Groucho's Cigar

My sister's birthday is coming up, and I'm making her a woven portrait based on a photo taken a very long time ago.

Right after she graduated from college, my sister went to work for PanAm as a flight attendant. PanAm was the airline all the glitterati of the era flew when they traveled overseas, and Barbara tells hilarious stories about some of the actors who were on her flights.

One of her famous passengers was Groucho Marx; this photo appeared in a biography of Groucho, as well as in a book about the Marx brothers' stage and film career. It was taken sometime in 1964, on arrival in London. Here's the original:



So far, I've woven as far as the trademark cigar and mustache:



Hope she likes it!

The loom is behaving much better, except I'm still encountering occasional hooks that tangle with their neighbors in mid-weaving, and have to be nudged back into their correct position. In the photo, you can see a dark line along my sister's neck, where a couple of hooks got stuck in the up position to create warp floats. These will be easy to mend with needle and thread (or even with scissors!) once the weaving is cut off the loom.