The great grandchildren are getting way ahead of me again. I wanted to weave a series of baby blankets to catch up with the birth backlog. My usual sett is >20 epi. I did not want to spend days threading heddles, so I used coarser threads than usual. With 5/2 perle cotton, I could get by with 15 per inch. Ha. I gloated. Only 600 threads for forty inches. This was going to be a breeze. I measured and beamed warp for four blankets and started to thread. My heddle frames are supported in the center, so I usually thread both ways from the middle. I was zipping along at a great rate, threading a blooming leaf which I had decided to reflect back on itself to make it symmetrical. Then I was hit with the realization that my huge collection of heddles on the frames was going to be an obstruction. In order to weave the whole width of the loom, I had to remove 600 of the extra heddles. I was sad, as I was already winding warp for the next project, equally wide, to be sett at 30 ends per inch.
I have never liked hemstitching. Whenever I did it, it looked bad. Since this is a standard weaving skill, I decided these four blankets were going to be hemstitched at both ends at three ends per bundle. By the time I had done 1600 stitches, they were either going to look better or I was going to be dead.
I began with an orange blanket using a 10/2 natural tabby to match the warp and tromping blooming leaf. The second blanket was plain weave with rainbow colored pattern stripes. By the third blanket I was ready to try indigo warp and weaving in my favorite twill, M and W. At the beginning and end of each blanket, I put in a row of hemstitching. Not only was my craftsmanship improving, but the task itself was becoming less onerous.
The fourth blanket was green, treadled in a rose path variation, and the hems went along splendidly. I was now quite satisfied with my performance. I had left a four inch unwoven space between blankets. I cut them off the loom and realized hemstitching them had freed me from hours of fringe twisting. I tossed them into the washer and dryer and they were finished!
Hmm. I like hemstitching. A day in the sun put all the heddles back onto the frames.
