Making Music

I've intended to start weaving that wooly plaid blanket for ages, but then the weather started warming up, and I started to think about this towel kit I had, and the next thing I knew, I had wound the warp for them, instead.

After a few days of meditatively and carefully sleying the reed and threading the heddles (566 little threads worth) I finally got to start the actual weaving today, and it's totally worth all the work. Just look at the spectacular colours.


This particular towel is based on a Mozart symphony: the colours of the warp stripes indicate particular musical notes, and the width of the stripes indicate what type of notes they are (i.e. eighth, quarter, half, etc.) If you could decode the stripes, you could actually play this on the piano like a musical score. I have to admit that I made one error in there, though, so don't try to play it. It won't come out right. I take solace in the fact that you probably can't spot the error.

The weaving itself is a waffle weave, which doesn't look as impressive while it's under tension on the loom, but hopefully will look great once it's off the loom and laundered.

I'm loving this project.