Shafted!
Don't worry, I haven't really been stitched up by anyone, I just couldn't think of a witty title for this post. I really just wanted to call it "Squeeeeeeee!" but decided that I needed to curtail my excitement a little bit. Last month I was lucky enough to receive my long awaited for new loom, a Louet Magic Dobby . Before I started the HNC, I had never used a shaft loom, so I had great fun learning how to create a range of patters using 8 shafts. I borrowed a table loom from college and nearly developed RSI from pushing the levers down heavily to lift the shafts. This new loom has a dobby mechanism, so little pegs in program bars (acting just like binary: peg in the bar - 1 - engages the shaft; no peg in the bar - 0 - means the shaft is not engaged) do all the hard work of selecting the shafts,
I just need to lift and lower them by pressing down on the foot treadle. This mechanism means that I can work with a large number of shafts and indeed, the Magic Dobby has 24 shafts. I have so far only worked with 12 shafts, but it has meant I can put isolated areas of patterning in my designs.
My final collection is inspired by two sections in one of the West Windows of Manchester Cathedral. The blocks of colour in the windows shouted double weave at me, so I have used my artwork (including some scans of small areas of them) to plan out a warp using Shetland yarn.
I am currently in the experimental stage, where I am seeing how the fabric behaves with different finishing techniques such as hand washing, machine washing on a wool or hand wash cycle, tumble drying for a very short time and steam pressing. I am also exploring the different ways the colours interact in the warp and the weft. It's all very exciting.
Remember I mentioned all the potential in the warp waiting to be unlocked? Well, whisper it quietly, but so far, so good!
