Oops

I thought I'd posted that last post, but apparently I saved it as a draft instead.

Long story short, I did rethread for a waffle, but I don't really like it. I'm going to try resleying, and if that doesn't help I'll pick some other threading to try. Maybe this weekend...

Two scarves done, madness following

The two scarves are now off the loom and washed. The brown one is 140 cm long. The only thing I don't like about it is the breaks between the patterns. I'm also not quite sure how I want to do the fringing, but that can at least wait until it's dry...



The green one is only 115 cm long, but I am rather enamoured of the effects (particularly on the centre pattern):


And the other side is interesting too:


The only repeats in the pattern are a couple of sections of zigzags, and the mirror image on the second half. It was a little firm before washing, but it seems to have softened up nicely with washing.

And now that they've been cut off I'm planning to re-thread the rest of the warp to make a waffle scarf. I suspect I'm at least a little mad (it's only 105 ends though, so not really too bad).

Second scarf started

I'm about a third of the way through the second scarf. It's going a bit slower than the first one - partly because I haven't even finished drafting up the pattern, but mostly because the weft is finer.

The weft is a white 2-ply tabby and a variegated turquoise 2-ply pattern weft. I'm really enjoying weaving the two colours (now that I've gotten into a rhythm with it) - I'm foreseeing some overshot planning in my future.

I'm quite happy with how the patterns are weaving up too. And now it is time for gratuitous photos of the first 20cm (I've done about 50cm so far).

It looks kind of wonky in this picture because it's not under tension:


Close up on the first part of the pattern:


Close up on the second part of the pattern:


The cloth beam tension issues seemed to settle down after the first little bit of winding on. Either I was being a bit to finicky or I got used to it (I'm not entirely sure which).

Not entirely sure what I want to do with the rest of this warp after I finish the green scarf. I'll see how much I have left when I get that far. I'm currently being very tempted to try re-threading for a waffle weave, but then I don't know what I want in the weft. Maybe I'll get some bamboo, or some of the "weaving silk" from the (semi)local craft shop. Decisions, decisions...

One scarf done

The first rosepath scarf is now woven. Second one is still in the planning stage (worked out the first 8" or so so far).

One day I might manage to take photos during the day, when I have real light.

The beginning...


And a bit further on...


I know they're horrible photos but I didn't want to wait until I had real light for them, because that would have meant having to stop weaving. The colour seems to be fairly accurate, at least. There will be more photos when it's off the loom and finished.

The next scarf is going to have a turquoise and white weft in more complicated patterns. Unless something goes wrong with that plan, I haven't tested it at all yet...

More rosepath

Started the second piece of weaving on this warp yesterday. It is going to be a scarf in fairly simple patterns (including the one I liked so much from the last piece). The weft is a pale brown merino.

I have about 40cm so far and have taken a couple of photos, but they're still on the camera. Will probably attempt to download them tomorrow.

I think I need to do some tweaking on the cloth beam on my loom. The last piece I had no problems because it was so short, but this piece doesn't seem to be winding on quite as nicely as I would like. I'll see how it goes when I've done a bit more, it may just be that I've tied something slightly wonky.

Rosepath, sample one

Just done the second half of the first sample and cut it off the loom. I'm fairly happy with the patterns, and particularly like the small flowery one in the second photo.





It appears to have washed up quite nicely too - the tabby section is fairly firm, but not too stiff.

I think the next thing on this warp may be a scarf with a pale brown wool weft. Still deciding on the pattern though. And then I might have to order some more of the wool/rayon so I can see how fabulous it is in both the warp and weft.

Progress (and photos)

It turned out that my cold was actually a sinus infection (and probably caused by some sort of allergy that I never knew I had...). The result of all this was two weeks of being sick and not getting enough sleep, and therefore not getting much done. I've finally managed to get under way with not-quite-so-mindless stuff again, which is nice.

The madder dyeing was finally finished last Sunday. I'm not sure how much it was affected by the big delays between mordanting and batches of dyeing, but there is definitely some colour difference. In all three batches the first few are clearly lighter and then it gets rather hard to pick the order.

I think more time may have made more difference at the higher percentages of mordant, or possibly more madder (only used 50% of the dry wool weight).

I will get better photos when I have actually sorted them and twisted them into neat little skeinlets again.


I made the first modification to my loom in the weekend - I added a quick release cord so I can wind it on without having to get up. (It also means I can actually wind it on by just winding the cloth beam rather than having to unwind the warp beam by some arbitrary amount first).

It's the cord travelling from the back, and up to the top of the castle to avoid the beater. I did put an eye on the front too, but then I had to take it out again when I warped the loom (the raddle fits over the front of the loom). It seems to work reasonably well - it's an improvement on not having it, at least.

And I got a warp set up again. This time it's a wool/rayon blend (2 ply, one of each), set up in a rosepath pattern so I can just do pattern samples. I was foolish though, and went from memory in working out the width and sett and originally had it at 12 epi. After getting it all tied on and doing a bit of weaving I decided that it really was too loose. I then rechecked the wpi of the yarn, and discovered that I should have done it at 15 epi (which would have been easier to start with, since I have a 7.5 dpi reed). I resleyed, which took it down to around 7" wide, which I think is still wide enough for a couple of scarves although not as wide as I wanted it. And because I can't count I have one floating selvedge wound with the rest of the warp and the other one hanging off the back of the loom (conveniently tied to one of the weights from my warp weighted loom)


And here's a picture with it sett at 12 epi (just to prove that I really have done something)

I've now woven about 20cm of the first sampler - some of the patterns I made up didn't work so well, but it's all a learning experience (I think they really need a tabby to help them hold their shape)

The other problem I had with my entirely slapdash method of loom dressing was that I didn't actually measure the length, I just guessed that crossing the warping board once was close enough to a metre (it's a sampler, I didn't need a specific length). This has turned around to bite me in that I used up nearly all of the yarn I had (about 20m left), so I will need to order more if I want to use any as weft. And since I had planned to dye some with various types of dye to see what effects I could get from the wool/rayon difference I guess I will be getting more (maybe I'll do some small experiments first though). It's not really a problem, I think I wanted more anyway, and I have been very tempted by some of the other yarns from the same place...