Weaving...,

There is a television series currently on here in the UK called Mastercrafts.  Each episode centers on a traditional craft with 3 volunteers undertaking training in this craft.  So far, they have covered Green Wood Craft, Thatching, Blacksmithing, Stained Glass and last week was all about Weaving.

Weaving is the subject I studied at University, so I simply had to watch, it's been such a long time since I did any.  Now, I wasn't the best of students, preferring to spend my time at Uni drinking (alcohol, actually it was cider back then!) and watching bands play, any studying came a poor second.  But nonetheless, I do still have a fair amount of woven samples to show for it...,

looking back, it's really hard to believe that I actually wove these,

everything was done from scratch, including dyeing all the thread,

although some was used in it's natural state.

The looms we had were huge floor standing Dobby Looms.  Each design was pegged out using tiny wooden dowels or 'pegs', hammered into holes to create a 'peg plan' which told the loom which shafts to lift each time the foot peddle was pressed down.

 There were 12 on the course and we were a mean bunch.  The running joke would be to scatter a handful of pegs on the floor under the loom, making you think some had fallen out of your peg plan overnight.  One part I don't miss is threading loom, anyone who has done this before will know it is a very fiddly, time consuming job, and so easy to make a mistake.  But without doing all that, there wouldn't be the satisfaction of cutting a freshly woven piece of cloth from a loom for the first time once it's finished.  A piece of cloth that you know inside out, every single length of thread is there because you placed it there, and together it really does weave something beautiful!