The length of wool warp I had on the table loom came off last night. It took me about two hours (while watching PBS) to thread of the loose ends in, a few lessons learned there. I can spot some mistakes, but in general the piece is "good". I love this weave structure, it is ancient and modern all at once.
Before I could soak the piece, to remove the mechanical oils from the yarn and allow it to bloom, I needed to stop the plain weave ends from unravelling. For this purpose I chose stitch #4 on the BERNINA 780, letting the machine know that I was using something very thick and using the D foot (with the upper feed-dog 'finger').
The stitch makes a wave of tiny stitches that lock the weave structure over 2 to 3 yarn picks preventing any movement and guaranteeing a safe journey through the sink. Traditionally weavers use a zigzag stitch but I feel very strongly that this one is better suited to the loose nature of my piece.
The weave is drying now and on Friday I hope to take it with me to IKEA to match it with a fleece and finish the project. It will become a cover for my loom bench. This is a classic scandinavian object, I would love to know more about its history, when and why did people start backing animal skins with woven pieces? Maybe it is simply a modern fashion? Some research is in order!
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Absolutely beautiful!
Posted by: Lisa Chin | November 13, 2014 at 12:28 PM
Monk's belt is definitely a favourite weave structure of mine. I love your piece!
Posted by: Dani | November 21, 2014 at 06:49 AM