Weaving wise... cutting it close...

Whew! That was close! Sweatin' the end of placemat #8! I just barely had enough warp left and had to anxiously eek out the last few inches.

It is difficult to weave so close to the heddles as shown in the photo below. I took the picture after the last pick was thrown and you can see how close to the reed I came. (A pick is a weft thread.) About 8" from the end of this mat I had to switch to a smaller shuttle, and when I got within 4" of the end I had to switch to a stick shuttle. The stick shuttle is flat and has little height so I was able to squeeze it through the narrow shed I was getting at that point.

The heddles are changed on each pick (a throw of the weft) and for the last few inches I had to press the pedal to lift the appropriate heddles and also had to use my free hand to press down on the heddles that shouldn't lift for that pick. When the warp becomes short the idle heddles have a tendency to rise when they shouldn't. This technique plus the stick shuttle allowed me to get up real close to the reed.

Just barely made it. But I did and that's what matters now! The weaving is done. The question that remains is whether I can get them seaparated, wet finished, dried, ironed and shipped in time for Christmas? We'll soon find out. Tomorrow won't see much done because I have my cello lesson and will be going in to the office from there. Well, fingers crossed.

Here they are, all eight of them, still attached at the fringe: