Paige vs Loom

So a few weeks ago Peg decided she was going to take a weaving class and that I should take it with her. Sure! Why not? So bright and way too early on Friday morning I grabbed my basket of oddballs that are the plague of my stash and took them to the Trading Post in Pendleton. The class was taught (and very well I might add) by Benita Story, and if you ever have the chance to take a class from her, I might beat you over the head with a rigid heddle if you don't take it. And I say that because I totally know what a rigid heddle is now.

Day One:

We started out on pre-warped looms (which I still think is totally the way to go having warped 2 and a half looms- will get to that on day 2) and learned basic things like the difference between and Tabby and a Twill and a few other crazy things. I busted out the yarn basket and started playing around with different fibers to see what I liked (sari recycled silk), didn't like, what worked, and what should never be repeated for the sake of humanity (bright blue eyelash). I went a little nuts and with the help of some bulkier yarns, got all the way through the sample warp and wove until I couldn't get the shuttle through the shed. If you have no idea what I'm saying, that's probably best since I'm just guessing anyway.

Day Two:

SUCKED. We started off by warping which is quite possibly even slower than watching glaciers melt. Okay, it didn't suck but I had a serious Murphy law going on- anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. And some stuff that couldn't go wrong went wrong anyway. Just that kind of day.

Started by painfully warping a little over 300 yards of deliciously purple Cascade. Cut it in the wrong spot. Started over. To make up for lost time I used a table loom (which happens to sound like a dying toaster), which supposedly is faster to warp. Sure. Got a few warp threads crisscrossed and tangled in the back, which I naturally didn't notice until I got 3/4 of the way through the scarf and couldn't get the shuttle through the shed. Fortunately, day 2 was good for vocabulary, so I was able to express my problems without the use of "dohickey", "thingamabob" and "whatchamajigger". Always look at the bright side. But long before the discovery of crisscrossed heddle mess, I discovered that getting a balanced weave would be rather impossible with the awesome Fuzzarelli handspun I had chosen since I was getting 17 rows to the inch instead of the suggested 8, which is nuts even with Paige-gauge in action. Had to buy more yarn (which is totally the anti-purpose for learning how to weave). Once I bought more yarn and finally got on a roll, I discovered the heddle mess and Benita (very very patiently) unwrapped the warp from the back and held for a while as I wove. She then told me how I can tension it with a weight and weave at home if I want to finish the scarf. Which I totally did. And then I liked the scarf a lot better. It's name is Penelope because it reminds me of the scarf Christina Ricci wore in the movie "Penelope". I know- very original.

Day 3:

Was better. So much better. So much better that if you put day 2 on a chart and then put day 3 on a chart next to it, the chart would crap its paper pants. That good.

Since Janet over at Eighteen Stitches finished her awesome houndstooth crazy fast, I decided that I couldn't live without a houndstooth scarf of my own. Or that I just had to make one and then would pretend to give it to my dad since I skipped out on Father's Day to take a weaving class. Anyhoo, I warped again (and cut in the right place this time!) and loaded up my bobbins (or are they spools?) and got that beast of a loom warped with deep red and black yarn. And I wove. And I wove. And I wove until my eyeballs were about to bleed, but darn it, I had a houndstooth scarf to give to my Farter (not a typo) on Father's Day.

And then I felted it. The fiber Gods have a sick, sick sense of humor.

(If you have any suggestions on what to do with a tragically felted scarf, I'd love to hear them!)