Just off the loom: hand-dyed wool, natural colored cotton yardage

So, I am just having all sorts of fun weaving these days. I am really happy with how my handspun, hand dyed/ natural grey wool wrap turned out. It is really soft. I ended up braiding the fringe and adding beads. I left little loose tufts on the fringe. I think it adds character and reminds me of the playful nature of the yarn.

Trying out my finished handspun wool wrap

close- up of braided fringe

Finished handspun ramboullet, hand dyed with natural grey wool wrap with gnarly fringe

I warped and wove the full 15″ width of my Leclerc Dorothy loom with most of my remaining handspun colored cotton. Oh my goodness!! I love, love, love the feel of the fabric. Believe it our not I have never handled handspun, hand woven cotton fabric before. It has a certain wild yet lush quality to it. I plan to use it for clothing. It was fun just weaving bobbin after bobbin not worrying about the pattern. I just pulled random colors out of my basket and wove till I was finished.

My Dorothy loom only holds 4.5 yards of warp. I was amazed at the shrinkage of the cotton. My finished cloth was 4 yards 5 inches. After washing it was 3 yards 23 inches!

Weaving in progress

I loaded up as much warp as I could on my 15″ Leclerc Dorothy loom. It holds 4.5 yards

Finished handspun cotton cloth

fuzzy( sorry for the pic quality) close-up of the handspun naturally colored cotton cloth.(brown, green, and recycled blue jean cotton in various combinations)

For what it’s worth, I do not own a bobbin winder and my shuttle only came with one plastic bobbin. Not to be deterred, I made some bobbins out of packing paper and wound them using a pencil with masking tape on one end affixed to my spinning wheel. Works like a charm.

Making bobbins out of packing paper

My rigged up bobbin winder. A pencil jammed into my spinning wheel orifice

packing paper bobbins

 

I also put a warp on my Kromski rigid headle loom. This one is just some clearance navy cotton yarn I felt like using up paired with a tan/gold recycled sari silk that is too close to my skin color to look good on my without a contrasting color. There was only enough cotton warp for about 2 yards of fabric. The pattern is a very simple weft float using a pickup stick.

warping a rigid heddle loom is fast. A nice option if you have only a small amount of yarn. The loom waste is minimal.

recycled sari silk yarn used for weft

rigid heddle weaving with simple pickup stick pattern. Cotton warp with sari silk weft

close-up. rigid heddle weaving with simple pickup stick pattern. Cotton warp with sari silk weft

 

 

 

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