weaving with Milarrochy Tweed

Good morning! I spent yesterday afternoon sat outside on the freshly painted decking, weaving in the sunshine.

Which really felt like quite a treat.

I’ve been wanting to weave with my own Milarrochy Tweed for a while, and yesterday I decided to finally take the plunge.

I was a little nervous for two reasons: first, apart from one random attempt with a rug-type yarn very early in my weaving experiments, I’d not woven with wool before. Were my beginner skills up to it? Second, Milarrochy Tweed is a slubby, naturally thick-and-thin, single ply yarn – how well would it hold up to being warped and woven under tension?

I went for a really simple striped draft, so as not to warp my mind too much when warping. Tom helps me set up my loom, and with a more complicated patttern there can be quite a bit of muttering of ‘heddled’ or ‘open’ while I pass him different shades of yarn, and try not to get things tangled.

We treated the yarn quite tenderly while winding it around the loom, but I was immediately heartened, once we’d got things set up, that the warp felt incredibly stable, sproingy, and robust.

Soon I was weaving away!

I did have to take more care with the weft yarn than I might ordinarily do when weaving with cotton, though.

I was worried about breakages . . . I was worried about how neat my selvedges would be, given the yarn’s tweedy neps and slubby, uneven nature. . . .

. . . but although I think my selvedges might certainly have been neater, I was happy to find how easy and pleasant the yarn was to weave with – it felt so soft and springy in the hand and just seemed to want to move itself around the loom – definitely a different experience to the weaving cottons I’ve been using heretofore.

And I was also pleasantly surprised by the evenness of the fabric I eventually produced.

I took my weaving off the loom, blocked it with some steam, and yesterday evening, whipped up a belt.

I love the finished piece.

It seems that just like when knitting, when weaving, Milarrochy Tweed works up into a smooth, sturdy fabric

It’s super-simple, but I think this might be my favourite belt yet, just because its in my yarn . . .

. . . and perhaps also because it is such a good match for one of my favourite Milarrochy Tweed garments – I’ll show you the whole outfit tomorrow!