Saturday, November 12, 2011

Weaving: Days 3 through 5, in which Your Weaver gets Overconfident

To recap, the first day we worked on pre-warped Gallinger looms to make twill towels of unmercerized cotton.  Day two, we worked again on some pre-warped LeClerc jack looms to make twill and overshot samplers in heavier, mercerized cotton.  Then came the big day; day three, we discussed a few more aspects of weaving, then went shopping for our own choices of yarns to make scarves of our own choice (in plain tabby weave).
The other students in the group chose to make 60"x10" scarves out of a variety of materials from cotton yarn warped at 6 epi (so only 60 ends to warp) to 8/5 rayon at 16 epi (160 ends to warp).  I being somewhat insane decided to make a narrow stole, 80"x20" (to be fair, it was the instructor who pushed me to go to 80 rather than 60 inches in length), alternating 8/2 Maine Line wool and 8/2 rayon in the warp, for a total of 322 ends to warp!  Yes, I was the last to get done with my warping that day, but I did finish by about 6:15 pm (the last 8 ends I had to re-do three times I was so tired I couldn't count to 8; otherwise I would have been finished by about 6 pm).  Thursday we wove all day, and I was the second one finished with my scarf (and the lady working in all fine rayon was done first even though she was weaving at 16 ppi).  I was working on an 8 harness Baby Wolf, the same type of loom I have at home.  So here are more of my results:
My shawl on the loom during warping
close-up of my shawl fabric before finishing

a bunch of towels taken off the loom but not yet hemmed and finished

my sampler

overshot section of the sampler


some of the other students' scarves drying after wet finishing.  Gorgeous, no?
I can't speak highly enough of this class.  I can read drafts, draw down drafting, use my loom and any other I might find, warp, plan, and head off weaving on my own.  So much to weave, so little time!

3 comments:

Steph said...

That's awesome!! Very glad to see so many snarfalumps.

galiah said...

i think it is awesome that you found this class- i think it's great to do things you love to do!
the results are really something, and the process is such a great outlet...

Leesy said...

Weaving is wonderful, but I'm still chasing down those elusive snarfalumps. I suspect they may have something to do with doubleweaving...