The Loom Looms

In order to weave a tartan, I must first learn to weave. As I said in my last post, I have done a wee bit of weaving, but I need to be good to weave a tartan. Really, really good! In order to get good, I'll need practice. Lots and lots of practice. In order to practice, I'll need a working loom.

One day in November 2007, Ginger called me up and said, 'I've found a loom for you. How much room do you have in your house?' And with that, Willamina followed me home. She is a counterbalance loom, made by the Allen Folding Loom Company, and used by students at "WU", probably in the 1970's. She's not pretty, but she's tough.

Ginger and I cleaned her up back in November, and recently Chris helped me put some pretty strings on her. We also gave her some well deserved new jewelry (Before pics on the left, after pics on the right). Future upgrades include new aprons and a new reed. I could probably clean up the existing reed, but it would be a ton of work. I'd rather just lay down the ~$100 for a new one. Besides, I can always get the new one in a smaller dent size in case I feel like rejuvenating the old one later. Anyhoo, as long as the brake works, we'll be ready to weave after those two additions!

Welcome!

Greetings and salutations! Welcome to The Kilt Project. This blog will document your hosts' adventures as we attempt to make a kilt for my husband. From scratch. That is, Ginger will spin the wool for the fabric, I will weave the cloth, and we will sew up the fabric into a kilt.

First, a bit of history about ourselves. To paraphrase her Ravelry profile, Ginger has been knitting and crocheting all of her life (She doesn't even remember learning how! Seems she's just always done it!), and spinning and weaving for the past 30 yrs. She made her living as a fiber farmer for 10 years raising sheep, angora goats, angora rabbits, and dairy goats to keep the place running. Her spinning wheels and looms have nibble marks from the house bunnies!

I am not nearly as proficient as Ginger. I've been knitting for a couple of years, and along with Ginger and our Dear Friend Lorena own a the best damn yarn store in Gainesville, Florida. I realized I was interested in weaving while at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival this past October. Ginger told me, 'You've touched every piece of woven fabric that we've walked by. Are we going to have to buy you a loom when we get back to Gainesville?!' Why yes. Yes we are! So we did. And it's adorable.

So I've been practicing my weaving, and Ginger's been seeing it progress. I find that I'm very attracted to weaving cloth. I've done a couple of dishtowels, but I also made a piece of thick wool/soy fabric that I'll make into a handbag. I have a strong sewing background, and would love to be able to make clothing out of fabric that I've woven myself.

Ginger sent me an email a few weeks ago explaining that she really, truly loves to spin. So much that her knitting can't keep up with the amount of yarn that she spins. She doesn't like to have all of this yarn piling up and just sitting around. Her solution? She offered to spin the thread for me to weave the fabric that we would make into a kilt for my husband. Gah! The awe of it!

We've done a bit of talking about the subject, and we have a ton of questions and some big plans. Mostly plans of me increasing my weaving skills to the point where I can pull this off! We know that this project will take a lot of experimentation, and will take several years to reach fruition. So if you have that much time to spare, follow us as we document our journey to tartan. And beyond!