Quimper Hittys

Stripes at the end

Our friend came over and wove the last tea towel…with the very small amount of weavable warp left on the loom, we made a short striped sample to go into our weaving record book along with the pattern.  The very last few inches were done in a set of narrow stripes, just in case they can turn into anything Hitty-ish…

Tail end

It is pretty difficult to weave that last tiny bit.  Lots of weavers wouldn’t bother because as the end bar approaches the back of the heddles, it creates havoc with the tension, and reduces the width of the shed.

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Knots

When knots start trying to go through the eye of the heddle it hangs them up and creates a messy narrow shed….

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Messy shed results

I wove it anyway, using a stick shuttle since the shed was too narrow for even my flattest boat shuttle…The result is an uneven and mistake-prone cloth. 

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Not beautiful at the edges

Especially imperfect at the selvedges, Oh well..

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Cut the warps

Now the fun part! Cutting the warps and unrolling the cloth from the front beam.

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Off The Loom at last

We draped the cloth on our clothes-horse…Constance admires it – just think, string went on the loom and cloth came off!! The tea towels are not yet done. I have to stitch on either side of the thick yellow threads separating the towels from each other on the warp, then cut them apart, hem each one and wash them to get the loom tension out.

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Thrums

Now we have to pick all the loom waste out of the loom, knots and thrums. Then, dust off the loom and cover it up till the next project.  The cat plays in the thrums.

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