I am humbled all over again, after rants of frustration, breaking warp threads, redoing the string heddles a few times, inserting a new section of warp after I was fooled by the “false cross”, tired shoulders, and to add, a bit of defiant arrogance. I was all ready to give up, but then remembering Laverne’s words in her tutorial video about backstrap weaving being such a special thing (which it very much is!) and to get frustrated and give up would be a shame. Those words hovered in my brain and made me take another look at the situation and yesterday late afternoon I put it back on the lasso and gave it another try. Well, things started to miraculously come together, finally!

The small swatch is not that much to look at, the selvedges are poor, and I have had to weave in through the back a lot of broken warp threads, but here it is at last, just what it is, my very first weaving, and an excellent test sample from the yarn that I made myself (see this post). What is the best that came out of this is overcoming frustration, seeing the finished piece, and an eagerness to warp for another weaving project. Another weaving on a backstrap loom may need to come around after I get a bit of perspective.

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣ 

• First and foremost, credit where credit is due; I have been following Laverne’s blog on Backstrap Weaving for some time, and I believe it is her work which has given this style weaving a very deserved mark of excellence. Do see her most artful blog here:  https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/
• This piece was a very stressful, and I have a new deep reverence for backstrap weavers!
• I wanted to try my best at the Andean style, I used my hand re-spun wool, and wove very tightly, but still am learning about how the two-color-warp and false cross works, and I did end up having to warp over and insert some warp threads after bad mistakes in set up. 
• Several times getting up and wriggling out of my backstrap, the whole weaving would flip sideways and I did not secure the shed rod or sword and so they fell out then I lost my shed, had to go back to the default cross and get it set up again. A lot of explanation for the ways I was clumsy need not be written, but I think I would like to take a break from warp-face weaving, as I really crave balanced plain weave, and not to mention, a loom that is secure in place as I like to get up and walk away for breaks a lot. 
• This 12″ backstrap loom is the smaller of two (the other is 20″) and was the loom I ended up sending to Ro in Mexico shortly after my rigid heddle loom arrived.