First Birthday Blanket Warp Done!

End of the WarpIt’s a banner day, the first of two warps for the Birthday Blanket Project are done!  Eric and Kai were away for most of the week, and I took the opportunity to weave on my big noisy AVL (the flyshuttle is loud) while they were away.  At first it felt as though the 13-yard warp would go on forever, but at long last it is done!  Huzzah!  Lessons learned include:

  • Thirteen yards is 39 feet, which is a lot (Laura Fry, hush now.)
  • The weaving goes better when the loom is fixed.  I wove several painful yards before a cable fell off.  When I put it back on, the shed was twice as high and the yarns much more taut. So in future, if the weaving is tough, I’ll look closely at the loom before pressing on.
  • Flyshuttle weaving is a skill that needs regular practice.  I also tweaked the flyshuttle string again (simplifying the routing) and like the new version much better.

I have a some mending and fixing to do because of the bullet points above, but I suspect this will be good television-hand-work fodder.

The different stretchiness of the yarns was not a problem at all, not even at the end of the warp. I believe this is because I distributed them evenly across the warp and they were mostly wool (except for the folks who sent cotton, thank goodness no one sent linen.)
The daunting thing that this is only half the yardage for this project.  I have another 13-yard warp waiting in chains to get put on the loom.  My goal is to weave enough fabric for two king-sized blankets.  One as my birthday blanket, and one as a raffle prize for a Doctors Without Borders fundraiser.  I’m also hoping that I’ll have enough extra to send swatches of the finished fabric to everyone who participated.  So if you sent in yarn for this project, and you’ve moved since you sent it in, you might want to send me your new address via the contact page on this site.

The smart thing would have been to leave the cloth on the beam and rolling it off slowly to inspect and repair.

Cloth on the beam

I couldn’t wait, however, I unwound it with abandon and stretched it out in the longest hallway in my house (child added for scale.)

Unfurled Warp

I also draped it over my stunt double. (Selah came by a month or so ago and helped me fit a new Uniquely You form, since the old one didn’t work any longer.)  I love how the cloth pools at her feet.

4 thoughts on “First Birthday Blanket Warp Done!

  1. I know you replied to my last post BUT we need a podcast fix. I’ve listened from beginning to present twice of your show. Help !!!!!! I love the show and your blog keep up the great work. Ted wiz

  2. Shere can I find info. On how you tweaked your avl? I have one I am trying to put together and many problems.

    • Probably the best thing to do is contact AVL, I’ve found them very helpful over the years. The tweaks I did to my AVL were based on the advice of Laura Fry and her husband Doug.

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