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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 18h

The flax crop grown last winter/spring was retted in batches over the summer and is now through the first processing stage… mostly so I don’t have a haystack filling up the porch. #handspinning #spinning #fiber #slowfiber #flaxtolinen #fiberflax #flax 🧶

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The guts of the Toika dobby loom mechanism as I open and close sheds using the (sole, sewing machine style) treadle. #weaving #handweaving 🧶

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Warp is fully laced on, only needs a little tension-leveling before weaving. Dobby maintenance is done. Now it is too hot up here so I am headed outside. #handweaving #weaving 🧶

A view from a ladder while lubricating the dobby. The loom is more of less ready to weave now. The top of the image is a gray stool with a shuttle on it. Then the warp is lashed onto the apron stick with fat linen yarn. The beater just looks like a hefty slab of timber, and then the front shafts are visible at the bottom along with the side of case for the electronic dobby mechanism.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Back at the loom, threading and now sleying, for a fine Saturday (and I spose #Caturday) morning with supervision from Pips #handweaving #weaving 🧶

Sleying the reed two per dent for 24 ends per inch. The image shows various peach and copper weft yarn bundles and many vertical white strings of Texsolv heddles. About four inches of the warp - on the right hand side, is sleyed through the reed which is suspended horizontally. The next bundle is ready to go, and the red sley hook is poking up through the reed.

Pips the tabby cat is surveilling the neighborhood from the windowsill beside the loom. The loom reed is visible in the foreground, and the window is framed with linen curtains.

Pips has turned back to her surveillance and is loafing in the windowsill with her stripy tail dangling into the room.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is legacy-preservation project that is close to my heart - acquiring Jim’s equipment and supplies to keep on with his transformative and magical from-first-principles gothic bookbinding workshops. I wish everyone could have spent some time with Jim Croft. #bookbinding #oldways #artistbooks

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Donate to New Old Ways: Continuing the Legacy of Jim Croft, organized by Brien Beidler

New Old Ways: Continuing the Legacy of Jim Croft Through Land-based Boo… Brien Beidler needs your support for New Old Ways: Continuing the Legacy of Jim Croft

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

First warp for the winter weaving season is going onto the big loom (despite it being very warm and sunny and enticing outside). #handweaving #weaving 🧶

A close look at various coppery peachy shades of a wool silk yarn running through a tension box.

The tension box is mounted on the back beam of a large loom. The yarns for the warp are coming from cones on a wall-mounted (and very DIY) creel on the wall behind the front of the loom. The threads come through from the creel on thread guides on a suspended stick and freely over another dowel to keep them all clear of the loom shafts.

A wider view showing some of the bouts already beamed and secured with tape.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Some yarn spun on a cross-arm spindle from a few kinds of paper, started awhile ago and finished at yesterday’s meetup with my spinning and dyeing crew. #handspinning #handspun 🧶

Three turtles (or cops) of yarn on a wooden surface. The smallest turtle has a fine white yarn made from my buddy’s Japanese calligraphy practice (a tissue-like rice paper). The middle-sized turtle is a rich brown - the paper for this was a lightweight commercial rice paper previously glazed with kakishibu giving it the red-brown color and a bit of surface sheen and very high wet strength. The largest and coarsest yarn is from one 11x17 sheet of some cotton and abaca handmade paper that I had made a few years back with Jim Croft. The paper gets pleated just-so and then sliced into a singe continuous snake. This gets humidified to soften it. Traditional Japanese practice used rolling the bundle of strips on a stone to ‘pre crumple’ the ribbons, but that didn’t work well on the stiff papers so I just goosed the recalcitrant bits while spinning. There is no drafting to make the yarn, just adding twist, so one’s free hand can coax a little bit of twist whenever the paper wants to stay ribbonlike.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The mostly-Nordic breed study from #TourdeFleece is almost as entertaining to wind off as it was to spin. #handspinning 🧶

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

The PNW backyard cotton-growing experiment is progressing along very sloooooowly. #slowfiber #cotton #handspinning 🧶

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Finished! These two innocent-looking and superficially identical bobbins conceal yarn made from 27 different samples of 25 breeds of wool in a range of colors and texture. Stage 21 of #TourdeFleece. #handspinning 🧶

A top view of a Lendrum spinning wheel with no bobbin on a burgundy carpet. Two bobbins with gray yarn are laying on the seat of a wooden spinning stool that is tucked up close to the wheel.

Two walnut bobbins on the seat of a well-aged golden colored maple spinning stool. Each bobbin has a heathery gray on the outside. The yarns are superficially similar in medium gray tones but they are from different breeds and have strikingly different textures. The yarns hidden within each bobbin are even more varied in color and texture.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Ergonomic? No. But it’s Stage 20 and the couch is calling me. Last of the Finull #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

A low angle view of the spinning wheel with a very long white yarn stretching into the foreground. The fiber and my skirt are visible in the bottom of the frame as I am slouching back on a couch that is far too low for ergonomically treadling the spinning wheel. A green armchair and books are visible in the background.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Stage 19 is just a little bit of spinning time, ekeing out a bit more of the Finull. #handspinning #TourdeFleece 🧶

The spinning wheel on the porch with white wool singles on the bobbin.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

#TourdeFleece stage 18 has some lovely multicolored North Ronaldsay and the start of the bonus Finull. I’ll need to pick something else for the last few stages of TdF, as there is only a bit of bonus Norwegian after i finish the lovely soft Finull. #handspinning 🧶

Looking down at the top of a Lendrum spinning wheel with a walnut flyer and a bobbin of multicolored sandy brown white and gray yarn. It has a speckled look.

Pips the cat wanders around the porch in the background of another image showing the side of the bobbin.

And end-on image of the spinning wheel’s mother of all, showing the maple front maiden and orifice, the walnut flyer, and white Finull yarn parked by wrapping it around the handle of the threading hook that is stored in a hole in the maiden.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Stage 17 white Dala-Päls and a top view of the wheel and my grumpy friend. #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

Top view of a Lendrum spinning wheel partly on a burgundy carpet and partly on a warm-toned oak floor. Pips the tabby cat is laying on the floor adjacent to the wheel.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Stage 16 after the rest day: Grey Troender, Härjedal, and not-Nordic-at-all Blue Texel-Holland. #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

A Lendrum upright spinning wheel on a red carpet. The bobbin has a medium gray yarn, and the spinners left end is holding the yarn under tension. The unspun fiber is a gray-brown coarse and crimpy mass, nothing you’d want near your neck.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

A little bit of this was yesterday, but for today Stage 15 of #tourdefleece I’ve romped through samples of Dutch Spotted, Fjällnäs, Faroe Island, Hog Island, Finn, and some bonus Icelandic. Here are snaps after the first two and then after the Finn. #handspinning 🧶

A quarter-full bobbin with a gray and brown layer of Dutch Spotted wool yarn and then the tiniest sample of luscious white wavy Fjällnäs wool.

The same bobbin, now in outdoor light, coming up in half full with yarn from the brown (white white hairs) Finn wool.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Stage 14 has just a little spinning on a busy day. Gestrike is the breed for this bit. #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

The mother-of-all on a Lendrum spinning wheel with the latest yarn emerging from the orifice and conveniently wrapped around the orifice threading tool which stores itself in a hole in the front maiden.

The Gestrike wool on the bobbin has a pleasant gray-white-black variegation. It’s got a gray undercoat with black and white hairs.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Stage 13. Gotland, from a fairly matted roving. It is sooo satisfying to see the new breed’s yarn cover up the one underneath. #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

A very close view of a 3/4 full bobbin. Close to the first full lap of the Woolee Winder on the bobbin of white Finull with the new gray Gotland wool.

The same bobbin now more fully clothed in the gray Gotland yarn.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Stage 12 of #TourdeFleece is fluffy white Finull, very pleasant to spin, on top of yesterday’s Gute. I have a couple of ounces of this one so am saving part of it for the next bobbin of this multi-breed yarn. There are 13 breeds left plus some extra Finull and extra Norwegian #handspinning 🧶

A walnut Woolee winder bobbin with a white singles yarn in a dark room.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Stage 11 #TourdeFleece had an unexpected morning opportunity to spin some Gute (ancestor of Gotland). Pips is a little cranky but is nicely showing off her white shoes. #handspinning 🧶

The flyer and bobbin of a spinning wheel are out of focus in the foreground. The the background a recline tabby cat half sits up to stare the camera. Several trash bags full of scoured fleece are also in the background.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Day 11? Stage 10? It’s Tuesday and mostly my #TourdeFleece activity was collecting scoured fleeces from a local mill but I am also getting in a little spinning. Icelandic tonight.

A Lendrum spinning wheel in harsh lighting and a three-quarter view. The latest yarn is white worsted Iceland wool, on top of a gray layer on the bobbin.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Day 9 of #TourdeFleece: four breeds today. Klövsjo, Manx Loaghtan, Roslag, and Helsinge. I also made some cyanotypes and took a nap with Pipsqueak so overall today was 0% practical. #handspinning 🧶

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Two wildly different Swedish breeds today - springy crimped white Jamtland wool followed by hairy double-coated gray Varmland. #TourdeFleece day 8. #handspinning 🧶

A pudgy left hand drafting a very fluffy white wool into a fine yarn, with a Lendrum spinning wheel in the background.

A top-down view of the bobbin covered in the white Jamtland yarn and starting to be overlaid with gray Varmland yarn.

The same bobbin now covered with the gray Varmland yarn. It wasn’t very much fiber so the bobbin does not look much more filled.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I think this bobbin is going to be a serial multi-breed yarn spun from the fiber samples of a (mostly Nordic) breed study workshop I just did at Black Sheep Gathering. On top of yday’s Norwegian, Day 7 is about an ounce of double-coated pinky-brown and white Rya. #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

A bobbin of pinky-brown and white heathers yarn spun from Rya wool.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Day 6 of #TourdeFleece, the consider is all sorted out and it is warm so I am in the shade on the porch with part of a batt of some Norwegian wool. #handspinning 🧶

A close look at a variegated gray Norwegian long wool semi-worsted yarn in progress on a Lendrum upright spinning wheel.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

A little stymied by cone winder trouble on #TourdeFleece day 5 but all of that Corriedale is as plied as it is going to get and it is mostly wound off.

Four cones (with varying degrees of fullness) and a half-filled bobbin of brown wool yarn sit on a green cutting mat.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

This bobbin is FULL on #TourdeFleece day 4. Started to ply the Corriedale marathon of long draw practice. As expected from the irregular first bobbin, the plied yarn has (fairly charming) variation in grist. #handspinning 🧶

A walnut Woolee Winder flyer and bobbin that is nearly overflowing with a rustic two-ply of woolen-spun brown Corriedale wool.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Day 3 of #TourdeFleece is a total reversal. From long draw short-staple wool to ultra-worsted line flax #handspinning. But also there is nothing like the start of TdF to motivate me to work on other crafts like greenwood #spooncarving and #bandweaving on a colonial-style box loom. 🧶🥄

An action shot of left-handed drafting of the flax. It is suspended on a distaff on my right hand side. The much smoother (and damp) S twisted yarn is building up on the bobbin of a Lendrum upright spinning wheel on a reddish-brown carpet.

Another view of the blonde (and moderately stinky) linen yarn on the spinning wheel’s bobbin. Industrial scale tank retting gives some unwholesome smells - this fiber has been deodorizing on my porch for months now and it will still need more alkali and sunlight after (eventually) weaving.

An apple wood spoon half-carved, on an orange table next to a sheathed sloyd knife.

A tubular tape in progress on a band loom (or box loom), with a belt shuttle resting in the open shed. The rigid heddle stays fixed in the box and the weaver raises or lowers the warp to open on or the other shed. Always throwing (ok, passing) the shuttle from one side creates a closed tube. In this case the tube has a bright green seam, from the selvedge threads, running along the back, which looks pretty cool.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

#TourdeFleece day 2 - the full pound of Corriedale (started well before TdF, I am not a monster) is vanquished and the later bobbins are much better than the first one (but I still find it hard to control the grist with long draw). #handspinning 🧶

Three bobbins arranged on a green upholstered stool with a tabby cat laying down alongside (facing away from the camera). Each bobbin has brown woolen-spun Corriedale wool. The leftmost bobbin has visible irregularity but the others are more uniform.

Somebody didn’t like her modeling gig. (Pips the tabby cat twisted her body around on the footstool to show airplane ears and a stink-eye expression).

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Starting my #TourdeFleece by sprinting for the finish line of a pound of brown Corriedale that I have been using to improve my long draw woolen spinning. #handspinning

A blond Lendrum upright spinning wheel on a burgundy carpet with a tabby cat asleep on a footstool in the background. The wheel has a walnut Woolee Winder flyer and the bobbin is nearly full of a brown woolen-spun singles yarn.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Done! I’m pretty happy with how it came out and have some ideas for improvement next time. #handweaving #handwoven #naturaldye #leatherwork #handsewn 🧶

One side of the finished bag, draped over the rear upright on the honey-colored wooden floor loom that I used to weave the bag outer fabric and lining.

The other side of the bag, with a different set of pieced stripes of linen visible. The loom shafts are in the background looking like a parade of white Texsolv cord holding up each of the 24 shafts.

I had another 16x7 piece of madder dyed leather (I cut it and dyed it to be the inside base of the bag but changed my mind about using it) so I used it and some other scraps from the dye pot and the practice-skiving to make a littler insert/organizer container to use inside the bag. The central opening has a base and is shown holding a laptop power supply. There is a shallow open-bottom pocket in front that holds my phone nicely.

The back of the organizer has a clip for house keys and three generously proportioned pencil/pretzel/stick loops.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Are you a weaver (or weaving adjacent) with a 1, 2, or 3-day workshop or half-day seminar you like to teach over Zoom? Come teach at the Association of NW Weavers Guilds next spring. Applications due June 30. anwgconference.org/call-for-onl... #weaving #handweaving #anwg

anwgconference.org

Call for Online Instructors

The ANWG 2027 Conference Committee is issuing a second call for Instructors for the 2027 Conference! We are expanding the potential for an online aspect to the conference where conference participa…

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I have an idea of what to make out of these (literal) sample fabrics, but it will need some leather components so I am doing some experiments on natural tannins and dyes on veg-tanned cow leather. #weaving #dyeing #naturaldye 🧶

Samples of variously treated veg tanned leather drying on a glass cutting board. There is a control sample in the center bottom, a bland bright tan like a Caucasian Barbie. On the left are browner strips soaked in kakishibu (two small pieces are grain up, one piece is flesh-side up to show the different takeup of the tannin). In the center top are orangey peach samples (grain side) and terracotta red (flesh side) samples dyed in madder. The madder bath was heated to 120 F for a few hours last night and then cooled overnight before the leather was added. On the right are some very boring medium brown sampled dyed in walnut hull powder. Probably should have cooked that bath but didn’t bother… all three baths were 40% WOF and the leather soaked for 6 hours with everything at room temperature.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

This one didn’t make it into the class photo. It forgot to have 40/2 weft for comparison with the fine weft. #handweaving #handwoven 🧶

A draped length of line fabric. Most is unbleached silvery gray in color, with 60/1 linen as both warp and weft. The there is a stripe of four repeats of the motif in a much thicker green 30/2 linen yarn. Because the yarn is thicker, the motif is elongated and the angle is much steeper than the angle in the area of fine weft.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Overwintered flax is all harvested and drying. A lot of it had fallen over and lodged so the bundles are a little chaotic. #spinning #handweaving #fiber #slowcloth #flax 🧶

Tied up bundles of freshly pulled flax stems from the second bed. Some bundles are facing towards, others facing away, with green stems and seed heads at the tops of the bundles and yellow stems on the bottom half of the stems.

The flax from the first bed (pulled a few days ago) drying on bamboo poles stretched between two extremely derelict wooden chairs.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Most of the samples from that everlasting fine linen warp, after wet finishing. I have been playing with a photobooth - there will be photos of the individual samples and observations later. Probably. #handweaving #handwoven #woven 🧶

An array of handwoven fabric samples spread out in an overlapping stack. All are unbleached linen in both warp and weft and silvery in color. The left half of each sample has the same 60/1 weft as th warp and looks paler. The right half of each sample has heavier 40/2 weft and is heavier fabric with a more solid silvery appearance. Each sample is a different pattern that either requires or -could be- woven on a 24 shaft straight draw threading.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

The long linen warp is cut off at last (at last!), soaked, washed in the machine, and now drying on-grain on a roller. #weaving #handweaving 🧶

An 18” diameter roller made of bamboo dowels and plywood. A soggy unbleached linen cloth is wrapped around it. This is a new finishing approach for me, from a tip in one of Peggy Osterkamp’s books. It is otherwise pretty hard to handle a long yardage that wants to permanently wrinkle plus the unavoidable wrinkles from modern washing machines.

A wider view of the roller. It is suspended on a bar between a pair of barbell stands.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Next two drafts on the linen warp, and my louche cat Pips. #handweaving #weaving #cats 🧶

Handweaving.net 36861 small squiggles in 60/1 linen, on the path down around the knee beam of the wooden loom.

Handweaving.net 58788 shaded satins in 60/1 linen.

A brown tabby with white paws and a white belly, flat on her back with her head towards the camer. She is licking one front paw and waving the other in the air. Her hind legs are splayed out like frog’s legs. She is on a lumpy beige carpet.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Up next: a divided twill draft by Ingrid Boesel (on hw.net as no 78817). This is just a hair past one repeat - yay for the computer dobby. #weaving #handweaving 🧶

A honey-colored large wooden loom with a warp of unbleached fine linen. The fabric closest to the fell (most recently woven) has long undulations. The fabric in the foreground has a strong geometric diaper pattern. An end feed shuttle rests on the warp in front of the beater.

Another close view from a different angle. Each close view shows the different twills that give the visible contrast.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Newest variant on the linen sampler is a diaper pattern (hw.net 52299 F. Langewald). It’s beating a little tighter than square - 53 ppi to 50 epi - but I am not going to make any adjustments. Not least bc now it is time to go outside to huff the wisteria scent. #weaving #handweaving 🧶

A very close view of cloth in progress on a loom. Part of an end feed shuttle is in frame, with a black plastic poem wrapped with very fine 60/1 unbleached linen yarn. The shuttle is honey-colored wood, and on the side facing the weaver the thread runs through a red hoop (made from a paper clip). The cloth has a diamond/diaper pattern but it is pretty hard to see as the contrast is only due to the extra reluctance from the weft floats. The structure of the loom is not in the frame.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

A new sample draft (hw.net 22048, straightened, this time) with the thin weft is back to being translucent with pattern visible at low angles. #weaving #handweaving 🧶

Linen cloth in progress on a wooden loom. An end feed shuttle rests on the warp just in front of the reed. The pattern is faint w-shaped squiggles (the w’s are open to the left) only visible at certain angles.

Another pass at showing the pattern with a low angle view.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

It’s fun how the boundary between the weft sizes/ppi pops into view at some angles. #weaving #handweaving 🧶

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Same draft, nearly 5 repeats into the thicker weft. From 73 ppi to about 46 ppi. #weaving #handweaving 🧶

A neutral linen warp. There are nearly 5 repeats of a rectangular pattern in the new thicker weft (40/2) where the rectangles are a little elongated. The earlier fabric has more repeats with the fine (60/1) weft and the motif is squashed rectangles.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

So tiny, but the square repeats are just visible (and slightly squashed into rectangles). #weaving #handweaving 🧶

A couple inches of the new draft (see other photo) in naturally colored linen with a 60/1 warp at 50epi with 60/1 weft. The earlier fabric visible was woven with 40/2 weft.

A view of the weaving interface in Weavepoint. The right third of the screen shows the lift plan with 24 shafts in black and white with lifted shafts indicated by number. The wider image on the left of the screen is full color and shows the interlacement with squares of each visible warp or weft pixel.

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Pips’ Left Paw @pips-left-paw.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Switching from 60/1 to 40/2 weft for a change of scale (same draft hw.net 12865). I think I have some unbleached 16/2 for later too. #weaving #handweaving 🧶

A linen warp on a honey-colored wooden loom. Only the reed and beater are visible on the loom. The beater has a transparent ruler sticker on it. The warp is fine linen with its natural silver matte color. The weaving pattern has a visible diagonal texture. In the foreground the diagonal has a low angle - this fabric was made with very fine weft matching the warp so the pattern is compressed. About two inches of the cloth (the most recently woven/closest to the fell) uses a thicker warp so the texture is more evident and the diagonal angle is steeper but still well below 45deg.

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