A Few Picks

The beginning of a new 'week', another milestone.

I have been so very good about not doing anything I should not during the 6 week healing phase of this journey.  Now I'm well past that and getting anxious to reclaim my life.  I have boxes and boxes filled with warps waiting to be woven and two looms with warps poised to be turned into cloth.

This morning I decided it was time to try weaving.

I purposefully left the small loom set up with a warp that required practically nothing in terms of beat.  It is a textured silk (I was told it was referred to as 'gimp' not 'boucle' because there are no loops as such, but made from one very highly twisted main singles plus binders which torques and creates a textured yarn) and set very openly at 10 epi.

The goal is to weave it at 10 ppi, which means the weft picks are merely squeezed gently into place.

My left hand is still numb which is making shuttle handling a bit of a challenge but I was able to weave about 15" before I decided that was probably enough to be starting with.

The live weight tension system is also helping because very little effort is required to roll the fell forward.

Ultimately I think if I weave for a few minutes then go do something else for a while then weave for a few minutes, I will gradually build up strength without stressing my body too much.  I might ask a friend to come help dress the loom again once this warp is off, though.