[Ansteorra-Textiles] Greetings and Questions

[Sharon Palmer]

>Thanks, both of you, for the advice.
>
>I'm starting to realize that I know very little about weaving.  At 
>first it didn't seem that complicated, but now I'm getting somewhat 
>intimidated by the amount to learn and all of the complications 
>possible.
>
>For example, I was just planning a plain-weave loom, with the 
>minimum number of shafts.  I thought I could weave a tartan with 
>that, and work on something more advanced later.  But tartans are 
>usually twills?  Even in period?

There were twills in the patterns we call tartan now.. There were 
probably also plain weave patterns.  The whole "clan tartan" thing is 
post period.

>I've been looking at looms for sale.  I don't even understand all of 
>what they're offering.  What's a 10 dent reed?

A reed is a device for spacing the warp threads.  A 10 dent reed lets 
you have 10 threads per inch.. or 20 with 2 threads per space, or 30, 
40, 50, etc.  Or 15 threads per inch with one space having one 
thread, the next having two, etc.  A rigid heddle loom combines the 
read with the shed.

>I think I need to get together with a weaver and learn a bit more 
>before trying to build anything.

Among other things, you probably need to be sure that you *like* 
weaving yardage.  If nothing else I'd start with some books about 
weaving.

Some looms are build to make one thing easier, and others to make 
other things easier.  The only thing you really *need* to have is a 
handful of sticks, but a backstrap loom isn't the best thing for 
yardage.

_The Book of Looms_ by Eric Broudy might be a good thing to look at. 
I believe it's hard to find now, but you might try Interlibrary loan. 
Google books doesn't have the whole thing, but it does have quite a 
bit.
http://books.google.com/books?id=shN5_-W1RzcC&lpg=PP1&ots=2D_sfW6k3I&dq=broudy%20looms&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Happy Weaving
Ranvaig