8 Shaft Pinwheels

One of the 1st drafts I saw when I started weaving was a pinwheel draft. I've always wanted to try this weave and I had a bunch of 6/2 cotton to go through, so pinwheels it was. 

This was a bit tricky for me because I have a 10 dent reed. The closest I could get to 16 epi with a 10 dent reed was 17epi. Sleying the reed was quite interesting since I had to count out the sleying and keep track of the 8 thread stripes at the same time. That being said, the threading was easy because it was a straight draw 1-8 with an 8 thread stripe.

My next challenge quickly presented itself as I tried to decide how to handle the color change. I wanted to maintain a mostly purple selvedge so I decided to cut and tuck the grey weft while carrying the purple. 

 The sett was open just enough that the excess grey weft did not cause a buildup on the left selvedge. Once I got into a rhythm, the cutting and tucking went fast.

I decided to change the tie up for the 2nd scarf .....

Finally, I had some extra warp and decided to play around a bit.....

Now for the wet finishing!

Happy Weaving!

John Landes #2 In Linen; the weaving

So I managed to somehow thread 467 ends on 6 shafts with no threading errors and only one broken warp! Can I get an Amen?! 

Once I wove an inch or two, I realized that I was in for a challenge. The linen was sooooo stiff!!! I made an impromptu bobbin humidor with an air tight container and a jar of warm water. I left the pre-wound bobbins in the container overnight and in the morning the linen was much more workable. I also misted the warp with water as I was weaving. 

My 1st sample used blue wool as pattern weft. I wanted to be able to throw the finished pieces into the washer & dryer, so I switched to a dark purple 5/2 cotton for the pattern weft and a lilac colored 16/2 linen for the tabby weft. The color combination of the natural colored warp with the dark & light purple weft is very interesting. On the "winter" side of the fabric, the mixing of the lilac & natural threads is very subtle, while on the "summer" side it seems much bolder. I'm so enthralled by summer and winter, especially now that I have the eight shaft loom. I may be wrong, but to me, the definition of the weave is more complex with more blocks. 

The last piece was woven all in linen with the Bockens 16/2 warp yarn used as tabby weft and  Euroflax by Louet in navy blue as pattern weft. For the 1st piece, I followed the draft exactly as written. Because of the difference in the epi and ppi the piece and the motifs are rectangular. For the second piece, I tried to square the design a bit by eliminating an entire star motif at the beginning and end and also reducing the number of picks in the center motif. The fabric itself is still a bit rectangular but the motifs are more balanced. 

My warp was WAY too short. I was lucky to get two pieces out of it. 

I'll share some pictures of the finished two pieces soon. For now, here is what I'm weaving at present.....

...4 shaft overshot converted to 6 shaft (3 color) summer & winter. I can't wait to share the finished product!!!!

Happy Weaving!!!!! 

50 Shades of Grey....Wool

I've never used Kauni wool yarn as a warp before, so after the tencel disaster, I thought I'd go back to the tried and true. Since I can't draft a color changing yarn, I was interested to see how this would work. I threaded birds eye sett at 10 epi. I used the Zebra color scheme, which is, as it sounds, varying shades of white and black. The yarn never goes to a true white or black; it is heathered. I was hoping that I'd get solid areas of color that accentuate the pattern and other areas of blended color that mute the pattern. That way I'd end up with 50 shade of grey. 

It's funny, I always seem to lose my place, in treadling, when weaving simple patterns. I can't tell you how many times I had to unweave to get the pattern right again.

Overall, it had the effect I was going for. I had to use a very light beat to keep the fabric from being totally warp faced. Now I'll twist the fringe and wet finish it. I'm hoping the diamonds will pucker a bit during fulling to add some more texture.

I had a bit of warp left so I tried plain weave for about 10 inches with 3/2 black cotton as weft.....

I like this effect much better. The sample looks a bit like snakeskin. 

My next experiment with color will be to use the same yarn for warp and weft. I just got this in the mail.....

So stay tuned for some crazy colors. I'll have to wait a bit for the color experimentation, as I've got a lot of pillow fronts to weave. I'm threading 200+ ends of 3/2 cotton for some large scale summer & winter. Should make gorgeous pillows.

A side note, I may soon be the owner of a 12 shaft 48" Macomber loom. If this comes to fruition, I'm not sure my brain can handle it! I'm just now beginning to see the intricacy that is possible on a 4 shaft loom. I'm trying not to get too carried away, but I'll admit, I've already drafted several patterns for this, hopefully, new loom. My head is just swimming with ideas. 

Happy Weaving!