Charleen's Fiberblog

Gamps

"What is a gamp?" asks June. I knew that I was weaving a gamp to explore the interaction of color and structure, but I didn't know what it actually meant. Sample, swatch? Fist I go to Dictionary.Com. Okay, now I know a gamp is a baggy umbrella, after Mrs. Gamp's umbrella. For those of you who didn't know, Mrs. Gamp is a character in Dicken's Martin Chuzzlewit. Next I go to Google. It's an acronym for a number of businesses and organizations. You can find lots of references to color and structure gamps. According to this article a gamp is just another name for a sample.

Scrolling through Google I found some interesting baby blanket gamps and a gallery of color gamps done by New Weavers Study Group of the Contemporary Handweavers of Houston.

Then I saw a reference to the Jan/Feb 2004 Handwoven. Thud (sound of my slapping my head). The whole magazine is devoted to gamps and I know I read it. A quick search through this issue gives me none other than Harriet Tidball's definition of a gamp.
"A gamp is a systematic arrangement of warp threadings or warp color sequences in section of equal size, each section being a minimum of two inches and not more than six, and woven as drawn in."
Oops! I guess I'm not weaving a gamp, according to Mrs. Tidball. My color sections are only 28 ends, sett at 24 epi - but it's still a gamp to me.

For no other reason than they are bright and colorful.

I'm just under half way through threading. I'm hoping I can get it threaded and sleyed by tomorrow night, but I'm painting the kitchen ceiling tomorrow too. We'll see.

I'll leave you with this warping tutorial. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this site is priceless!