Weaving with Sara Lamb

I've been taking weaving classes off and on for the last 5 years. I began because when I bought the Spinning Loft I became a seller of looms so I thought it would be a good idea to know how to use them. 

My first project was warped in a twill with black Louet Gems Merino which is a lovely yarn. The weft was some recycled sari yarn that I beat too hard. So the two scarves I warped for were like boards.

Next was an overshot shawl which was beautiful but the yarn was 5/2 mercerized cotton so I thought it was too heavy and didn't have the drape I wanted it to have. 

Next I did a little sampler of Huck Lace from 20/2 white cotton. I loved it but didn't pursue it any further. I really wanted to work with silk...

There were some towels and things through all of this that were gifts and were fine but I wasn't dancing with joy.

In May of 2010 Denny came and helped me wind a warp on the back beam of my Baby Wolf. it took 8 hours. The yarn was Alpaca and it was very sticky and difficult. You can look at it here. It took many months for me to get it threaded after that and then when I began to weave, the threads began to break. I didn't have enough experience or confidence to figure out what was going on. I asked a few people and seveeral of them said the yarn wasn't good for weaving. I tried lots of things to fix it but was never completely successful. The loom spent many months folded with stuff piled on top.

Then Sara Lamb came to town.

That's the sample I took off the loom. It's about a yard long. I had woven about a half yard before she came and it made me cry. It took me months to weave that 1/2 yard. On Saturday I wove another half yard in just a couple of hours. I hem stitched one end of it and cut it off to look at it and finish it. That fabric above is exactly what I wanted! Drapey and soft and warm and a bit fuzzy.

I retied the rest of the warp and fixed some mistakes, figured out that the reason threads were breaking was because of twisted threads and threading mistakes. I'm cruising along very nicely now.

My edges are pretty nice, my weaving is pretty even, the twill is lovely. I'm a happy weaver.

In the midst of all this I learned a lot about yarn and what kind of yarns I want to spin for weaving.  I am most interested in fine fabrics which drape beautifully that I can use to make clothing. I have plans now.

So while all of this was going on there was actually a class that I wasn't participating in very well. It was about painted warps and weaving for clothing. 

This is the table with the class materials. The colors!

And check out these looms!

That belongs to Wayne

Denny!

Lynmarie

Valerie

And Sara brought lots of samples for us to touch and look at and think about.

There are a ton of different materials and textures there.

Everybody made a ton of progress in the class.

Valerie ran into a lot of obstacles. You can read about her adventures here.

In the midst of all this I spun eight ounces of Lincoln singles for an upcoming project.

Denny and Sara entertained Maggie and Ryan at the hotel pool

Ryan slept late the next day.

Denny was cute as always....and bossy

And Sara...was Sara. Delightful and fun and full of information and knowledge that she shares freely with everyone who asks questions. If Sara Lamb comes to town, hurry and sign up for here class. No matter what the topic. You won't regret it.