Stella’s Chronicles of Weaving
Well, it’s really about looms for me. Just Pagane gave me The Book of Looms one night at the Middlegate Art Night, and I was hooked on figuring out how primitive looms work. It’s somewhat magical to me that you can grab some sticks, cordage, and some sort of fiber and make cloth. Woo! Miraculous! Every time I pick up some yarn to weave I marvel over how much effort it took to keep folks clothed. Not even fashionably clothed - just clothed! I also enjoy lots of philosophical musing about folklore and myths that describe weaving. “The fabric of space-time,” etc.
2025
Baroness Azza al-Shirazi handed me a bow loom during a Baronial meeting. Lord Gabriel West showed me how to use it. This is the origin of my weaving obsession.
Just Pagane gave me a now well-loved copy of The Book of Looms at Middlegate Art Night. My obsession morphed into exploring the construction of primitive looms.
I made a Greek-style warp-weighted loom for Epics of the Stone, which was, alas, snowed out.
2026
Since Epics of the Stone was cancelled, I put on my garb anyway and filmed a brief YouTube video about the loom. If you ask me for it, I’ll send you the link, but I don’t want it loose in the wilds of the Internet.
I started wondering about other types of primitive looms. Spring Camp II in nearby Elvegast had a Mesoamerican theme, so I looked into Mesoamerican weaving. I’m going to have to get back to this. My experiment at the event was utterly thwarted by the intense heat and drought. The type of Mesoamerican loom I made has to be driven into the ground - it’s a ground-loom. The ground was like concrete and the shade kept moving. I managed to warp the loom, but by then daylight was fading and I was utterly tired of dealing with it. To be continued!
I wove a winingas on the Greek warp-weighted loom. Just one. Because although I successfully proved that you can weave something much longer than the loom is high on a warp-weighted loom, I misjudged how wide the weaving should be. The yarn shrank a lot horizontally. It’s only about 2 inches wide when I was going for about 4 inches wide. Noted. That single winingas is now part of the kit that goes with the loom - I found a purpose in life for it.
I set up the Greek warp-weighted loom for a saddle blanket. I wanted to try again to weave something with some width, but actually wide enough to serve its function this time. I had a new pony and decided that he needs a saddle blanket. This was a terrible idea. I read that part of the utility of a warp-weighted loom is that it is well-suited for wool. The weaving is created at the top of the loom, against gravity. Wool is is so pokey-clingy that it works just find against gravity. The fuzzy warp threads lock into the fuzzy weft threads and it stays in place pretty well. This does not happen with cotton, at least not the cotton I used which is very smooth. Unlike with the wool, the cotton kept sliding toward the floor. This project required so many heddles that I learned how to blanket-stitch the back shed onto the heddle rod instead of tying 40,000 little loops, so at least I learned a skill that will help me with later weaving projects.
Somewhere along the line we bought an inkle loom. I think Camillo actually bought it. Anyway! I warped it up and attempted to learn pick-up weaving. I quickly realized that my plain weaving needs to be more regular before adding on another layer of complexity. I made 10 belts as a practice project and 7 of them were given to newcomers at Ancient Embers: Sacred Stone Investiture.