By Katrin on Dienstag, 02. November 2021
Category: Egtved Project

More Weaving.

There's been some more weaving - I've progressed to about 106 cm from the 155 cm of the section with cords in the corded skirt.

Weaving this skirt, like all kinds of weaving or, indeed, about all kinds of craft work, has its own specific rhythm. I'm vastly enjoying it to settle down into that rhythm when working. Because there's three loops drawn through each shed, and I'm doing two sheds as one section at a time, it's a longer and somehow different sequence than "normal" weaving of a band, or even normal weaving of a starting border (which is what doing the corded section resembles quite a lot).

I'm only doing two sheds at a time to have as little difference as possible in loop length, as I find it makes the following steps easier. The weaving itself is a specific two-hand operation, with my right hand holding the shed open, holding the foundation cord for the loops a bit away from the band with the middle finger, and the first finger hooking the weft and handing it through the shed to the left hand, which pulls the loop and places it over a post on my measuring stick thingie. Repeat this two more times, then change shed, do another three loops, change shed and press in the weft before plying up the individual loops. This starts with the last of the loops from the previous sequence, which was stored and held under slight tension on my left pinkie toe - because otherwise, the tension from pulling the next weft loop will eat this one, and that is not good.

So - first loop to go is the stored one, freeing the pinkie toe to take the first loop from my post. Then the five others get plied up, everything gets placed behind the measuring gadget so this sits right next to the stored loop, and the next sequence starts.

These things are like a kind of a dance, using hands and fingers and in some cases also the feet, or other parts of the body. They take a while to develop, and the motions of different people working may be similar, but everyone will have their own specific movements and quirks and solutions. That, too, is lovely to watch when looking at someone crafting.

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