Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Give me about five years.


That's about how long it took for me to really get the hang of knitting. I know I'm screwing up the selveges . And the yarn's probably wrong for the warp.

But check out my authentic replica of an ancient Greek shuttle. (Okay, okay, it's a chop stick. Same difference.)

7 comments:

Donna Lee said...

Good use of available materials! And chopsticks are just as old as woven fabrics, aren't they? Or am I confused? It's possible someone sometime used a chopstick as a shuttle. Ingenius. I'll bet a popsicle stick would work too.

Amy Lane said...

Wonderful--and, as donna lee said, ingenious!

roxie said...

Already you have a nice even beat. To keep the selvedge from drawing in, trail the weft up at a loose 45degree angle from the woven fabric and then beat. But surely you have looked all this up in books and online.

Now, imagine making all the fabric for all your family's clothing this way. On top of tending the kids and animals, cleaning the house, and cooking everything from scratch. No wonder people patched and mended everything!

historicstitcher said...

I think it looks great! And there's nothing wrong with mixing materials in warp and weft...they use cotton warp for wool rugs al the time.

And don't forget, Roxie - you had to spin all the warp and weft before you wove all the fabric that you sut up to amke your family's clothes...in between cooking , gardening, tending kids and animals, and making butter, soap, preserving food...I'm getting tired just thinking about it!

But then, I wouldn't be working 40 hours outside the house, plus cummute time, plus packing lunches, etc. would I?

Alwen said...

Your selvedges look fine to me. You should see the drawing in on one of my first pieces of weaving. It's a wonder I didn't break the slots-and-dots heddle trying to beat it.

Anonymous said...

I have two words for you-- floating selvedges. A true lifesaver. Look them up (I'm too lazy and tired to explain the technique right now) and find salvation for your selvedges.

historicstitcher said...

Actually, those _are_ floating selvedges. I put them in when I warped for you. If you always put the shuttle under the first thread in the pick, you'll have nice neat selvedges.