It's time for this wonderful loom to find a new home. I need more space! It's a Louet Megado 16 shaft loom with electronic dobby. Weaving width 16", just perfect for scarves and sampling. I've used it and loved it for 16 years, and it's in tip-top working condition.  The dobby box connects via USB to Mac or Windows computers.  For pick-up only at my studio in Upstate South Carolina. I will not ship it.  Includes Louet bench, 3 reeds, lease sticks, warping sticks, and extra TexSolv heddles. Please email me at aschlein [at] att [dot] net for more information or for an appointme ..read more

It's apple season a little way up the mountain. We drove up to an orchard yesterday and brought home a bag of Honey Crisp apples. Apples morning, noon, and night for a few days now. Good stuff. I finished spinning the qiviut/Shetland blend. Here it is before washing… …and after. Much squishier now.  I used a tiny bit of it in a rigid heddle scarf made of scraps from the stash. The rest is truly bits and pieces.  Last week I got a start on this spinning project. It's all spun up now, and here is the result after washing: Now there are calculations under way for a rather compl ..read more

A recent walk in a nearby nature preserve to celebrate a welcome break in the weather:   If you're looking for a new color scheme, this is the place to find it. But today the temp is up again, to the normal seasonal heat and mugginess, so I am grateful for the AC in my studio. This morning I cut off the most recent lampas piece and hemmed it. It hasn't been washed yet, but here is a quick snapshot on the floor. That funky green border is what happens when you are in a hurry and weaving from stash. I had hoped I would get away with it, but ??? Handspun beige-ish pattern weft. I think it ..read more

Another lampas warp, this time plain/plain (plain weave ground, plain weave pattern), ratio of ground to pattern 2/1. It was an easy setup, and I used up a number of 10/2 cottons in random color order in the ground warp. Pattern warp is 60/2 silk, of which I have several lifetimes' supply. As weft, I'm using a handspun merino blend with bits of multicolor sparkly glitz added to the roving. This is all happening on an 8-shaft loom, which leaves me enough shafts for 3 pattern blocks of plain/plain lampas (1,2 for ground, remaining shafts for plain weave pattern, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8). Working out the r ..read more

Warmest of congratulations to Erik on this historic day. We are so proud of him. And now we pause to regroup. With the help of this amazing book, I am beginning an exploration of split-shed weaving. That's right. Four shafts and a pick-up stick. Deborah Silver has done a comprehensive study of the theory and techniques involved, and her explanations are clear and concise.  A split shed is a beautiful thing. The pick-up is done on the middle layer. Other weavers have also written about this technique, and Deborah acknowledges their contributions.  A low profile shuttle is helpful ..read more

Finally got to the end of the lampas warp. There was just enough warp left for a table runner. Went for a mix of block sizes in a simple cotton yarn for the pattern weft. Here's a closeup. The jeans twill structure shows up pretty well in the plain yarn.  I cut the final piece off this afternoon and hemmed the ends. It hasn't been washed yet, but this will give you a general idea. And just for fun, here is a picture of the moon a couple of evenings ago, before the torrential rains.  I'm never able to leave well enough alone, so I found a Photoshop filter called "haze removal ..read more

With no ceremony (I usually like to round up anyone nearby and have a glass of wine), I just took the scissors to the warp and voilà:  I guess this qualifies as a selfie, as those are my very own feet. At this distance, the color choices look a little better than they did on the loom. I will hem them, put them on the wall, and then look at them from the next county. Then perhaps I'll feel better about the colors. Here we are at the sewing machine, and a view of the lampas on the wrong side. That sinister looking tool is very handy for keeping my fingers out of harm's way while sewing.&n ..read more

No work gets done on Sundays until after the Grand Prix (in season, of course). Yesterday's race was held in Hungary. Then I started a second version of the lampas project. This time I varied the sizes of the blocks, and tried a variegated handspun wool as the pattern weft. I'm not too sure of the wisdom of my color choices in this one, but it's still too early to tell. A beautiful gift of 2 ounces of Qiviut is drying on my back porch after a warm bath to remove some dust & dirt. It has expanded into quite a large volume. I'll be combining it with brown Shetland wool for spinning.  ..read more

Yes, it's time to weave lampas again. After I finished working on the lampas monograph (see sidebar), I put lampas aside for a few years. Then there was a pandemic. I consoled myself with some old friends. As I recall, there was lots of chocolate. And long walks close to home. But a few days ago I was surveying this evidence of stash-busting in my garage: And a little voice said, "it's really time for more lampas." And so I put a new warp on my 8-shaft loom... ...and started sampling lampas blocks. Warp is a mixture of 10/2 cotton and 8/2 tencel for the primary warp, and a fine wool/tencel ..read more

The final three towels from this little draft are washed & dried.  I am thrilled to report that I love them. They are thick, squishy, scrunchy. The black & white version is especially delicious. It's a kind of texture plaid. The rust one is striped. And for the last one I used up all sorts of bobbins, both cotton & linen. A hit-or-miss mélange. Here's the result: And finally, a group photo of all six squishy towels in the series: They're roughly 22" x 26" finished. While all this towel happiness was developing indoors, we were having violent thunderstorms outside. I ma ..read more