Friend Evelyn Goes To The Fair

Day 216: "Friend Evelyn" is going to the Washington State Fair in September. This overshot is from "A Handweaver's Pattern Book" (green version), and I think it may be my all-time favourite despite the fact that the reverse side is rather plain. The draft creates four distinctly different square motifs in a 2 x 2 grid, making the piece look far more complicated to weave than it actually is. I chose to use lime green 8/2 cotton for the tabby and warp, sett at 18 ends per inch. The overshot passes are dark green 5/2 cotton. This combination gave me almost perfect squares. When I took Evelyn off the loom, the cloth measured 248" x 21". Shrinkage in washing and drying resulted in a final measurement of 216" (six yards) x 18.75" after ironing. I haven't decided how I'll use this piece. Options include new curtains for my bedroom, or a tablecloth. The pattern broke easily in the center of the motifs, so joining it as panels should be a breeze.

The End Is Near!

Day 182: The end is near! That would be the end of "Friend Evelyn," you understand. I have roughly three feet to go on a 24-foot warp, and it will be ready to take off the loom in a few days, Catlet permitting. I have to say that while the front side places this pattern in my favourite overshots, the reverse is totally boring! Many times, the weaver has to make a judgment call on overshots...which side should be "up"...but with Friend Evelyn, it's obvious. That said, the face of the fabric more than makes up for the back's shortfall because it shows four motifs in a 2 x 2 grid, no two alike. Strangely enough, the treadling sequence was very easy to remember, and by the time I had woven a foot of cloth, I had it memorized. Now I need to dedicate myself to tying the last 200 of 600 string heddles and winding 1022 ends on the warping board for a shawl in my familyn tartan. Max may wind up sitting empty for a few days while I work on that part of the project.

Friend Evelyn

Day 75: After a false start in which I determined that a sett of 15 epi was too loose for this draft, "Friend Evelyn" (A Handweaver's Pattern Book, green edition, p. 142) is under way. I had woven one full pattern sequence and had even done the hemstitching across 412 threads by fours when I said, "Nope, this just isn't going to do." I picked out the hemstitching, unwilling to simply cut the piece off the loom and thereby waste the thread, and then carefully unwove my work. I rethreaded at 18 epi and started over, and by bedtime, I was back to the point where I'd stopped, including the hemstitching. "Friend Evelyn" had been established officially as my "Christmas Weave." The colour looks a bit off in the image. The ground/tabby displays fairly accurately, but the forest green pattern threads are a bit bluer in the photo than they are in real life. What I love about "Friend Evelyn" is that each full treadling sequence creates four distinctly different motifs in a 2 x 2 square. Two full sequences are shown here. The yellow thread at the top of the cloth is my measuring device. I will weave the next repeat and measure from it to be sure I have 3.5 inches or "close enough" (i.e., within two threads). Minor adjustments can be made when stitching panels together, but if there is too much variance, no amount of wishing and/or washing will make them match up. If the measurement is not "close enough for gov'mint work," the sequence will have to be unwoven and redone. Long years of weaving and joining panels have taught me what I can get away with, and what I can't. When finished, "Friend Evelyn" will be a coverlet.