Thursday 26 November 2020

I am cross

I am cross with myself. I have used thicker weft yarns and yes that is okay. What is not okay is the length of the floats. So I examined the draft with care and yes, there are horrible floats. It will not do. So I will discard the warp. I have worked on a fancy twill (no long floats anywhere in this one. And I will continue with my plan to space dye some wool for the warp. Although I am going to wind the warp and space dye that. So must go and get on with it.


Tuesday 24 November 2020

IT`S A LONG TIME!

It is nearly a month since I lasted blogged and things have happened!! I have warped up the Schacht with a Bateman pattern (see draft below) and warped using Daryl`s method which worked beautifully. Only problem the further I got the more I was worried about the warp. It is cashmere and lovely stuff but it seems very stretchy. I checked the sett (20 epi) by wrapping but - but. When I came to weave the first pattern, it was clear the sett was wildly wrong. Measurements showed it should have been more like 35 epi. What to do? The options seem to be

1) Take off the warp and throw it out. It was a pig to thread up.

2) Resley. Problem is the current  width is 12 inches and if I resley to 35 epi, the width will be 7 inches which is too narrow for a scarf. I have not enough yarn to add to what I have as warp and anyway that would take a lot of effort.

3) try and find thicker yarns for the weft. 

I decided that starting with Option 3 could do no harm and I actually managed to find suitable yarn. The colours are not what I would wish. The original eft was white  wool and the same  black/red of the warp. The replacements are pale lavender wool and a flecked dark brown. The floats are a bit long and I will soldier on. I am thinking of winding a second warp for 20 epi and tyeing that on to what is left of the current warp when I get to the end.






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I am weaver and - -. I dye my yarns with acid dyes, I paint my warps, put fabric collages and stencils on my weaving. I have three looms, a 12 inch wide, 12 shaft Meyer for demos and courses, a 30 inch Louet Kombo which is nominally portable but has a stand, two extra beams and a home-made device containing a fan reed. And last a 32 shaft Louet Megado which is computer controlled, has a sectional warp and a second warp beam and I am the proud owner of an AVL warping wheel which I love to bits and started by drilling holes in. I inserted a device for putting a cross in. I have just acquired an inkle loom and had a lesson from an expert so I can watch TV and weave at the same time. I am interested in weaving with silk mostly 60/2 although I do quite a bit with 90/2 silk. I also count myself as a bookbinder with a special interest in Coptic binding.