Twisp of Fate

I finished a custom order for a 10-ft long hallway runner last week.  I was nervous about making it come out the right length!  But from my notes on other rugs, a 10% shrinkage from measurement under tension, to the final washed rug, has been pretty consistent.  So I wove it to 11-ft under tension, and sure enough after washing it was almost exactly 10 feet long!  Most satisfying.

I used 2 different materials: the first was a very heavy Pendleton fringed selvage in dark brown, cream, and a lighter brown with greenish overtones.  The other one was also a Pendleton fringed selvage, but much lighter weight (I think it may be a header from weaving shirting fabric or skirt fabric or something like that).  I used that one doubled.  The colors were dark blue, olive brown and cream.

She didn’t want it “too stripy” so my game plan was to gradually fade from one material into the other one and then back again.  Of course you can’t really see what you are doing, more than 12″ at a time anyway, as the rug is rolled onto the cloth beam.  So I just tried to let go and “paint with the fabric.”   I really like the difference in texture, not just the color differences, in this rug – because of the difference in thickness of the 2 materials.

Here’s a closer look at the middle section, where I threw in random shots of the lighter weight material from time to time, never running across the full width of the rug:

Have I mentioned how much I love my new studio space?  Love, love, love it.  It has stayed a comfortable temperature even on the hot days, must be due to the 12″ or so of insulation in the roof, and the fact that the windows are oriented so they don’t get the afternoon sun.  The lighting we put in is diffused full spectrum fluorescent and it feels very natural.

I am getting ready to weave some scarves on my little Macomber workshop loom (model CP, the portable one that folds up).  Last summer I bought new inserted-eye heddles for it, so I decided to take the time to remove the flat steel heddles and put the new ones on the 8 frames.  A little tedious, but one more postponed job  done!

Then I did a color wrap (something I learned in a class with Ruby Leslie last summer at the ANWG conference) to work out the warp color sequence for my scarves.  I wanted to fade each stripe into the next one by interleaving the colors for a while.  I am glad I did the wrap, because I did make some color changes along the way.  The warp looks pretty much like this, except the pale blue section in the middle isn’t as wide.

Here’s the warp on the back of the loom:

And my sampling with various weft materials:

The two that “work” for me are the lower one (rayon chenille, 1450 YPP) and the top one (10/2 tencel, used double).  I thought the variegated acrylic chenille was going to be fabulous, and it just looks like mud!  Guess I will have to use that in a warp somehow, not as a weft.  I have had it in my knitting stash since the year one, so its time has definitely come to be turned into something.

This is an 8-harness plaited twill structure and I will be able to get several pattern variations by changing the treadling.  I’ll write more about this in the next post, and give the reference to the Strickler book.

I put 50 yards of rug warp on my 48″ Macomber loom back in April and started on another round of rag rugs.  I have finished 18 so far – judging by the last round a year or so ago, I must be about 60% of the way through the warp.  I lost about a month of weaving time in June and July when we moved the loom to my new studio space, but now I am back up and running!

This time around I have been using up many boxes and bags of fringed selvages – some are still leftover from the materials I bought with the loom 3 years ago, mostly afghan selvages from Leesburg Looms & Supply.  These are mainly synthetic and/or cotton selvages.  I’m also working my way through some of the Pendleton wool selvages I have picked up at the mill outlet stores.

So here is a gallery of pictures.  Some of these have been sold and some are out on consignment; I have a few orders and am trying to stockpile some for the weaving guild sales coming up in the fall.

068 & 069 - Pendleton brown & cream

070 – Pendleton upholstery fabric cut in strips

072 was bought before I had a chance to take its picture! (not that I’m complaining…)

073 & 074 - heavy Leesburg gold & pale silver blue, white chenille stripes

075 & 076 - Leesburg black/gold/white with mocha stripes

077 - using up mixed colors of Pendleton wool fringed selvages

078 - Pendleton selvages, predominantly royal blue

079 - got a little crazy with the Leesburg black & white!

080 - Leesburg, dark blue with green/pale yellow stripes

081 - Leesburg, misc grey/brown/beige with rust stripes, almost 5 ft.long

082 - Pendleton lightweight (shirting?) selvage used double

083 - Pendleton lightweight used double, gray & turquoise

Now I am embarking on a 10-foot long hallway runner that is a special order.  Should be interesting!

Warning – weaving jargon ahead!  But I need to put in the information for those who want to know…

Back in April, our guild had Robyn Spady come and teach a 2-day workshop called “Extreme Warp Makeover.”  I blogged about it here.  To summarize, we chose one of 3 threadings for our looms, then spent 2 days exploring all the variations we could get with different tie-ups and treadlings.  I chose the Rosepath Twill threading and set my loom up with 5/2 cotton sett at 16 epi, 9 yards long and 19-1/2″ wide in the reed, so I could weave towels on the rest of the warp after the workshop sampler was completed.  The main warp color was off-white or cream colored cotton, with 3 sets of stripes in light blue, turquoise blue and charcoal gray.

During the last 2 weeks I have finally gotten around to finishing off the warp and trying out some of the variations we learned in the workshop.  It was fun and informative, and I wound up with six quite different towels.

Towel #1:  Waffle Fashion (warp and weft floats with areas of plain weave) using cream cotton same as warp, except for the twill accent bands which used the charcoal cotton for weft.  This one shrank A LOT but it is nice and spongy and should be quite absorbent.

Towel #2: Summer & Winter Fashion (a simulation of traditional Summer & Winter by using a pair of blocks).  This was a 16-row treadling sequence with some paired pattern picks within each block.  The pattern thread was a 4/2 variegated cotton alternating with tabby picks in the cream cotton used in the warp.  Note how the dark color predominates the pattern on one side, the light color on the other side.

Towel #3: Summer & Winter Fashion using a simpler 10-row treadling sequence without paired pattern picks within each block.  The pattern thread was Aztec Cotton Boucle from Henry’s Attic alternating with tabby picks in the charcoal cotton used in the warp.  Also used the charcoal cotton for some point twill borders at each end.  The 2 sides didn’t look that different.  This towel feels great and should be really absorbent!

Towel #4:  Twill – pattern from Marguerite Porter-Davidson’s book (p. 17, treadling X)  I used the variegated cotton, with a couple of bands using the warp turquoise cotton.

Towel #5: the same Twill pattern, but different bands using the charcoal cotton (treadling VI from the same set of charts in Davidson)

Towel #6: Lace with Simultaneous Warp & Weft Floats using the Aztec Cotton Boucle for weft.  I quickly realized how quickly this was eating up the weft yarn, so I wound up using the lace pattern for a few inches only at each end with plain weave for the main part of the towel.  Love the feel of this one, and it will be so absorbent!