a book and overshot

Over the weekend I read, or at least intensely browsed, a book I bought several months ago: "Doubleweave", by Ursula Arn-Grischott. It focusses on 4 - 8 shafts, so it's not necessarily a reference for the compu-dobby crowd. But I found it very interesting. Lately I've been more and more intrigued by cloth which gets its personality from materials or new twists on simple techniques, rather than structures needing many many shafts. There are lots of color pictures in this book, and they are worth perusing. It's inspiring to see different faces of "simple" doubleweave: the austere clean squares of say black and white linen, and the crazy collapsing of ribs and folds in wool. The drawdowns are well done, especially if you have trouble visualizing doubleweave: she draws the actual interlacement of threads, so that you can tell what is on the top and what is on the bottom. There are many references for doubleweave as a structure, and this is probably not the book I'd turn to in order to write out my threading. But I would open it to trigger new ideas and help along the what-ifs.

(And she does note that some of the very earliest--and, may I add, most complex--doublecloth is from Peru. In singles cotton, with intricate interlocking designs.)

Well I don't know whether it's a reaction against having been out of my home country for 6 weeks, or a desire to reassure myself that I can still work out a threading draft, or a feeling that I have to perfect the basics of western style floor loom weaving... I wound and beamed a warp over the weekend. And what will it be? Overshot. ?? I'm as puzzled as you are. Ordinarily I don't like overshot much. And I have no idea what I'm going to do with the finished piece, unless there is enough to make a pillow. For some reason, I just wanted to do overshot. I spent some time in the studiio, gazing at lovely shelves of cotton and wool, put on the tea kettle, pulled down Davison... made myself a cup of green tea, and found myself staring at a page I'd marked long ago, a design called "China Leaves". With a sort of tweedy green cone of shetland just in the corner of my eye. Why struggle? if it turns out to be only a sampler, so be it. At least I'll be weaving! I am sure I'll learn something.

In fact, I've already learned something: a sturdy warping board with long pegs is a joy to use. This is the first warp I've wound since buying my new warping board, and it was great! I could fit the whole warp on in one winding, no need for two bunches. The frame stayed stable, the pegs didn't shift. Now that my warp is beamed, I can see that the length of all the warps is pretty much even. For years I had warps that would be longer at one side than at the other-- no tension problems, just a difference in length. I now realize this was because the pegs of my old warping board weren't straight. I'm the last person to speak against homemade tools, but sometimes it is worth it to buy things from a maker who knows the full requirements of an object. I am forever grateful to the friend who made me tools and started me on my weaving path, and I recognize the time to retire things that have outlived their usefulness.