Conference day 3 - and a half!

Last Thursday  - Feb 2 - I began warping my loom.  First I took the end of my thin black warp, tied up with a bright pink mop string, from the bag; found the end loop and placed that over the warp beam stick. I secured the warp beam stick to the back of the loom and got my raddle. The raddle is divided into one centimeter sections with metal spikes. I hung the raddle on the loom castle and measured out 115 cetimeters and marked the beginning and the end of that distance. I covered most of the spikes with paper bags and then carefully placed my bundled warp on the other side.

Because I had wound the warp using four threads per pass around the warping tree, and the goal is ten threads per centimenter, I began counting out warp threads 12 in the first raddle slot after the first marker, then 8 in the next one. I continued with 12, 8, 12, 8 accross the raddle till almost the end when I had first run out of the first cone of the four I began with when winding the warp. We had counted the warp threads at that point and knew I needed just 40 more pairs.  So we had ended all of the four cones and started the two extra cones I'd bought as "just in case".  We had originally thought I'd need only 3 cones of thread...  Anyhow the last 40 rounds were just two threads each and there had to be 10 of those in each raddle slot at the end.

By the time I was done with that it was time to go to my sewing class.  I was exhausted from the intensity of counting threads, trying to be sure NONE were crossed - makes for really bad weaving and I do not want really bad weaving! Next conference day I will continue warping the loom!

In my sewing class I continued to work on the pulled-thread lace for the front of my blouse. By the end of next Tursday I ought to be able to move the embroidery ring and start the top portion of the blouse front.

Then on Saturday I began dyeing! First the wool into soak in nice hot water so the dye vat wouldn't be a terrible shock and so the wool could take up as much indigo as possible.  Then I began making the indigo dye vat.  After four dips in idigo at 60 - 90 seconds I decided to let the color develop a while, then washed the skeins and hung them to dry. They'll get more dipping soon enough. It looks like the ikat-tied bundles are doing really well.  The rest is not taking up the idigo evenly, which is terrible.  But I'm really happy about the way the ikat bundles are going because it is so much work tieing them up, and if it weren't working, or if the indigo was seeping under the ties I'd be really upset. As it is I am feeling positive that this will work.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. I know they'd really help!