Failing Faster

A while ago, I put in an order for some repair parts for my spinning wheels.   I ordered through Jane Stafford Textiles, because they are one of few remaining Canadian vendors  who carry parts stock, rather than just ordering from the wholesaler as required.  The parts arrived very quickly, but there was a backorder on one item.  It wasn't urgent so I didn't mind waiting.  I almost forgot about it.

And then, with the threat of a Canada Post strike looming, every online vendor out there is trying to get everything out that they possibly can.  It is these small businesses that will suffer the most in a postal strike. Such a shame.  My back order arrived at Jane Stafford, and they shipped it out.  I went to pick up the mail yesterday and surprise!

I got one of these.

 

A swatchmaker 3 in 1 loom from Purl and Loop.  This little gizmo is cute as a button, but I got it for a reason. 

I am a knitter and I think of yarn in terms of worsted weight, fingering and so on, or at the very least by the number system where 4 is worsted and 2 is fingering.  A weaver thinks of yarn in terms of weight too, but the weights are referred to by the weight of the fibre over the number of plys such as 5/2.  Unless you are in Europe or if the fibre is cotton. I think.   As you prepare for a project, it gets weirder.  They talk in terms of yards per pound, ends per inch, and wraps per inch to determine the sett you require to get a pleasing fabric.  

Honestly it all makes me wonder if it would be easier to just join SETI  and search for extraterrestrial life, rather than try to understand how to get the fabric I want.  8/2, 10/2, and so on and on and on.  What do they mean?

It really doesn't matter so much what they call a yarn, so much as it matters that I know how to use the yarn to get what I want. How many metres of yarn or thread do I need to get what I want and at what gauge do I want to weave it?  All this stuff will become things I know once I weave more but until then, aaaaaaaaaack.

I started thinking about my early days crocheting sweaters.  I learned about gauge through trial and error, and once I got to knitting, that hard earned understanding of gauge and why I needed to care, illuminated the entire craft and helped me to grow as a knitter faster than I ever imagined possible.  But how to get that in weaving?  Weaving demands you set up your loom.  You need to know before you start, and that is not an easy task if you have no idea what is what.

This small loom does exactly that.  It lets you weave a small sample so that you can see if you like the fabric before you spend many hours setting up your loom.   I can see it being useful beyond that.  If you are weaving a pattern, it will give you a chance to see if you really like it or if you like the colours you have picked out.  Just like in knitting, sampling first is invaluable.  

This loom provides 3 different ends per inch, and if you don't mind colouring outside the lines more.  The standard 8, 10 and 12, ends per inch can easily be divided to make 4, 5, and 6.  And so on. I can test out all sorts of yarn so long as it will fit through the holes.

  

This little loom is also large enough to be used for small projects and that is kind of interesting too.

The biggest single reason to get this little loom, is that it is a size and scale that will help me fail faster, learn faster and play chicken just a little bit less.  If I am on hundred percent honest with myself, that loom in my spare room intimidates me.  My hope is that one day soon, there might be something wonderful happening.