"First Warp on My Oxaback Lilla Continued......"

Thursday dawned bright and sunny. Yet another good day to work in the front room.

The 2nd half of the warp had yet to be threaded, so I got busy and completed that task. The colored ink on the heddles helped with that, too, so I am pleased I remembered to do that.

All of the warp ends threaded through the heddles and reed, ready to be tied onto the front rod.

Ready to start weaving the header, which will bring all of the warp threads into parallel alignment.

Chained loopers ready to be wound onto the shuttle....

This is as far as I was able to go on Thursday. The rest would have to wait until Friday morning. I would have been further along but once again, I had another setback. And....once again, it was completely MY fault. When I threaded the warp threads through the reed, I missed one slot, which left a space. I didn't see it until I had woven the header and was almost finished weaving the hem. I figured it was best to back track, unweave what I had gotten done, move the warp threads, correct my mistake, and begin again, which is exactly what I did.

Friday morning was another bright and sunny day. I was able to finish weaving the looper rug while sitting in bright sunshine. This photo shows the completed rug wrapping around the cloth beam. I realized when looking at this photo, that I had not used the knee beam as I should have. I'd not had a knee beam on my old Harrisville floor loom so brought the tie rod up the way I was familiar with.......forgetting that it should have been brought around the knee beam "before" bringing it up around the front beam to tie the warp onto the rod. If it goes around the knee beam first, it will give me more room for me knees under the loom....guess that is why it is called a knee beam, eh? Live, learn........and hopefully remember next time. ;)

The looper rug taken off the loom. It measures 2'x 4', plus a little each way. The hems were woven using warp thread. Next step would be sewing them to finish the ends.

This photo helps put the size of the rug into perspective.

I compared this rug to one I had woven on my Harrisville floor loom and it is MUCH more firmly woven. The Oxaback Lilla is so much sturdier than the Harrisville that it was easy, almost effortless in fact, to beat the weft in more tightly. Oh yes......I am VERY pleased with my new loom!