Friday, March 5, 2010

From disappointing project to genealogy uncovered?

Well all, I have to tell you that I am really disappointed in how the vari blue wool and the black chenille warp has turned out. I got the threading corrected, (since that was the problem last week) and I started weaving away. Only to find out that the black chenille is totally drowning out the wool! It is a little dark in the photo, but it is worse in real life! Another thing I didn't like was the differences in the two types of yarn. The wool was way stretchy and the chenille not at all. I think I will separate the two and chain them off to be used in different projects.


All was not lost this last week however. Last spring I purchased an 8 harness Loom from up north. It looked like quite a good sized loom, and I was excited about the 8 harness part of course.



There was not a clue what kind of loom Katherine was but she looked to be in good shape.
It is this loom that I was using for the blue/black warp, and while the warp was not good, Katherine wove quite well for an old girl. So much so, that I think I will put on a long warp for place mats in white and weave off a bunch of different colors for the pattern.


I was looking at various blogs this week and came across Macombersandme.blogspot.com, a blog about a Macomber looms. The blogger was talking about some of the features of her Macombers, and I was looking at the pictures and I thought, that looks just like Katherines hardware.















And again, I said to myself, Hey that looks like Katherines treadles.















They say that the Macombers all have a plate with the vital information on it. I didn't find a plate, but I found a place where it might have been.















I contacted the blogger and she has told me I could send pictures. I think I will send her these pics and see what she says. I have to say that I really like the way that this loom weaves and I can't wait to get all of those harnesses up and running tomorrow.

I am still plugging away at the mixed blue warp, it seems that no matter what I use as a weft it all looks great! I will also be threading the bread cloths on Lillian tomorrow. I want to get all of the looms loaded and ready to roll.

Wally says, "roll? You mean this nice roll of paper? I will help you with it! See I can move it around where ever you want it! What do you mean no thank you?"
















Happy Weaving, Tina




9 comments:

LA said...

Wally is such a helper pup...a weaving natural! I'm sorry that warp didn't work the way you wanted it to work.

Anonymous said...

It'll be interesting to see what they say about Katherine. I'm not familiar with all the various Macombers out there since I never owned one. Was always happy with my Leclerc!
Wally just gets cuter every day!
Carol

Anonymous said...

Your group looks like such a happy bunch. The pictures of everyone doing something is priceless. It shows how much enjoyment they get from spending time with the group. Wally is adorable. Looks like he has become your mascot!
Abbey / The Dalles, Oregon

Bonnie said...

I am sorry the warp did not work out. I thought about another color of weft, but it still would be dark. I think you idea of using it in different warps would be better. That is a nice loom, but it does not look much like my Macomber. Mine has chains for the harness to hang on, and has more of a squared castle. It could be a bunch older that made it different then. It almost looks like an AVL without the attachment. But hehehee, What do I know.

Tina J said...

Yeah, she is quite old! It could be she has been pieced together from a couple of different looms. Who know!

Theresa said...

Wally is just adorable! And so very helpful too I'm sure. The loom doesn't look like a Mac, I don't think they ever had a high castle support. Maybe K is cobbled together from loom parts or someone saw a Mac set up and duplicated it? As long as she weaves well, it really doesn't matter. :-)

Tina J said...

Theresa you are right! It really doesn't matter does it.

Maggie said...

Whatever she is, she's beautiful!

Life Looms Large said...

Wally's a cutie!

Sorry about the warp and weft combo not working out. I'm happy to meet another weaver who takes things apart when they're not going as desired. (I sometimes feel like I'm too painstaking about things, but I really, really hate making a project that doesn't turn out.)

No clue about your loom, but I can vouch for Sarah from Macomber & Me. She's in close touch with the folks that make Macombers, so she could definitely get to the bottom of it for you. I'm always curious about the history of my looms!!

I'm also relieved to hear that I'm not the only one who's ever miscalculated my warp. So frustrating!!

Happy weaving!
Sue