Threading

Here's where I'm up to in my double-weave bag project:I've threaded about a third of the warp ends. It's fairly focussed work because of the pattern, so when I get tired and start to lose concentration, I just have to stop. There's no point pushing on only to have to go back and fix mistakes later.

I took this shot with my macro lens just before calling it a day yesterday. You can see the wire heddles. Each heddle has an eye through which I thread one warp end. When I've finished a repeat of 24 ends, I tie it off in a bundle. That keeps the threads safe until I need them for the next step and also helps me to keep track of where I'm up to.

Now, time for a coffee and then back to the threading. I hope to have it done today. Then I can start weaving.

Progress Report

Here's where I'm up to with my double weave sample: I've worked out my threading on paper, made my warp and am half-way through threading it. So far, no fatal errors. Even though it's a 24-thread repeat sequence that I'm working with, I'm not finding it too hard to keep track of where I'm up to. I guess that's because I spent so long on mapping it out, that I have a mental image of the two different layers. Even so, I won't be answering the phone until I've finished each sequence--they can ring back!

Unidentified Visitors

My friend V came over for coffee yesterday morning. She brought her applique and stitched away while I threaded up my loom. It was great to have some company and the small amount of distraction was more than compensated by the large amount of motivation and good-will.

One of the distractions was trying to identify a little honey eater who has been visiting my grevilleas. There were two of them there the other day and I'd managed to get a fairly clear picture without scaring them off. Usually as soon as I move to get my camera, my dogs jump up. Since the grevillea is just outside their favourite sunny window, that usually means that my shy little visitors take off. But the dogs were particularly lazy the other day, so I got a couple of good shots at them before they saw me and flew away--the birds, that is, not the dogs.
Now V knows a lot more about identifying birds than I do. To prove the point, she just happened to have a Field Guide to Australian Birds in her car! We decided that my little visitors are probably New Holland Honey Eaters, though one of the identifying features--a white tip to the tail--doesn't match up with the details in my photo. I'll have to have another good look when they next come along. Observing little details like that is easier said than done, since the honey-eaters bob and flit and fly off quite quickly, but I'll have a go.

Sunny

I finally got on with some weaving yesterday. I've been a bit overwhelmed by the number of projects I need to work on. For a while there I got stuck worrying about it all, rather than getting it done. But yesterday was a good day for making progress. I finished off my samples on the double cloth--more about those later. I got that off the loom and started putting on the next warp. It's the Huck Lace for our Weaving Class shared project.

Now lace would traditionally be done in a light-neutral colour, but this warp is nearly 4 metres long and there just wasn't enough white or cream yarn of the right weight in the teaching stash at the Guild, so I've ended up with Sunny Yellow.
It's a cotton-linen blend yarn and I'm getting fond of the warm colour already, although at first I was rather unimpressed with it. I've made my first threading error, but thankfully I'd only threaded about thirty ends, so I can pull it out and try again this morning. If I can get a good run at it today, I'll be very pleased with myself. I also need to prepare for the last of my Triangles classes at the Neighbourhood House tonight.