Weaving in Costume

I am volunteering at a Regional Park near my son's house. This is a Historic Farm park and it's basically a working farm circa 1900. They had a loom that wasn't being used.....enter Katie from stage right. It's a LeClerc Nilus 4 shaft 45 inch jack loom. I generally volunteer one day a weekend for a few hours. The loom had not been used for 5 or 6 years. June was spent getting the warping materials (they had to order a warping board) and warping. This month I've been cutting weft strips and finally got to weave some this past weekend.






Here's a shot of the loom itself:






It's in a building with not much by way of light - only two regular-sized doors that can be opened and overhead lights. So, when I'm preparing weft, I sit out on the porch, and that way I can interact with people coming by and entice them into coming in to see the loom.

Weaving in costume (long dress, apron) isn't a big deal, although I'm just naturally not as comfortable in a costume, but the weather here is usually mid 70s. I don't want to think about demonstrating in costume in the middle of Missouri summer. No.

So, a few observations:

This is a jack loom, so not the best for rug weaving. Small shed, (smaller than my old jack, even) pushing the shuttle through. Slow.

Weaving for demonstration is a whole different ball of wax than weaving in my loom room. I knew that, of course, but this really drives it home. Still nice to actually work with a loom, though.

I miss my rotary cutter for preparing weft. I have to use period tools, so scissors it is for cutting weft.

I'm putting the strips together with a slit instead of the sewing machine I would use at home. It's slow.

It's all slow, but it's a rhythm and it's enjoyable. I'm glad I have this to do.

Also, they have wild blackberries growing in the park and since I'm a volunteer, I can go pick. Wonderful, huge, sweet blackberries. And NO ticks, chiggers, copperheads, rattlesnakes. I feel like I'm cheating!

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