I had the enormous pleasure of attending a networking meeting with the regional arts council that was also a hands-on art activity, namely weaving on a floor loom.  First a huge thanks to MRAC and the Weavers Guild of MN for putting it together and sponsoring it.  You guys rock!

Our workshop was based on the Weavers Guild’s “Try It” classes.  You show up, a very kind volunteer has “dressed the loom” (aka warped it) for you and you get to just sit down and weave.  What a deal.  These were warped with Harrisville Shetland wool.  There is a whole wall of it in the Guild in gorgeous colors.  We had a few minutes of instruction, a demo and then chose a loom. Mine was set up with stripes of blue-violet, raspberry pink and two shades of green.  The weft yarn was a heathery purple.

The warp threads were set up at 10 per inch and our goal was to weave 10 weft threads per inch, to make a balanced weave.  That meant that your woven piece should look like a windowscreen.

Believe it or not, that was actually easier than it looks.  So we wove and wove.  I think I worked on my scarf for about 3 hours.  I chatted a lot while I was doing it.  When I took it off the loom it felt like burlap.  Yeah, I know.  Yuck.  But never fear, I saw finished samples and they were totally amazing.  Why the burlap feel?  The yarn is full of lanolin and it makes it feel kind of yucky and scratchy.  I suspect it makes it easier to weave with because there’s not a lot of fuzz to get caught on the other threads as you go.  So then I took my scarf home and gave it a bath.

Warm soapy water.  Squishing and scrunching.  Within half a minute the yarn is already softer.  The goal now is to “full” it.  Letting the fibers shrink a little and fluff up to fill in those holes you left when you wove it.  Why make holes and then fill them up?  Why not just weave it tightly?  The answer is drape.  If you pack it tightly together, your scarf is like a board when you get done.  The looser weave lets it be soft and drapey.  Mine started out about 8 inches by 75 inches.  It’s now 6 1/2 by about 66 inches.

Out of the bath, roll it in a towel and squeeze out the extra water.  Then I spread it out on the guest room bed and brushed it.  I used a nylon nail brush.  Brushing the surface fluffs the fibers up even more.

The bottom part of this has been brushed, the folded over part not yet.  See the ugly orange yarn?  That’s the fringe.  We wove about a dozen rows of that from an acrylic yarn that doesn’t shrink.  After brushing everything, then we unravel those fringe ends.

The last few rows of the wool yarn (before the ugly orange stuff) is a little extra tight, to make a stable edge before the fringe.

Finally, I stretch it all out to dry.