Quimper Hittys

 

 

This is Constance at the beginning of weaving…a friend has put a cotton tea-towel warp onto her loom and invited me and Constance to weave a 30 inch towel…mine starts after the red line of wefts. First there is a bit of plain white that will become the hem…

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…the person before us wove her piece with lime green wefts! We decided on a neutral off-white for our towel.

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Constance is a very experienced weaver. She is also very helpful: holding the treadling chart;

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…indicating the proper pedal (she isn’t actually heavy enough to depress them);

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…she is ready to catch the shuttle as it slips through the warp shed;

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… and here it comes!

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She also helps to wind the bobbins and hold onto them until they are needed…

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…when the weft thread runs out.  Then she pops out the empty bobbin…

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…pops in the new full bobbin…

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…then we overlap the wefts for a couple of inches and resume weaving!

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She helps count the weft threads to see whether I am beating the reed too gently, too hard or just right.

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Looks like just right to me…

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…and after a couple of hours and a lot of counting, we are done! We  have to wait until the whole warp is woven before we can claim our tea towel, but what a fun way to spend the morning! Thanks Hitty friend!

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