Weaving Update - A Bit of An Argh-h!

          Thanks to Anna, Beth, Dana, Tara, Stacey & Betsy, we have the fun of writing every day for the Slice of Life Challenge at the blog, Two Writing Teachers.

Tweet at #SOL14.

"We sleep, but the loom of life never stops. And the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down, is there when we wake up in the morning." Henry Ward Beecher  

          I started my weaving project last week. I'll show you pictures in a while, but first let me speak for my students, or ALL students. It is hard to learn something new! How many time do you say "Go read the directions, then see if you understand. Come back if you have questions."

           I read the directions, often. I took notes, many. I watched Youtube, for various things, but mostly how to warp a loom. Some of you will understand and others of you are already mystified. 


           I studied, read to prep for today, the day I had earmarked to get everything ready and to begin. It took me five hours to complete what you will soon see. I am not good at reading directions for hands-on things, but I learned a few things about that, things I know as a teacher, but I'm not very patient in giving myself time to explore. I want to do it NOW!  I suppose it's a time thing-too much I want to get to without messing about. This leads me to my OLW, "wander".  Earlier, I interpreted that to be one who does "wander" without worrying about the result, being an explorer. Choosing to do the weaving is part of that, but figuring out all the steps is, too, and I wasn't very patient. Ahem, here is the beginning, and finally THE BEGINNING! 

Remember the directions? Really difficult to decipher, the words and drawings-only working hands-on helped me understand. I'm working on a rigid heddle loom.

See the tangles. I had to start doing the warp wrap (those vertical lines one weaves in and out of) without a warp board, started three times! But by doing, I figured out what the directions explained.

Without a neat warp board, which consists of nicely implanted dowels on a board, I created my own contraption. As you can see, my dining chairs have no protruding spindles, so I had to improvise two upside-down miscellaneous chairs.

I hope you can see the strings of the warp-light green, but this is the start of fixing them. Finally they are all through the heddle (holes and slats)-that cross piece sticking up.

And here is another view, all tied up at the fabric end.

The far end. One can roll out more warp as the piece becomes longer.

And, ta da, the other beginning. I couldn't do more, had reading to do, dinner to eat, exercise... But I do have a bit of a plan, and now, I CAN WEAVE!

Learning in the classroom:

               Everything, everything is better learned by doing! I know this, I've seen it happen year after year with my students. One improves by writing more, reading more, getting up in front of an audience more, sketching more, shooting baskets more, etc. 

               Please don't ever tell anyone, students too, that something is easy. I watched more than one YouTube about weaving and every single one said this was easy, this was the easiest 'starter' loom. Maybe it is simple, and now that I've done it, it will be easier to do a second time, but it didn't help my feelings of adequacy to hear every person say how easy it was.

Next update-next Sunday!  Happy Daylight Savings Time!