does anyone know how to make tassles...or spell it??

today has been surprisingly momentous. after a number of failed attempts at getting the new loom back to my house, a cup of tea, a number 55 bus, and quite alot of audible panting later, it has arrived. the one definitive thing i have learnt from this experience so far has been that certain activities are greatly facilitated by the ability to drive a car. looms just aren't made for public transportation...

but there is a huge chunk of all this weaving stuff missing! since the 11th April much has happened, the obvious event being that i acquired a shiny new loom. i have finished my first length of cloth - a three coloured gauze-ish cotton length around 150cm long and 40 wide, and removed it from the loom. i thought of simply hanging on to this post and filling in the gap, but that felt like cheating, like faking the documents and mis-describing the process.

i didn't have time to write about what i was doing as i worked because the reed, a vital piece of equipment resembling a comb with a lid on it, had to be returned to its owner rather sharpish. as a result i was weaving until 1am for a number of days in order to not waste the precious warp that i had spent so long measuring and threading. the cloth is about 50cm shorter than i intended, but it is beautiful. well i would say that...it has encroached on my conversations like a prized pet or new baby, and friends have started to urge me to take photographs of animate things...

and so i will try to remember the stages so far and write them before completing the cloth entirely. there remains a slight trepidation in all my actions - as i sew in the ends i fear for the straightness of selvedges, and washing this object fills me with dread...nightmarish images of plunging happy coloured cloth into soapy water and lifting out a bundle of grey fibre...let's hope the cloth maintains its so far miraculous integrity and that at some point i find out how convincing, non bad-curtains-with-matching-3-piece-suite fringe tassles are made