Weaving Martha Marques Threads of Meaning http://marthamarques.com/index.php/Weaving/ Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:49:31 +0000 Joomla! 1.5 - Open Source Content Management en-gb Romantic Clothing - The Irish Cape http://marthamarques.com/index.php/Weaving/romantic-clothing-the-irish-cape.html

This is a picture of What to Wear in an Ice Storm. It is an Irish Cape made from an authentic pattern from the 1800's. Because it is my nature and I can't help it I tweaked the pattern a bit by making it a little less full at the top and a little more full at the bottom. And I also lined it with GoreTex so that it would be both water and wind proof. But the fabric itself was woven on the AVL (otherwise known as the Big Freaking Loom) by me. It is my first piece of fabric that I wove on the loom and is a striped wool warp woven with white merino which makes it both soft and misty. I also lined the detachable hood with linen to hide the GoreTex and to boost the Authentic Irish Feel. The ice storm in question was the one that took out power to most of the Eastern Seaboard last weekend and bedecked trees and powerlines with incredible beauty in order to make up for the inconvenience of the electricity thing.

]]> Weaving Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:53:00 +0000 The AVL or Martha and Joe's Great Adventure http://marthamarques.com/index.php/Weaving/loom.html I recently acquired a large (5 x 6 x 7 -- that's in feet) floor loom at a greatly reduced price, mostly because it was big and complicated and not like most looms and consequently nobody really wanted to invest the time to assemble it, figure the darn thing out, and then disassemble and reassemble it.  So we packed the loom in pieces into the back of the Mini Cooper, which is a bit of a feat in itself since the loom is at least as big as the Mini Cooper and brought it home with some partial manuals and paperwork dating from the 60's to figure it all out.  We thought it would take about a week of concentrated effort, and in fact the first try did.  Then more figuring, warping with a big 10 yard warp, discovery that we had figured it wrong.  Sadness.

I then cut the warp off the loom with about a foot of fabric completed and rewarped and rethreaded the whole thing with a certain grim determination.  But when I sat down to weave, satisfied that everything was just as it should be, I discovered that, in fact, I had wound the warp correctly the First time, and rewound it incorrectly the Second time.  After beating my head against the wall for a few hours Joe came home and put his not inconsiderable head to work on it.  After some computer research and careful thought he figured out to hang the weight on the arm that maintains the warp tension in reverse, so that everything worked....not exactly as it should perhaps but it did work.

I wove off the warp and cut the web off the loom and then washed the fabric, ending up with 7 yards of excellent soft, supple, tweedy woolen matereial to make an Irish cape.  And now the next time we should be all set.....I think.....but I have been here before and am not altogether sanguine.  Here is a picture of me threading the loom with great patience.

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