a photoblog of what i did today.....

[orthodoc]

Thank you! I wanted to share because I find it fascinating as well, and I love the elegance of the loom. The woman who taught me to weave told me about people she had visited in Thailand who wove gorgeous silk fabric on stick and string looms. When the rains flooded their village, they would dismantle the looms, take them to higher ground, and carry on. It's remarkable that we can literally lash wood together, add string, and produce beauty.

To answer your question, glatt, setting up can take 50% of the project time, if you have to completely reset your loom (as I had to for this project). If you have to add or remove heddles from some of the frames, change the reed, and start with a fresh warp, it's very time-consuming. However, I don't weave to a deadline, so I don't mind. Many people settle on a type of fabric they like to weave and keep the reed, threading, and treadle tie-up the same from project to project. Then you can simply tie your new warp on to the old one (still a bit of time, but much less overall), pull it through the reed and heddles, and beam it onto your back warp beam in a fraction of the time. I did that when I made a series of blankets in the same pattern, with different colorways. If you like to try new things, you just factor in the time to set up the loom. When you're handling beautiful yarns it's a pleasure anyway.