Do you enjoy surprises? Many are good! We had a surprise this month. My new great nephew arrived a month early. All are well! However, the baby wrap I was planning had to be finished rather quickly! This was the first time that I used all 24 shafts on the new Weavebird loom. Suffice it to say it took quite a bit more time to thread 900 threads than I anticipated. And it seems that my arms aren’t quite as long as I wish they were! A helper was recruited for part of the process. However, it was a fun project to create. I used the colours chosen by my niece and created a custom plaid. And then for the actual weaving! This loom has some quirks which surprised me. Perhaps this wasn’t such a good surprise. I have had to actually slow down my weaving. Because the loom relies on solenoids to lift the shafts, I must switch my feet a bit more slowly or the solenoids do not have time to do their job. The loom and I are learning to work better together.
The next surprise was thinking that I would run out of weft thread (the thread that goes from right to left) before finishing the loom. I was so thrilled to be able to get some fairly quickly from my go-to place https://www.camillavalleyfarm.com/. And then 2 more surprises! The first was that I did not in fact run out of weft, so I have an unused tube awaiting another project. It seems I should not have second-guessed all of the math I did when purchasing the yarn in the first place. And the final surprise – My loom has about 4 yards of what is referred to as “loom waste”. That is the amount of length left at the end of the project which cannot be woven off because of the mechanics of the loom. I used to allow 24 inches. But SURPRISE! With this loom I have to allow 48 inches. Four feet multiplied by 900 threads means wastage of 3600 feet of yarn. Such a shocking number. Now I have to find a use for all of those leftovers. Wish me luck.