Weaving at last

All the preparation is done, the loom dressed - it's time to start weaving...

How quickly you forget how difficult it is to dress a large loom all by yourself!!  Suffice it to say I had to get quite creative, using the bench leg, some cord , a small piece of wood, and still quite a reach to be at the warp beam winder while feeding the warp in from the front.  I'll get photo's of my (hopefully much easier) next attempt.

The hand spun wool is behaving very nicely, and weaving is pretty smooth on the Macomber.  There are a few squeeks and rattles that I'll need to wax/grease/tighten, but that's to be expected on a loom that has sat for a decade.

I'm also using a 'temple' of my own design (chain for width, safety pins, string and two weights) to keep my draw in and selvedges tidy.  It seems to be working so far.

The first couple of inches - with temple in place

Small project - large loom

I have enough warp for two scarves - which I hope to knock out quite quickly if possible, then it will be time to prepare the warp and get stuck into the three CF scarves.  I'm in the process of redesigning the pattern (still two shades of blue plus white, and using a reverse block twill of some sort).  I'll post the final draft when I'm done with it.