So yesterday I decided I'd had enough plain weave and cut what I'd woven off the loom. Only two towels-worth, but still: the longest, widest bit of cloth I've ever made, and I sort of like it now. It's still not my colours
But it might suit the kitchen:
The colours are most accurate in the mirror; in the kitchen they look as I thought they'd look. Maybe some mud is called for... or perhaps the dregs of a bottle of red wine?
I re-sleyed to 25epi as the recommended set for this as twill is 24... and guess what? it's horrible.
I discovered halfway through the towel that I'd misread the colours when making the warp, missing out what they call 'dark purple' and I thought was black until the sun reappeared in February. Plan was to weave the twill with the dark purple, but not only is it horribly open at 25epi, the dark is Too Much.
I wove an inch of plain weave to start and now I'm eyeing - and feeling - it thoughtfully. I've found a double beat of the reed forces the weft down nicely for a balanced or nearly balanced weave. The band was a mistake if I was to weave twill, as it's forced the first bit of the fabric to be too wide. Which i knew from theory, but now I've seen it. At 25epi the fabric is significantly stiffer than it was at 22.5epi, but I sort of like it. I think it might soften with use and wear well. So I'll just weave the rest of the warp off like that. I'm guessing you're probably tired of this warp, but I'm not - I'm still having fun learning stuff.
In case you are aren't bored, here's something very similar to something you've seen before:
I went to the local Guild meeting on Saturday primarily to visit the Weaver's Bazaar stall and see the wool colours in person, because no matter how I arranged it, the set of wools I had was lacking something. I found it: the plum red. Now I can plan how to do this. I'm slightly surprised by how very particular my colour sense is when I put it to the test. When I have time I will work out a wrap.
I bought a colour card and a few balls of colours I thought I'd need for reference. I also took along a skein of handspun cash/silk, a Spirit Trail one-off. I've been thinking of making a scarf from it, but had to find the right companion. The stash was not helpful: silver silk is too bright, dark merino/silk is too dark. I may have found an answer even if I don't use the wool. I'm not sure it's soft enough to partner the cash/silk, but on the other hand, the cash/silk will make it soft so perhaps that doesn't matter? Thoughts?
I know, it's bland. Taupe, to be precise. But every colour I tried was too strong for the subtle shades in the handspun. Black is striking ... too striking, cream is worth further consideration (maybe I should spin some merino for it in my copious spare time), but every colour shines against that neutral. Or so it seems to me.
From bottom to top:
ReplyDeleteI think that silver wool might very well work for the Spirit Trail cash/silk. Or, of course, you could send the Spirit Trail to me. (kidding!)
I like the plum red with the other colors, but you sort of never know until you put them together )I never know, at any rate). Try wrapping a card; that helped me a lot with the three pounds of Abstract Fibers and Rovings purples I spun.
The towel warp: Those aren't my colors, either, at least not together quite like that. However, hooray for finishing the plainweave part! And for learning so much! Can you re-sett the twill part to an even tighter sett (28 or 30?) and see what you think of that? Somewhere, I read that Proper Weavers (which I'm not) always sample, and they always cut off the sample, save half of it unwashed in their sample book, and wash the other half, before deciding on the final sett for the cloth. I suppose being that anal, er. organized would make sense if one were planning to weave 20 yards of wool upholstery for the living room, or knew absolutely that one was going to use that kind of yarn again over and over, but I haven't followed that advice. If I'm using a common yarn (8/2 unmercerized cotton, say), I just sett it at the setts recommended by everyone and I'm happy with that. For the scarves I've woven with hand-painted sock/lace yarns, there is no recommended sett. So then, I measure the wpi, use half that for plainweave, about 2/3rds that for twill, and then tighten up a little more, because Lambspin says so (and she's right). So far, that's worked great for scarves.
You have discovered and confirmed what another weaver-friend also confirmed this week: twill can overwhelm (hush! I know I repeat myself).
ReplyDeleteWhen there is a lot of color in the warp, I like the weave structure to be simple (hush! I know I repeat myself).
A good exercise (and one I found profound and life-changing) is to wind a warp, sett it for assumed standard in plain weave, weave off a bit (a yard?), change the sett closer, weave off a bit (a yard?) change the sett further, weave off a bit (a yard?) and then wash and feel them all. They are all right, just for different things: clothing, handtowels, upholstery, whatever.
(hush! I know I repeat myself)
If the wool feels too coarse for the cash/silk, find another warp. It will not improve with weaving, it will always drag the softer yarn down with it, and you will be sorry to have lost your cash silk to the coarser of the two hands. It's not all about the color (shocked! I know, me too). Sad experience speaking.
You know, I think it's good you repeat yourself, Sara; it certainly took me YEARS to actually hear you say warp-dominant is good. Of course, I'm slow.
DeleteNow, as to your sampling exercise, how should we deal with doing that when we're weaving relatively small lots of handspun? For example, I spun a pound of the BFL for my Thunderstorm Shawl and I used all of it for warp in a warp-faced shawl (with very little left over as thrums). Should I spin the same fiber over and over again, in the same way, to the same grist, and experiment with setts? Or, for that matter, experiment with wefts? The Harrisville Shetland worked great for the weft in my Thunderstorm Shawl, but I wonder if the fabric would have been drapier if I had used a 2/20 Jaggerspun Merino, or even a 2/20 silk. I very much like the handspun BFL and it would not break my heart to limit myself to that for shawl and scarf weaving.
Well, one might wonder why I have so many scarves?
DeleteOr one might also use similar, if not exact, fibers for various. I used kid mohair to sample for my Terry-pygora for the book. It was instructive enough to make deductions, and the final project is all the better for it.
And now I have a kid-mohair and a pygora scarf, to add to all of the silk ones.
Narrow-fabrics plain weave makes for quick work too. Although quick is relative.