Gilmore Loom Follow up

The last post described our new (new to us) Gilmore Loom.  We had put a test warp on the loom and wove a short piece of yardage in plain weave using the same material for the weft.  The yarn was an ancient donation of coarse rug wool in an off white with a slight fleck of orange in it.  The yarn had been passed over for earlier guild projects like a wall flower at a dance.  Too plain and too coarse to excite any interest.  The yardage was pretty blah as well and felt a bit like sandpaper but no real weaver ever threw out a piece of weaving without at least trying to improve it.

So the yardage was stitch and pleated and tie and tie again and finally coiled up and thrown into a dye bath and heated without stirring.  All this in a deliberate attempt to end up with an uneven dye pattern that would disguise the blah yardage.

The result was a trip back to the 60's when tie dye and macrame ruled.


Wet finishing and brushing took off the sandpaper texture and a bit of simple sewing turned our ugly duckling into a decent pillow and a bag that show of the patterns from the dye.

The moral of the story being that even quite nasty looking yarn can have a useful ending with a bit of imagination.  So don't overlook the plain jane yarn especially if you are willing to experiment.