"Doing a Penelope"

Or what I call unweaving.

I spent a bit of time yesterday morning unweaving a shadow that was not only too dark in value but was awkwardly placed. The unweaving was a bit more complicated than it might have been since I've been using a single weft interlock periodically with this tapestry rather than sewing slits. Hence, more had to come out than otherwise would have been the case. Oh, well, nothing else to do but to do it.

Here's the tapestry before ripping out the dark:



Here it is later in the day, old out and new in.



Here's the piece today, around 4 p.m. I have a few more hours of weaving time but I'd like to have it finished by the weekend.



This week has been eventful in the studio. Not only have I had time to weave quite a bit, but a couple of days ago, my 60" Gobelin-style tapestry loom went to live in a new home, that of a young tapestry weaver named Meredith. She's excited about the loom and I know she'll do wonderful things with it in the future.



Here's a last picture of the loom in my studio before Meredith arrived. I bought the loom from another tapestry weaver several years ago. It sat in pieces in my garage for about two years after that because I didn't have room to set it up in my home studio. When I got the opportunity to move into a studio at the Buisson Center in 2006 I jumped at the chance because it allowed me space to put up the loom and to finally weave on it. Over the next two years I wove five pieces on the loom. But, in 2007 I bought another 60" loom, the Ruthie loom that I mentioned sometime back. Although I have a studio that can hold both looms, I've found that I don't devote time to two large pieces at once. So I made the decision to pass the LeClerc Gobelin style loom on.



My husband and Meredith load it up in her truck.




Meredith ties the loom down, ready to drive the six miles to her place. I know both the loom and Meredith will be happy in the new relationship.