Heart of a Lion

Lion facts:

• Lions can reach speeds of up to 50 mph but only in short bursts because of a lack of stamina.
• The roar of a lion can be heard from 5 miles away.
• Lions are very social compared to other cat species, often living in prides that feature females, offspring and a few adult males.

3,604 square inches

 I'm always amazed when I lay the fabric out to look at the whole length stretched across a room!

Wow!  What a sight!

 In this view, you can see some of the weave structure before it's washed.  I used a #8 reed with 3 threads per dent.  It made it look strangely grouped, but I know it will wash out and look really nice.  You can also see those "floats" that emphasize the pattern.

 It's the perfect colors for a lion!!!  I like to think of the rust yarn as chili colored instead.  And the butter yellow as mustard... I don't know why but those two new names of Chili and Mustard sound so much more exciting than Rust and Butter.

 I LOVE LOVE LOVE the shadow weave!  I want to do more someday!

Fabric facts before washing: warped 6 yards at 25 inches across, on the loom it shrank down to 23" across, and off the loom it was 5 yards long. 

After a trip through the washer and dryer, the gaps closed up real nice:

It matches Zip almost perfectly...

Finished size across: 22.25 inches (wow, I was aiming for 22 inches!)

Finished length: 4.5 yards

Let's start cutting and sewing!

Lion facts:

·        The mane of the adult male lion is one of the most distinctive characteristics of the species.

·        It makes the lion appear larger which aids the lion during confrontations with other lions and predators.

·        The presence, absence, color, and size of the mane is associated with genetic precondition, maturity, climate, and testosterone production.

·        The rule of thumb is the darker and fuller the mane, the healthier the lion.

This lion sheds.

I have about 2 feet of weaving left before I am completely through this 6 yard warp!

 I have woven this entire lion skin in one spot, and when I actually folded up my loom to put it away for awhile, I found this HUGE pile of sheddings!  The middle of the photo shows a strange orange color on the light carpet.

It completely changed the carpet color in one section!

 You know you weave too much when you change carpet colors!

Lion facts:

·        Lion is known as the king of beasts for his bravery and fighting skills!

·        The lion is the tallest of all living cats, averaging about 5.5 in taller than the tiger.

·        Its skull is very similar to a tiger, but the frontal region is usually more depressed and flattened.  

What is it?

Just out of curiosity, I decided to study the weave structure and I was expecting 100% to see plain weave all over!  But take a look at this:

Cool!  The reason why I looked at this structure is because I thought there was a threading error.  I repeatedly saw two threads grouped together so I checked the pattern and checked my threading and it was all right.   When I looked at the structure it all made sense!

Lion facts

·        Lions do not like competition and frequently attack and kill fellow predators like leopards, hyenas and cheetahs.

·        Contrary to popular belief, recent research indicates male lions take part in 50-60% of hunts - particularly when it's required to bring down larger prey.

·        Also there is increasing evidence that lions do scavenge and frequently attack hyenas to steal their kills.



Wish List

Since I got my 8-shaft loom, I didn't think I would really want anything bigger or fancier than that.  I should know myself better by now because that's also what I said about the 4-shaft loom.  I now have a new dream loom!  This AVL Workshop Dobby Loom is my new wish list item!  And, it's ONLY $5,300!  It's only 24" across, so it wouldn't take up too much space and it's 24 shafts!!!  And it connects to your computer... so cool!!  I think I'll start saving my weaving money now, and maybe in about 5-7 years I can afford it!

SO COOL!!!!

Room with a view



Lion facts:

·        When lions breed with tigers the resulting hybrids are known as ligers and tigons. There are also lion and leopard hybrids known as leopons and lion and jaguar hybrids known as jaglions.

·        Lionesses are better hunters than males and do most of the hunting for a pride.

·        In the wild, lions rest for around 20 hours a day.

Zip: Our orange lion

 Zip did this himself!  

 

 

You can see his fur is finally growing back in!  He lost it just in time for winter a few months ago and now it's coming back just in time for summer.  Poor kitty, just a food allergy is what caused all his fur to fall out.  I'm so glad to see his spots and stripes coming back in!!  We now buy special food for him.

 

 

 

Duped? Almost.

When I first started planning for the lion, I saw the word "shadow weave" and just assumed a tabby sett.  And I would like to inform you that I was right.  But for a second there when I was tying up the treadles for the weave structure, I thought I had been duped because the tie-up looks just liked a twill... and it really made me stop and think about my thought process and why I chose the sett I did! 
I'm most familiar with using the Powell method for shadow weave, so this was new to me.  But looking around at other shadow weave drafts, it's pretty common to find a twill tie-up. 


I am also happy to inform you, I have 1 inch woven so far and the treadling was super easy.  The treadles are following a really easy pattern and it's quite simple to keep the light and dark shots separated from each other.  Like at first all the dark treadles are the 1-4, and then it switches to 5-8 on the 2nd half.  I'm glad that it will be relatively simple to memorize!  And it's not because I love a good challenge, I just want something relaxing.




The very bottom is a usual tabby tie-up, like treadles 1-3-5-7 and then 2-4-6-8.  It doesn't look so good because the threading isn't to make tabby with this tie-up!

I'm excited to see what it looks like when I continue this pattern a little bit more!
 Here is my cheerful audience:

Lion facts:

• If kept in captivity, lions can live past age 20.
• Males weigh around 400 lbs, females around 290 lbs.
• Heaviest lion is 826 lbs.



1-7, 3-8, 5-1...

This has been my mantra for the last few hours and the next few hours of threading because the 6-2 6-2, 7-3 7-3, and 8-4 8-4 are so easy to remember.  This is actually going way faster than I thought it would.  I sat down just to do a few batches, figuring I could have it threaded in just a few days if I work in 15-20 minute batches.  

And only a few hours later...

... we're already half way done!  Whew... that was easy.

I just found one light/dark combination that has thrown it all off, so I am still sticking to the light/dark threading combination, but I will have to go back and fix a dozen crossed threads.  No big deal.... right?

Oh, and it's sooooo soooo helpful when Scout decides to lay down on top of my pattern... Thanks, buddy!

Lion Facts:

• About 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal, after humans.
• The lion’s species has steadily declined 30-50% over the past 20 years.
• Lions typically live 10-14 years in the wild.

Roar!

While I wait for the yarn that I have on order, I can start into what's
next on the to do list...

... the lion!!!!
Look at that mane!!!  I'm so thrilled about that mane!!!

And just what we need is another orange cat hanging around here... 

or a dozen of them!

Yikes!!!  Help me while you still can... well, it might actually be TOO LATE for help!!!

The lion happens to be a shadow weave.  I've never officially done a big shadow weave project yet, but in the past I made a small shadow weave sample and sett it at 20 epi.  I thought 20 would be perfect because other tabby setts like the gator and armadillo shells have been 20 epi so far.  However, those were different because they each had a weft float in them and I think that is what made the difference.  At 20 epi, this shadow weave sample was too loose so I'm going to sett at 24.  I think 24 will work because my lace Christmas ornaments worked at 24.

Just trust me on this... it WILL be perfect!

 

My internal weaving compass tells me so...

Amy says to make 20" wide fabric and only 1/2 yard will make the whole lion!  I'm going to make my fabric 24" to account for shrinking.  Also, when I predict the width of the lion, I need at least 22" once it gets enlarged 200% on the copier.

So I'm measuring out 600 threads at 6 yards, which will be 150 times around the warp board.  

My arms are getting so buff from all of this!

This is going on the 8-shaft loom so now I officially have something on both looms again!

 

Now onto threading those 600 threads that go in a somewhat logical order... BUT Amy did mention to start with the dark colored threads in both the threading and the treadling... man, I hope I memorize these threading & treadling patterns easily enough!  I have several yards of this to do!

I don't think that you can truly appreciate this pattern until you see lots of it and much farther back:

It looks WAY COOL!!!  Just like a lion!!!  I'm glad Amy knows what she's doing!!!

I'm so pumped!!  Let's get this baby threaded!!!

Lion facts:

• The lion is one of the 4 big cats in the genus Panthera.
• It’s also a member of the family Felidae.
• It’s the 2^nd largest living cat, the tiger is #1.