Finally here are some pictures of my new spear’s weaving loom.
As you can see, being impaitent, I couldn’t wait to start weaving something on it even though I don’t know anything much about weaving. Also, it gave me something to do. I’ve been sick and on best rest for the past few days (and missing out on the reenactment event this weekend! Boo hoo! We only get two a year as it is!) and this was something I could do in bed. Spinning, not so much (yes, I tried).
I had a spool of white crochet cotton and little blue lying round so I grabbed those and set this up. I wasn’t concerned with my weaving being useful for anything once I’m done because the cotton was left over from another project and going to waste anyway.
Here you can see me starting weaving.
Here you can see me almost finished
Obviously I have a lot to learn about weaving! But it was fun to play.
Of course, I’ sure random crochet cotton lying round isn’t the best thing to use but I notice there are quite a lot of gaps in this “fabric”, I don’t mean the general uneveness gaps but theones between all the threads. I think with this loom getting the warp threads closer together isn’t practical though beating the weft threads down more could be. But if I want an even weave then I think I’ll need some thicker yarn to weave with or I could possibly double up my warp threads, not sure what effect that would have.
I’d love to weave some linen or cotton/linen tea towles etc but it will be a while before I have enough of my own handspun to do this. Also I’l like to practice on something other than my own handspun so I know something about weaving when I come to use it. Does anyone have any recomendations of yarn to use or what weight I should be looking for? Really, I know nothing about weaving!
15thcenturyspinning 
It looks fun!
I don’t know anything about weaving so can’t answer your questions. But perhaps you might ask this lady: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Elisas-Endeavors/388450527889191
Looks like you’re off to a great start. For ideas and possibilities I really recommend getting a copy of The Weaver’s Idea Book: Creative Cloth on a Rigid Heddle Loom. It’s the only weaving book I’ve bought so far and I am very impressed with it, keeping in mind that I’m a complete newbie. I can also share some supplier names from my weaving class if you need them. I know at least one of them sells linen. Just let me know.
I have just picked up that book on sale at a local yearly craft show! Thanks so much for the recomendation, it’s fantastic 🙂 I’ve found a few places in Australia that sell linen threads but I find much of it is coarser than I like, I’d love some suggestions of where else to look if you till have your supplier names at hand!
Have you tried http://www.glenoraweaving.com.au? I haven’t used them myself yet but they do seem to have some linen yarns and if I recall correctly some of my weaving classmates found the lady there to be very helpful. Over the Tasman there’s also http://www.wheelsandwhorls.co.nz/. I haven’t tried them yet either – I’m trying to buy only what I need and not develop a yarn stash to go along with my fabric stash.
I’ve seen glenora weaving but haven’t ordered from there yet! The other place doesn’t seem to have anything I can’t get cheaper over here but it gives me another place to look at! Thank you. 🙂
That’s excellent for a first attempt. I have a book called weaving without a loom which gives plenty of ideas for, well, weaving without a loom! 🙂
When you wash and dry your finished weaving, the threads will settle in and the gaps will close up somewhat.
And I second the recommendation for The Weaver’s Idea Book, it’s a great resource for a beginner.
Thanks, the gaps closed up more than I expected. I did some more weaving with a 12.5dpi heddle and liked that better as the threads were a little more dense. I recently picked up a copy of the weaver’s idea book and now understand why everyone recommends it!
I’m just getting started on weaving myself, so take this with a grain of salt. I believe the gaps have something to do with the reed/heddle size and the size of thread. A thicker thread is used with a wider spaced reed and a thinner thread is used for a closer set thread. I think you saw my project on my website. I was using a 10 dent reed, which would have been better suited to a thicker thread. I should have used the 12 dent reed, but even that may have been too wide spaced as my cotton thread was pretty fine, though not quite lace-weight, maybe fingering. Or just bought thicker thread/yarn. Anyway, there is a method a very helpful weaver explained on Ravelry about using the wpi’s and so forth, but as I’m just getting started, I’d probably explain it wrong. Are you on Ravelry? I could send you a PM with the link to her explanation. Anyway, your first weaving looks quite good! It’s pretty even, more than my first was, and you seem to have resisted the urge to beat the weft too firmly, which was what I was doing in my first class 🙂 Didn’t see when I first started my reply that others had already commented, but perhaps this will be useful anyway.