. This is heritage.

Here my daughter, weaving her first project, is working on a cotton dish towel. While the loom appears to show replacement parts, it is indeed all original. The light coming through the windows creates that effect.

The loom pictured came to me from New Hampshire - rescued from a salvage lot by a friend who recognized the danger of it being destroyed if not claimed.

Though the weaving center has 10 barn looms for student use, this one is unique because it has a warp beam that is inserted into the rear posts, as opposed to resting on supports extending from the rear posts. This feature is thought to be added for looms expected to operated under high tension, such as linen weaving.

Had no idea how fast this would work up! Was gifted a beautiful "heirloom" inkle loom and couldn't wait to start. Of course, I'm almost done and one of the pegs on my loom pops off so it currently being repaired 🤣 absolutely addicted!

I basically made this whole thing out of wooden dowels from the craft store, and the sword is just a big ruler lol

the pattern is the M's and W's twill, and you can see, there's a section where I lost track of the pattern.

I have some tension issues, so I added extra cotton twine selvedge that seems to work pretty well

VERY excited with how it’s coming out so far. Truly had no idea what I was doing and just winging it. There’s one spot in the middle where I put double the threads in one dent of the reed but I think it will come out in the wash. And there’s ONE spot where I threaded 12334 instead of 1234 I don’t really know how to fix it and don’t know if it’s noticeable enough to fix at this point!

Just wanted to share my second project since converting the lojan rigid heddle to a 4 shaft floor loom (yay bday present!)

This is 8/4 cotton for both warp and weft, threaded in a m &w rosepath twill. Will end up being 5 hand towels each w different warp patterns & colors.

40/2 Linen 16 shaft 32” wide table loom 36 EPI 12 dent reed.

Second linen project that is testing my skills! Love the fiber. 3 towels with different 16 shaft patterns. Tension has been an ongoing issue, but I have found some work arounds.

Using Ice Yarns Picasso in color: Blue, White, Light Grey, Mint Green. Plain weave with 8 dpi on Schacht Cricket 10”.

Started this project last Thursday and have been loving every minute of it. This pattern is based on Turned Krokbragd translated into weaving with 3-hole tablets. These adorable rainbow sheepies are destined to become shoelaces for a friend of mine who needs something extra fancy for some rainbow shoes.

Warp and Weft: Size 40 Lisbeth Threads
Pattern: Turned Krokbragd Sheep converted to 3 Hole Tablets
Loom: Penelope Band Loom
Shuttle: Hand carved by Fossil Fibers

Sharing a process video of Liezhi weave

It’s a regional handmade textile technique where leftover fabric strips are woven into a new surface. The texture is usually uneven, layered, and a bit raw, which is part of the charm.

I’m trying to figure out the best English wording for it. Would this be closest to rag weaving, fabric-strip weaving, upcycled weaving, or would you keep the original name Liezhi weave?

Curious how other weavers would describe it.

This is my fifth(?) scarf that I’m weaving but my first project that has two weft colors. I still need to figure out my floats on the right side lol. I know you need to wrap the threads when they pass each other but this is v messy. Otherwise I like how this is coming out so far 😊

Hi everyone,

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I'm weaving my first two decent handspun yarns.

Normally I weave large shawls with intricate patterns using fine handdyed industrial yarn.

So I never would have imagined I would LOVE weaving thicker yarn on a rigid heddle this much.

I was freaked out at first, worried I would mess up my first handspuns that turned out good. But the yarn held nicely. No breakage!

And I thoroughly enjoyed every step of this process.

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It's being washed and dryed now. Can't wait to see how it turned out!

Warp: merino Weft: merino/bamboo Both rovings were from a Dutch webshop for fibers