Weaving Boot Camp!

First Weaving Project - Tabby & Twill!

Well, I've returned from a class that others have termed a "weaving boot camp"! Five days of beginning weaving at The Mannings in East Berlin, PA taught by Thomas Knisely - it's a big deal! :) The cotton dish cloth(s) above represents my very first attempt at weaving - lots of room for improvement, but we all came out with a bunch of towels to be finished at home. I have been wanting to take this class because I have a 1946 Sears & Roebuck 6 harness folding floor loom here at Wild Rose Farm collecting dust in a spare bedroom. It was last used by my Mother-In-Law in the late '70's to produce rag rugs. So ... I signed up & off I went last week!

Classmate Amy At The Warping Board For Her Scarf 

 There were 5 of us in the class and by the middle of the week, we each had projects in process on 3 different looms. Yep - 15 looms in use at one time.  We did a sampler and also a scarf of our own design.

The Mannings - My Beginning Weaving Class Sampler In Process!

We all felt that we learned quite a bit and Tom was an excellent & patient instructor. We had all kinds of "learning opportunities" ... broken warp threads, crossed heddles, treadle tie-up cord breaking, etc. ... you get the picture. "OK, everyone come down here and look at this" was the phrase of the week!

Tom Knisely Teaching Our Warping Lesson

Wool Scarf Project On Warping Board

My personal experiment was to work with a commercial warp to see if it was suitable for use with WRF fine wool yarns or if I should have our own warp thread made.

Tom Knisely Demos Direct Tie On With Wool Warp

Scarf Project On The Loom

My classmate Amy was very artistic and inspired me to flick bits of blue yarn into the scarf to break up the solid green on blue heather ... very subtle, but of course still regimented for those that know me! LOL

Weaving & Using The Warping Mills

What's next? I found the original manual for the 1946 loom and now we need to set it up and hope nothing is missing ...