New Projects (4)

I have made progress on two projects This is a photo of the handspun warp for cushions. The tying on at the breast beam has to be finished but that will be done today.

I have also finished the Margaret Roach Wheeler weaving, cut it off, washed it and ironed it dry. It has come up well although there is a glaring error in the section intended for the back which ought to be repairable. There was not enough warp left to weave any extra samples and I used the last bit of warp to weave tabby as I think this  cloth would look good as a book cover.

I have also wound off the skeins of dyed Tencel and dyed 60/2 silk onto spools. I think I need to wind the lemon dyed merino into balls if I am to weave Tencel + merino. I have re-read Anne Field's book on Devore and find I am quite safe to use a wool only warp with a Tencel and wool weft. She talks about sett but not for the case when the yarn in the warp will not be affected by the devore process. Myself, I think it will have to be set at less ends per inch than I would use for a just-wool fabric. I think I will do some wraps just to check.

On the subject of cloth book covers, the procedure is to paste the cloth to paper and use that as the cover. The paper should be fairly thin. I was taught to use newsprint (before printing of course). Using the paper has the advantage that you can square up the fabric nicely and then treat it as one for the book binding. I was told to use paste for this and i have done up to now but last week I used PVA and a thin paper. It was a serious mistake. The PVA has come through the cloth and stained it badly. Fortunately, this was intended as a trial and I have not lost too much cloth.  But, when the table comes, I will try another piece of the same cloth (printed cotton) with paste. I was given a recipe for paste which involved boiling up flour and water. This keeps for 2 weeks in the fridge but the problem is that you have to make a minimum quantity and remember you need it 24 hours in advance so I have bought some paste in powder form and can make this up in very small quantities. It only needs a few minutes before it is ready. I can't wait for this table to arrive. I will move the Louet Kombo plus Fan Reed out tomorrow.