A New Year and a New Shuttle

At the Guild meeting on Saturday, we had a talk from a small firm which makes inkle looms. The experts tell me these are quite something. There were even floor inkle looms. They make various other wooden items, including the shuttle shown above which is 12 inches long. I bought one as it is a bit shorter and thinner than the roller shuttle (Glimakra) that I am currently using on the 12 shaft Meyer for turned overshot. It works very well indeed. I have never used one which was curved like this and I think it makes weaving on a table loom easier and faster. It has a nice feel and is well balanced. The Megado has a shuttle race and Bluster Bay shuttles are ideal for that. Two of us have ordered up a shuttle of a different sort which is wedge shaped in cross section to deal with places where the shed is a trial. You can see these  shuttles at the Rob Dunster website which shows a lot of their products. There is a photo of four shuttles and my curved one is at the top.

From which you may gather that holidays are over and weaving is back in vogue. Yesterday was a Kennet Valley Guild day - we were busy preparing for the spring weaving course which starts in two weeks time.  I had a long 12 hour day starting from Dorset before 7 am and driving through floods, lost traction at one point. The motorways had surface water on them so I kept the speed down. Reached home just after 7 pm, unloaded the car and gave up.

Today I cleared up but only a bit. Lots of paperwork and lots of weaving, including a session on the Megado. I can do 0.25 metre in one hour and hope to get 0.5 metre woven per day. The forms and feeling piece for Convergence have to be in the post in just over two weeks so I should make it. I have 1.25 m done so far. I have also woven a bit more of the turned overshot. I have padded out sections of the warp to sort out the tension. I am about halfway through this project which I need to complete so that I can move onto teh Guild's 12 shaft with vthe last of the four colour double weave warp from last spring! We need the loom in order to weave the Kennet Valley Guild entry to the National Exhibition. Three looms have already been warped up and have gone to weavers to complete their own section and then be passed on. I need to get this last one warped up to be passed on in 13 days time. I could just have cut off the four colour double weave warp but I like it too much!! It will allow me to do some more playing about with colour  and drafts.