Saturday 21 June 2014

My Shetland Vararfeldur - Day 7

Sigrid went home today but we did take time to roll the weaving up on the top beam before we went to the airport.

Weaving rolled up on the top beam

Stones to be moved down the loom
With the weaving rolled up the loom, the stones needed to be lowered. My shed rod is fixed and quite low, and with the distance the weaving was rolled up, I needed to put a spare heddle rod in place to hold the shed until the stones were lowered. You can see the fluff from the yarn on the floor - maybe should have swept that before I took the photo. But also, you can see the cardboard we set behind to lessen the damage to the wall - the stones were really hitting the wall hard at times!


 Stones lowered and board back in place, raised on some books, so I can reach the weaving which is now at the top of the loom. A good use for encyclopedias and catalogues.



All ready to weave again, but then I decided to rethink how I put the colours in to the next 3/4 of the weaving. So the weaving will wait until tomorrow.




















I will also need to prepare more fleece. Although Sigrid prepared a lot of fleece yesterday and left a quite a bit of fleece ready to go into the Vararfeldur, it gets used up very quickly. There is black, moorit, dark grey and fawn ready to use, and light grey and white to work in as well.




Progress will be slower now, so will blog perhaps once a week from now on.
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8 comments:

  1. Nancy Nordquist21 June 2014 at 17:37

    What a fascinating project! Thank you for sharing it on your blog. I have often wondered what it would be like to weave on a warp-weighted loom like that. I had not thought of the weights flying around.

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    1. Elizabeth23 June 2014 at 02:26

      Hi Nancy. There are 2 rows of weights and for some reason the row at the back seemed to be hitting the wall hard. I have never thought that was a problem before. The stones do move a little each time you change the shed, and it is normally a really nice sound of the stones, they 'clink' as they bump into each other.

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  2. Melissa21 June 2014 at 19:45

    Will you tell us more about this particular item that you are weaving - what exactly is a vararfeldur?

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    1. Elizabeth23 June 2014 at 02:29

      I will describe it in the next blog and see if I can find a photo of a finished one.

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  3. Wendy21 June 2014 at 20:18

    Thanks for inviting us in to watch! DO teach this at John C Campbell next time you come! By the way, how long are those lovely Shetland locks you are using?

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    1. Elizabeth23 June 2014 at 02:35

      Some of the locks could be longer. I will put some details in the next blog. If we can get the looms I could teach at JCC. Very possible. I could do 2 classes next time. Will have to talk to Pam.

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  4. imagejem21 June 2014 at 22:25

    This looks a very big project Elizabeth, how much fleece is involved ( roughly) in the final piece? It is so good to be able to see it. Thank you.

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  5. Elizabeth23 June 2014 at 02:47

    It is a big project. I will be able to figure out how much yarn and fleece in the finished piece. I have started with a kilo cone of J&S worsted spun jumper weight yarn and will use most of it I think. I started with about 2 fleece, but from 5 fleece, using only the back half of each. I want it finished by the end of August so you will see the finished thing at Wool Week, Janet.

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