Weaving with indigo dyed wool on a home made card loom

At the mill if there is a lull when working on handspinning we make little A5 sized looms from cardboard for the children to weave on in the textiles workshops. The simplicity of these looms always appeals to me, and tonight I have finally decided to make myself one. While my husband weaves on his weavemaster loom I am enjoying a far more low tech approach. It has been warped up using handspun wool which has been indigo dyed and blended with undyed fleece at the carding stage. I am then using a stick shuttle to just pick each warp thread individually.

And I think I will leave it there! The photographs below give a feel for the finished weaving. I had planned to work two more tones of indigo into this sample but I think enough weaving has been done. It’s unfinished and imperfect nature is appealing, in the textiles industry perfection and uniformity was and is the ultimate goal, even in its infancy with handspinning and hand thrown shuttle looms, the way the warp threads remain exposed in this sample is intriguing, together with the unevenly spun warp threads, adding interest. Finally I think the shadows are just as much a part of the piece as the tangible areas, with the mistakes and errors thrown significantly out of proportion.