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| Ed's hand-dyed and hand-woven scarves |
When we lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan – before we sailed off
on Tropic Moon – we both had looms and wove as a hobby. With our previous experience, we felt confident enough in our skills to
take the jobs as weavers at Nantucket Looms.
I thought I’d provide some background pictures.
Ed’s start as a weaver came when he asked me to weave a
winter scarf for him. I bought some
brown wool and produced a scarf. It was
fairly rough wool, and when Ed wore it, his neck broke out in a rash. He suggested that I might weave another
scarf, maybe in fine mohair this time? And
since I was dying the wool I used, maybe I might dye the mohair and weave the
scarf using a Scottish tartan pattern…? Among other comments I made, I suggested he do the project himself.
Ed found a reference book on Scottish tartans at the
University of Michigan library. He
bought white mohair yarn, dyed the colors he needed, and wove the scarf on my
loom. He even did the unforgivable –
not dye enough yarn in one of the colors he was using. He discovered the problem when he was most
of the way through weaving the scarf.
Of course, he dyed more yarn and got the color to match. In the end, Ed wove five scarves in
traditional Scottish tartans.
Ed decided to weave some yardage in a tartan pattern to give
to his mother for Christmas. He wove
three yards. When Grace opened the
gift, she admired the fabric. Even
though she knew Ed was weaving, I could see she didn’t have a clue.
“Your son wove that fabric for you,” I told her.
A few tears were shed.
Grace made a lovely pleated skirt using the yardage Ed had
woven for her.
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| Ed's mom, Grace, wearing her hand-woven skirt. |
Next post: some
examples of my weaving.
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