Twisp of Fate

Before I go into the weaving saga, let me just say that things have calmed down considerably here at our home since my last post.  There was an article on regional fire activity yesterday (Saturday August 29) on Methow Valley News Online if you want more information.  There is still some bad stuff going on in the lower Methow Valley, over in the Okanogan Valley, and around Lake Chelan.  It was terribly smoky here this past week and we had to stay inside as much as possible and not leave any windows open.  But our area is back to level 1 “be alert” and we have moved back in and brought the Airstream home. We had some rain and wind yesterday and the air this morning is lovely and clear.  They are hoping to open the North Cascades Highway today, although there may be occasional closures due to mud and rock slides, continuing fire fighting efforts, etc.

This past week I have been down at our weaving guild room putting a towel warp on the loom I keep there.  It is a project from a 1994 Handwoven magazine called Country Rustic Towels.  This was re-published by Interweave Press in “Best of Handwoven – A Dozen Projects in 8/2 Cotton” which I purchased as an eBook (PDF download) back in 2012.  So that was the source I was using to set up my project.  It is a Crackle Weave structure, which is something I have not done before.  There are 4 blocks or units and each color stripe is a different block, with what is called an “incidental” or transition warp end between blocks.

I brought my AVL warping wheel down there and wound a 12-yard warp onto the sectional beam.

Country Rustic warp on the loom

Threaded it, sleyed the reed, tied it up and started weaving the first towel yesterday morning.

What’s wrong with this picture?

The pattern is shifted by one thread!  I went over and over what I had done, and yes, it matched the published instructions perfectly.  Then I went to our guild library shelves and got out the original Jan/Feb 1994 Handwoven magazine.  It turns out they edited the original pattern and did indeed add some useful information.  But they got one thing backwards – the warp color order chart!  Actually it is just a little thing – it should start with 13 blue threads on the right, and end with 12 blue threads on the left, not the other way around.  It is correct in the original instructions, but not in the Dozen Projects in 8/2 Cotton book.

I consulted with another guild member, and we agreed it is most obvious in the light gray stripes.  She suggested that I finish the first towel, then selectively replace some of the warp threads on either side of the gray stripes to at least improve the appearance (I have 10 towels to go, mind you).  That would mean having extra weighted threads hanging off the back for the rest of the weaving.  When I left last night, that was my plan.

But at 3:30 this morning, during an awake period, I decided to bite the bullet and re-thread the darn thing.  That will fix all of the blocks, not just make the gray ones look better.  And it won’t be as hard as the original threading, as I already know it is threaded correctly.  I will have to remove the left-most blue thread, then go through from left to right moving all the rest of the threads over one heddle.  Then add one new blue thread on the right.

If only I knew more about crackle weave, I would have realized when I started threading the heddles that the transition threads were the wrong color.  That would have been the chance to remove the left-most thread and add one at the right, before I started threading.  But no, I was being a “blind follower”.  Live and learn!