My favorite season is winter. As a child I was given the nickname “Snowbaby” because I was born during a March snowstorm! Anticipating the storm, as well as my imminent birth, my Mom had decided to stay in town with friends while my Dad took care of the farm and my sister. Sure enough I arrived during the worst of the snowfall! My Dad wasn’t able to get to town for five days (plowing is what is today) after I was born! Perhaps this explains my love of snow. I do love both playing in it and watching it from inside our cozy rural home.
Today we are getting a nice fresh coat of snow and I especially love watching it out of my office/loom room while weaving or preparing to weave.
This is what it looks like from out of my loom room window and off our back deck.
I recently decided to weave fabric for some small cafe curtains for a bathroom window. I wanted to use a pattern that would be delicate enough to allow light to pass through yet provide a tiny bit of privacy. The pattern I chose is Ms and Os using Maurice Brassard’s mercerized cotton 20/2 yarn for the warp and 8/4 mercerized cotton yarn for the weft. I decided to weave up a sample on my table loom to try this yarn combination with the Ms and Os pattern and I decided that it worked well enough to proceed setting it up on my floor loom.
Below is the pattern draft I used for the curtains. I added two repeats of threading 1, 2, 3, 4 at each selvedge to provide strength at the edges. The border is actually the hem at both ends of each curtain. I chose to weave borders of 2 inches at each end.
Given that I wanted a finished width of about 18 inches I added 2 inches for draw in and 1 inch for shrinkage. At 16 ends per inch I needed 336 ends plus 16 ends for the selvedges for a total of 352 ends. I calculated that I needed 24 inches of length for each curtain, and 6 inches for sampling, leaving a generous yard for loom waste. Therefore, my warp length was 2 1/2 yards.
I used a 10 dent reed and sleyed 2 ends per dent. As I sleyed the reed I bundled the ends into groups of sixteens ends (two repeats in each bundle) except at the selveges which consisted of 8 ends at each edge. These I tied up separately.
To access the yarns in order from the transferred cross I secured the cross and lease sticks at each end using Texsolv cord tied to the castle and the front beam. I made sure the lease sticks wouldn’t fall out by taping them closed using blue painter’s tape!
I warp from front to back and my Loomcraft loom is designed to facilitate front to back warping with a back beam which swings up to provide easy access to the shafts and heddles.
While the Ms and Os pattern is not complex I find that separating the heddles into small groups for threading helps keep me from making threading errors. I also tie up each repeat with a slip knot after I re-check the threading.
After the loom was dressed I wove a three inch sample to establish the proper beat which was about 15 ends per inch. The pattern emerged.
I wove two 24 inch panels each with a two inch plain weave hem separating each panel with 4 ends of scrap yarn. Once off the loom I zig zagged the ends of each panel, washed by hand and dried in my dryer set on delicate. After pressing and hemming I hung the curtains using cafe hooks.
I think they turned out quite well and will likely weave some larger ones for my dining room!
Resources consulted in developing this project:
Learn to Weave with Anne Field, 2014, pg. 103-107.
Favorite Scandinavian Projects to Weave, 2008, pg. 46.
Loomcraft Weaver 