Thank God for the Unweave Button

Oh, I was so pleased yesterday when I sent out an Instagram photo of the three-quarters-done monksbelt runner I was weaving on the Megado computerized loom at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota. I was feeling confident I would finish up as planned, when !!?#%$!!–I realized that a stripe I wove, about seven inches back, was the WRONG COLOR. If I was weaving in my usual asymmetrical, make-it-all-balance style, this would not be an issue. But I unrolled it and knew I would never be happy if I destroyed the symmetry of the pattern with orange rather than the dark pink. If they had been the same value, it would have been a different story.

But I realized that the top orange stripe was supposed to be the deep pink.

I unwove and fixed the stripe, and wove a wee bit more before having to leave. The whole piece is about 1300 picks (as noted on the laptop). I began the day at pick #707, and when I left–all the way to #747. :'(

Despite the setback, I feel lucky to get to weave this piece–a real, long-enough-to-be-something piece. In the fall I wove this sample-sized piece, which may become part of a tote bag.

When various combinations of the monksbelt blocks were programmed into the computer, a short, medium, and long piece were designed. I am weaving the 36″ piece. In January I saw the beautiful piece woven by Barb Ungs. She used shiny perle cotton for her pattern weft in a muted palette. So pretty! I decided to do the same pattern, but with slightly different colors, with a wool pattern weft, and with the traditional Scandinavian loops at the edge. Here’s Barb’s inspiration.

I chose my colors and used two guides during my weaving–I taped up a photo of Barb’s piece to the loom, and then would look to the “fabric view” of the piece underway on the laptop.

When Barb made her piece, she painstakingly wrote out how many shots she would need of each color! So thank you Barb–my head would explode before finishing a chart like that. I was able to use a photo of her finished piece to help with my color shifts.

I’ll get back to the loom this afternoon, and you can expect photos of my completed piece, and others from this group warp, in Mid-March. The cut-off date (literally, cut it off the loom) is March 11.

Many thanks to the Dobby Weavers group, who set up this project!