Not Quite Table Runner, Not Quite Placemat Thing

My first official floor loom project is finished! What is it? I call it The Not Quite Table Runner, Not Quite Placemat Thing. I love it. So humor me as I rehash my trials and tribulations as a novice weaver. I also don't know a lot of the terminology yet and continually embarrass myself calling things "thingy's" and "jiggamabob's" but hopefully you can follow me. Non-weavers may want to look at the pictures and skip ahead to the bit at the end about knitting. (No offense or anything, but it's a lot of technical mumbo jumbo and even weavers will be bored)


It took me awhile, as expected, to thread the heddles. It was easier to do the left side then it was to do the right side. I stuck to Terry's (my teacher) claw method as my brain stopped holding information when I was shown an alternative method. I thought I was doing fine sleying the reed, but my order got messed up here and there. For the most part it was 1,1,1,2 but I found a section that was 2, 2 but I figured it was no biggy. *gulp* As I started weaving I could see my sleying order, which made me nervous because I thought I had done something wrong, but mistakes are beautiful, right?

Well, then I must have tied the warp incorrectly, because as I began to wind it around the cloth beam, the knots started sliding. (I tried Darby's rabbit ear knot thing, but again, I think I was missing a step). Perhaps I should have stuck with what I knew, which was the surgeons knot, at any rate...I went back and retied the knots as best I could but my tension was off. I was still very pleased that my weaving didn't end up too wonky. I was able to wind it on the cloth beam evenly, despite the tension being loose.

I forgot to put 2 floating selvedges on each end and only put one on each end. Atleast I put floating selvedges and gave myself a pat on the back for that one and moved on. Figured out my treadle order (march right left, right, left) and put my plain weave treadles on the outside. Not sure if that's how it should be done but it worked for me. Lesson learned, tie up extra treadle ties, otherwise they catch on the treadle hooks and lift unwanted shafts. Otherwise a pretty, but not planned design will be produced. It was exciting to finally get the hang of throwing the shuttle, boat shuttles rock! (Such a newbie, I know)


When I was done, I just cut the warp. I didn't want to untie the knots in the front because I wanted them as reference for next time I wind on a warp. Originally I thought I was going to hem the edges, but the cloth was thick and loose so I figured I would just do an overcast stitch on the edges. Well that's nearly impossible off the loom so I pulled out my sewing machine and did a tight zig zag stitch on the plain weave section and called it a day.


Washed it, ironed it, and yay! Here it is, The Not Quite Table Runner, Not Quite Placemat Thing. I'm very happy.


I've been showing a lot of yarn and very few projects lately, so I won't bore you with another picture of another skein of yarn. All I will say is that I've joined this:

HOORAY!