Fiber Monday - The right tools

It's been a while since I shared any weaving on my big loom with you. That's because it has spent a great amount of time in time-out these past few months. I would start, some warp ends would break, I would fix that, restart, some warp threads would break and I would put the loom in time-out. Over and over and over. I would think I had figured out what was wrong, but then the same cycle would happen.

It was frustrating. 

Very frustrating. 

It's probably a good thing my loom is too big to pick up and throw across the room. 

I finally asked a weaving friend over to help me figure it out. She had some very good suggestions that I wasn't aware of and she loaned me her temple. What's a temple? This is:


The temple is the wooden stretcher towards the bottom of the weaving. It holds the woven fabric to the correct size and prevents it from pulling in. I am hopeful that I can finish weaving this warp and get something worthwhile out of it. 

My original plan was to weave two throws, keeping one and offering the second for sale. I've now restarted so many times that I don't have enough warp to make two throws. Right now I'm thinking perhaps one throw and some yardage? Just yardage? Weave the warp and see what it looks like and decide then? Because truly, at this point I just want it off the loom. If I were to weave yardage for sewing I wouldn't need to worry about the selvedges where the breakage is happening. But I'm also torn because it's also really pretty...


I think I just need to weave it off and be done with it. I also think I need to save my pennies and invest in my own temple. 

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