Warning this block contains technical terminology which may
render it partially unreadable for those not familiar with loom weaving.
Not on a normal four
shaft loom I was told since the caorig blankets have a repeat lozenge pattern
spreading over twelve warps. This may sound rather technical and as a total
beginner I was prepared to believe those more experienced weavers. But having
played around with all sorts of combinations of weaves and different heddle
threading I felt sure there must be a way. So I started to draw out a simple
lozenge weave and after an hour thought I had the code cracked. They would be
proud of me in Bletchley Park. On paper it worked but in reality would it be
possible on my little table loom? The only way I was going to find out was to
have a go. I decided to keep the warp all the same colour so as not to
complicate things even further which speeded up the time taken on the warping
board. Threading the heddles was somewhat complex but there was a repeated
sequence which soon started to make sense. I finished at half ten that evening
having beamed the warp and tied onto the cloth beam rod. I was heading into
Stornoway the following morning but could not resist just trying a few runs of
weft. For a blanket this can be five or six strands of different coloured wool
at a time so as to give a good thickness. I soon found that my rise and fall
sequence of shaft lifting from 1 to 4 and over 12 warps was going to be a slow
affair since the sheds opened up were not sufficiently deep simply to pass the
shuttle through. Instead I needed each time to insert a batten and twist it to
make enough room for the shuttle. I am well acquainted with time consuming work
so this didn’t put me off and within a few rows I could see it was going to
work, it could be done.
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