Weaving: Warp & Weft

Weaving is a methodical and rhythmic craft.  The back and forth movement of the shuttle as you pass it through the warp is almost hypnotizing.  You can get into a rhythm and glide along.  Ted would call it “repetitive”, which is accurate as well.  It’s all in how you look at it and in your personality type!  

In weaving you have a Warp and a Weft.  Warp is the constant.  The constant, that once its set, can’t be changed till you are finished.  It is the fibers you thread to weave through.  You can raise or lower the warp threads to achieve a very large variety of patterns.  The more harnesses your loom has (4 or 8), the more options you have.  

Weft is made up of the tangibles, those many things that can be changed if we need to or have to.  Weft we can do one way now with one thing….and another thing later with a twist.  You can use fine threads, heavy yarns, fabric strips, or any combination there of for your weft to achieve the pattern and design that you desire.

I’ve had a loom from my mother-in-law sitting here for over a decade, begging me to use it, chastising me for letting it sit there un-used, and scaring me with it’s heddles, raddle, harnesses, shuttle, etc.  It is very intimidating; but I finally took a class.  It’s a little clearer now but so much more to still learn and a few things are still a little fuzzy.  Was I out of my comfort zone?  YES!  Am I still?  ABSOLUTLEY!  But I will keep plugging away at the process. I will definately not want to let this get the better of me.

I am working on just a very basic weave, a tabby, I believe it’s called. The loom is a 4 harness table top variety, although in the tabby I use only two of the harnesses.  You can do a lot with it, but at only 24-30 inches wide you are limited in items that can be made without sewing them together.  Ted has a plan for building a floor loom.  I believe it is an eight harness version and is about 4-5 feet wide.  Coverlets may be in the future if we get to the building of that loom. 

You could call the Warp your life, and you would use the weft to weave into it.  In weaving it’s the colors, patterns and fibers that you weave through your warp. In life it’s the attitudes, blessings, people, directions, paths, decisions, choices, heart break, joy, love, among others, that we weave in throughout our lives.

It is still amazing to me the similarities I continue to see in the traditional arts when compared to “life”.  Needed for both are patience (in abundance), love, determination (in spades), dexterity, practice, forethought, knowledge, planning.  Nurture those and you’re well on your way.  

As are the fibers we use to weave our lives, we remain always ….. Traditionally Twisted.