Overshot Coverlet

I'm currently working on the 2nd panel of what will be a pretty large overshot coverlet. 

The warp is 3/2 pearl cotton sleyed at 10 epi. The weft is Cascade 220 heather blue. 

Here is the draft.......

I lost the pin for my temple and was trying to make due using a screwdriver but it was too fiddly and I ditched it. 

I cut the 1st panel off the other day....

I finished the 2nd panel last night. As you can see from the picture, I had some tension issues on the left side of the 1st panel. I was much more consistent with my tension and ppi for the 2nd panel. This resulted in about a 4 inch difference in length :(. 

Not on to be discouraged, I decided to seam them anyway. 

As my husband says, it looks good from far, but is far from good. I plan to try and stretch and iron it flatly into submission  after some wet finishing. 

Though I only could find one mistake with the actual weaving, there were some fatal flaws from the beginning. #1, I skipped 6 threads in the pattern while threading. Happily it was a symmetrical mistake which is why I didn't catch it right away. 2nd, I should have added one extra thread in the pattern for the left edge of the panels, the edge to be joined. Since there was one too few, the seam is even more obvious. 

So, what have I learned from this gargantuan project? Double check the threading several times, constantly measure motifs & ppi to ensure consistency and when a master weaver says that they never weave overshot without a temple, listen!!!!! 

I did wind on a massive warp so I hope to get a 2nd, albeit smaller, coverlet out of this learning experience. Since the 1st coverlet was done in star fashion, I'll do the second in rose fashion. 

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Weaving!

Full On - Adventures In Wet Finishing Wool

Well, I got done one scarf. I'm not sure how with my 3 year old son leaving me little presents like this.....

I wanted to try a two stick header, so I advanced enough warp for fringe. Then I wove a 1 inch header in scrap yarn, changed the shed & inserted one stick. I changed the shed, inserted the second stick, them wove another inch in scrap yarn. After advancing the warp a bit, I got out the scissors. 

Here is the scarf fresh off the loom. 

It measured 12"x 82" on the loom under tension. 

I folded one stick under the other and lashed the sticks to the apron bar. 

After I adjust the tension, I'll be ready to weave scarf # 2. Now for the wet finishing. 

I have hard water so I used a bit of detergent ( use dish soap with soft water) mixed with warm water to scour the wool. 

I tried fulling the scarf by hand in hot water, but it hasn't fulled enough for my taste. 

I'm going to cross my fingers and throw it into the dryer. I realize now that my sett was a bit to close for the wool to full a lot. The next scarf will be in plain weave so we'll see if there is a big difference in the final dimensions. Stay tuned.

Happy Weaving!