A Mile And A Half

Day 351: I have a substantial stash of 8/2 cotton, my favourite weaving fiber, so I seldom think about the actual yardage required to finish mid-sized projects. Even when I have something large in mind (e.g., a coverlet), I can usually open the cupboard doors to do a visual assessment: "Yep, I have enough on that cone." I keep extras of the colours I use most frequently, particularly the off-white sold as "natural." This time, I had something a little different in mind: a holiday tablecloth, overshot on a green ground. As I was working out the length of the warp and the number of threads, a small doubt crept into the back of my mind, suggesting that perhaps a single cone of green wouldn't be sufficient, especially since I'd already taken some off it. It was time for higher math. Out came the pencil and the notepad, and sharply on their heels came the scale. No, there was not enough green left on the cone and, as luck would have it, I had just sent in an order and couldn't add another item to it. Cross with myself for not having made the calculations timely, I closed the book and began re-thinking my design to use what I had on hand while still keeping with the holiday theme. In the end, I decided to warp with natural, using red and green for the overshot against ice-blue (or possibly with the blue dividing pattern repeats). I spent most of yesterday on my knees, winding a mile and a half of warp onto the warping board. A mile and a half...7992 feet, 2664 yards! The weft never uses quite as much, but I think we can fudge a little to call this project the "Three-Mile Holiday Tablecloth."