Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Weave us a message?

A bit of weaving has been goin on.  I'm weaving yardage for a skirt, using all hand spun wool and wool-silk blend yarns (7 of them at last count, 3 in the warp and the others in the weft, but never more than two weft yarns at a time).
Using hand spun for a skirt comes with its own issues.  For one thing, I have to determine which yarns are appropriate for weaving in elasticity, luster, and hand.  Then I have to combine them appropriately.  I need to measure them properly, which was a bit of an issue, because while I properly calculated my warp, I assumed my weft would be picked at about the same sett, and that was an incorrect assumption.  I calculated my weft yarn needs assuming 12 ppi, and ended up liking the fabric I got at 20 ppi.  This meant I had nice fabric, but ran out of weft with over a yard of warp left to go.  I think I got just enough of that one fabric for my skirt.  Then I used a variety of other wefts.  I dyed a CVM lace weight yarn I had spun a while back, into a purple to match the purple wool/silk I used as one of the two wefts in the main fabric piece.  I used the rest of the one warp yarn I of which I had leftovers.  Finally, I pulled out a heavier singles I had spun YEARS ago, and it worked perfectly to make a heavier but lovely fabric.

But the real weaving excitement is this little bookmark.  That's because I didn't weave it.  Miss Addie did on her new little lap loom.

1 comment:

galiah said...

that is AWESOME that addie is weaving!!! your skirt (thus far...) looks beautiful. can't wait to see the finished product!