This week my weaving life has been spent working on the black and white napkins done in 20/2 pearle cotton yarn. Yesterday, I took all of the napkins sett at 45 epi off the loom. Then this morning I re-threaded for a sett of 36 epi, dropping about 140 threads in the process so I can keep my 13 inch width. For starters black and white thread is unforgiving. It shows every uneven beat, missed treadle, and areas where the weft wasn't quite laid in perfectly. Which for my experiment is great but maybe not so perfect for someone who wants to feel good about their level of weaving skills. Ha! Here goes... Napkin 1 (unwashed): sett at 45 epi, has a tie up that is half plain weave half twill. I really had to beat the weft in to get about a 35ppi. Since I had to beat the weft in there were lots of uneven beats which you can see with the darker an lighter areas and the different sized diamonds. Napkin 2, 3, 4 (unwashed): 45epi with about 50ppi, this was so much easier to weave since I was using the correct sett. My selvedges even fixed themselves, after the first napkin made them sag. For the hems I did a basketweave to limit draw in before I started doing the pattern. Overall, I think it is decent though you can tell on Napkin 3 I stopped paying attention to the ppi in the middle of the napkin, maybe it was when Gandolf died in my Lord of the Rings audio book. You can also see a subtle streak on the left side of each image, that's because there is one dent where I threaded 4 instead of 3 ends in a dent. I really hope that washes out considering it is 1 thread a quarter of a millimeter out of line! Napkin 5 (unwashed): Here I changed the treadling but kept the 50 ppi. I just wanted to make up a new treadling sequence before I changed the tie-up. Napkin 6, 7, 8 (unwashed): These napkins were beat at different pressures. It's a turned twill tie-up which makes the advancing twill threading really dance in the pattern. But it also made the resistance much different than the first 5 napkins I did. For napkin 6 I was determined to get my 50 ppi, which made a denser fabric, but for napkins 7 & 8 I liked the look of it sett at 40ppi better. Although I think I started to worry about the battle of the Ents at Isengard (The Two Towers audiobook) because my ppi begin to vary wildly in napkin 8. Napkin 9 (unwashed): 45epi with the same tie up as 6,7, and 8 but I wanted to try a different treadling. I stayed at the 40ppi and let the little towers grow. Now back to my loom to finish napkins 10-12. Here is a fun parting picture: Happy Weaving! -Val P.S. the drafts are from Coral Strickler's 8 shaft book page 86-87 examples 318-322 threading 3
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This week I started pondering my next project and it uses some really beautiful knitting yarns that I may or may not be cursing when I start weaving. The project is a cover up sweater and I just found some fun variegated purple and red knitting yarn at the most amazing store ever. The Legacy is a place in Sebastopol, CA that is a thrift store for craft items only. It is so fun to dig through and find exciting treasures, like this wool, mohair, cotton blend. Since I'm planning a sweater and this wool/mohair/cotton yarn has to be the weft I had to look for a thicker type knitting yarn for the warp. Well, last year I purchased some black cotton knitting yarn from Cast Away Yarns for a project and then decided not to use it so it's been sitting on the shelf staring at me since. Well why not try to use it as a warp! Recently, I learned a trick about finding out if a knitting yarn will work as a warp yarn. First, you have to take a piece of yarn and hold each side. Then tug on it, go back and forth, relax then quickly pull taut. The trick comes in feeling the resistance in the yarn because yes, if you pull hard enough all yarns will break, but if you hear a crisp "thwap" when the yarn is pulled taut it should be strong enough for tensioning on the loom. The other, possibly more important, test is the abrasion test. Take the piece of yarn again holding it between your hands tightly and then rub it against the corner of something. Rub and rub and see what happens. This is supposed to mimic the yarn in the reed and heddles during weaving. If the yarn falls apart you know not to use it, or if it starts to fray maybe think about how annoyed you want to be, ha! Okay so I did both tests on the black yarn and it passed. Which means I shall try this knitting yarn as a warp, check back in a few weeks to see if these tests actually work. Now, after my last project of hating all the colors I tried I figured I better do a small test swatch to see if I like the two yarns together and, since I'm doing a pattern, if the pattern shows up. Well, I grabbed my tiny pin loom and wove the pattern on it. The bottom part of the sample is the 1/3 twill and the top 5 or 6 picks is the 3/1 twill. And if you flip it over you can see the 3/1 twill pattern just as distinctly. Now I think I can start warping the loom without a headache during weaving (hopefully!).
The yarn is tested for weaving and the colors work together and with the pattern. So we'll see shortly if I have a beautiful sweater or a scary ball of fuzz. Wish me luck :) Happy Weaving! |
Author: Vader
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