In the three previous videos, we went through setting up the loom and beginning to weave using purchased cotton yarn to make a set of dishtowels. You'll notice this yarn looks much different; I've spun it out of wool and some parts are thick while others are quite small. I've never before woven my own handspun, so we'll see how it stands up to the pressure and friction of the loom.
I'm a fairly confident weaver, but I'm new to the art of hand spinning yarn. Since my yarn is uneven, it will make things a bit more difficult, and if there are any weak spots in it, I may end up with a mess of broken threads instead of sturdy cloth. To combat this, I used the earliest spun yarn (which was much more chunky and variable) as the weft, where it wouldn't receive as much wear in the making. That left the later balls of yarn (much smoother and stronger looking) to become the warp.
I started to spin this yarn last winter, and finished and dyed it in the summer. After it's woven, this fabric will be cut (eep!) and sewn into a simple poncho-like garment called a ruana. It's always scary cutting into cloth you spent so much time weaving, and it may take me a bit to get up the nerve to cut cloth that I not only wove, but dyed and spun. After all this work, it's easy to see why traditional garments were valued so highly and were often very loosely fitted - I don't want to waste a scrap!