Week 61 (Some thoughts on things with warp weighted looms and making the design on the tapestry)

Weaver's log, Earthdate 11052015 
I hope I covered this earlier in the log, but a quick recap might be in order. On my warp-weighted wadmal, I tested a new approach to the chain stitch that we use at the school, and that was a stick with a thread spiralling around it. The stick is now starting to felt like the chain did earlier but not as much and its a lot easier to get the warp unstuck from it.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 12052015 
Weaving continues on the tapestry as usual. So I decided to shed my opinions on warp weights, in particular, the string that you hang them in. At school, we have a lot of different weights made by different people over the years. So there's a lot of different materials in the strings as well, some have changed strings too, I have mended some with what I could find. On the picture, you see one that I think is a hemp rope and one that is a strip of leather. The leather one is my favourite of all the once I have used as its easy to untie and the warp has little to no wear on it, as opposed to the hemp which has a rough texture and grabs the warp and even has some felting on it as you can see. So my recommendation is to use something with a smooth texture, and possibly leather. I haven't tested any synthetic materials as we don't have any really here as we are reproducing stuff before plastics was a thing, but that could work if you don't feel you have to be historical.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 13052015 

weaving the symbol in the centre has been a fun challenge, a trick I learned on the interwebs is to draw the motive on the warp, and it helps a lot. I also did a final stretch on the warp-weighted wadmal, It got pretty late.