Last night I started weaving on the warp I had set up last week.  The pattern is called Summer and Winter and has probably as many variations as I can dream up.  I began with a blue wool yarn weft with the yarn about the same weight at the cotton warp.  It is woven with two shuttles, one with the wool, the other the same cotton as the warp.  This allows you to use the wool as the design element and the cotton holds it all together.  After weaving with the blue I switched to a worsted weight yarn with more dramatic results.  I think this is because the thicker yarn fills in over the cotton making the patterns much more visible.

Of course it wasn’t until I got to this point that I realized my mistake in warping the loom.  I could have continued to weave the brick pattern (the first done in red) and would never have seen it.  Well, now, looking at the photograph, I can see it but once I got to the trellis type pattern it was blatantly obvious.

You can see how the diamonds aren’t connected on the left hand side.  This was caused by ONE thread being in the wrong harness.  Having a bit of an OCD with perfection all I could think was “damn, I’m going to have to look at that for another 2 1/2 yards!”.  My instructor, Pam Engberg, told me we could fix it and showed me how to tie a string heddle and moved my warp thread.  FIXED!

Weaving is one of those things that I’m sure I could do by using someone’s written instructions or using YouTube but when you get into trouble it’s a whole different story.  Pam has been weaving for many, many years and knows the tricks of the trade.  If I was by myself I would have continued weaving with it wrong (weeping all the way).

I think with any craft it is always good to take a class with someone who knows what they are doing.   A good instructor sees your strengths, understands your weaknesses and gives you the tools you need to work on your own.  Pam is teaching me the tricks of the trade.  She is excited about me learning to weave and I’m more than willing to learn it.  Win, win.