Ugly towel. I'm betting someone loves it, but that orange is too crayon-bright for me. I'm weaving a mix of random and not-random stripes in what is my final attempt at an approximation of plain weave with this warp. I'm just going to weave it, no more sampling. Whatever I get, it's cloth. Note that I have not shown you the selvedges, which are frankly appalling; I blame the really badly-wound bobbins. I'll hem the fabric so they won't be seen and it's more important to build a rhythm and I'm actually enjoying that.
Some closer views of the fabric. Looking at what I've woven so far today, it's clear that no matter how tightly I crank the warp (to the point that I wasn't getting a wide shed because the shafts weren't lifting all the way) or deform the weft before beating (pulling it up toward the reed 2–3", changing the shed, then beating), the warp threads are deforming around the weft. The weft is not significantly deforming around the warp.
I have a hunch that someone's going to say something like "Come now, it's not that bad!" I grant you it isn't THAT bad, but it's not what it should be and that both frustrates and annoys me.
The lightbulb moment was a comment about dyeing. I know cotton can by dyed (of course it can), but i've never done it; I only have acid dyes. I've been considering an indigo vat (I love indigo), but Stephenie mentioned native American methods, including just using a muddy puddle if the soil has good colour. And I instantly thought of the chalybeate springs rising out of the iron-rich sandstones of the Greensand Ridge, so full of iron that the streamside vegetation and sediments are rust-red. I'm going to weave the rest of this warp, then take some of it and wash it in one of the springs. Maybe half in rusty water, the other half in indigo. If I really don't like the colours, I can regard the fabric as experimental material. I'm good with that.
ps. If one of you really, truly does love those colours, maybe I could bear to let you have an undyed Ugly Towel. Let me know ;-)
First of all, send all the towels to me. I think they're lovely. A touch of brightness in an otherwise dull kitchen!
ReplyDeleteNext - I don't get bent out of shape in terms of making sure my EPI an PPI are the same when heading for a balanced weave. Consider that the takeup along the warp *WILL* be different than takeup along the weft due to tension alone. I think you're absolutely "close enough" for what you're doing. And, getting comfortable throwing the shuttle and enjoying what you're doing is really important. Keep it up!
Separately, Jeane and I are both thinking hard about dyeing cotton. With all the cotton I'm amassing, I think it's going to be absolutely necessary. Thanks for putting something up! It reminds me that I have towels to do as well.
"45° in your unscientific F"
ReplyDeleteWe have Actual Mercury in those thermometers! How could we be Unscientific????!!!!!
Point the second: the fabric on the loom is not the fabric you will get. Off-tension, washing, drying, etc. all work to change the fabric. Wash first, judge later.
Point the third: I kind of like the colors.....
Point the fourth: dyeing cotton is dead easy, and even color I like often gets an overdye: exuberance is not always useful in clothing. Kitchen towels, it is useful, but maybe only when you live in California? Home of Actual Sun? Where hot colors look, um, at home? Soil dyeing sounds fabulous to me (have you read India Flint? http://prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com/).
There is no point the fifth, luckily for all concerned.
I just don't understand why Ms. Lamb would like towels in purple and gold - there's no red!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever measured picks per inch, and I can think of only one project where it would have helped (very early on in my weaving life). In other words, I think you're overthinking this. Weave towels, wash them, hem them (or whatever), let them sit for a week or two - then decide if you think you did a bad job. Frankly, they look good to me. Maybe you should send each of us a towel or part of a towel, and then we can give you feedback based on having the cloth in our hands.
As far as the white space between the warp threads, that's likely to disappear upon washing, but it could also be the result of a slightly wrong sett. Is this 8/2 unmercerized cotton? What was your sett?
As for dyeing cotton, I don't think I've done it, but I'd like to try. I have about 15 pastel colors of 16/2 cotton that were mill ends and very cheap. Cheap is good, but they're all pastels - yuck. I'd love to weave some cotton yardage and make myself blouses; maybe I should wind cotton warps and try dyeing or painting them. We definitely have some iron-rich seeps around here, if I wanted to try soil dyeing, but I might want to try commercial dyes first.
So what are you going to weave next?