Cornerstones In Green

Well, what I said and what I did were two entirely different animals. I was very tired after winding on, threading 399 warp threads through heddles and the reed, tying on the warp bundles, inserting a header and adjusting the tension, so my post to social media read, "The new warp is on Daisy, and I've installed the 'slicky cord' I use to space it. I've even wound some bobbins, but I probably won't start weaving (or seriously, anyway) until tomorrow." With that, I shut the computer down, stood up and walked immediately to the loom and wove the first motif. I find that having Daisy in the living room is a good motivator. I'm far more likely to fill a bored moment ("moment" being defined as 15-20 minutes in this case) with a stint at the loom. Appropriate to the upcoming celebration of St. Patrick's Day (although that wasn't why I chose the colour theme), these "Cornerstones" are actually three shades of green (warp, pattern thread and tabby).

Cornerstones

The first version of Cornerstones is off the loom and ready to have the two panels sewn together. The warp for a second throw in shades of green is mounted on the loom, although I haven't started winding it on yet. I really like this pattern. It's a summer-and-winter, i.e., the back looks superficially like the reverse of the front, but in fact it isn't quite an exact opposite. The winning feature, however, is that the panels will join better than any overshot I've ever done. That's always a bit of a challenge for two reasons: one, the motifs are split down the center at the selvedges, and two, draw-in reduces the width of those outer motifs. Because the motifs are split, some threads which would carry across the center point in the interior of the work are "broken" at the halfway point at the selvedges. With care, panels can be stitched together so that the join isn't blatantly obvious, although a skilled eye would see it. Still, if your four-shaft loom isn't so wide it takes up half your house, panels are your only option for weaving coverlets or throws.

Cutting It Close

It's been 17 days since I began weaving two panels of "Cornerstones" for a lap throw, and I just finished the second one. In fact, I rationed myself to two motifs per day when I saw how fast it was working up. I have enjoyed it so much that I will be making another one in shades of green as soon as I finish weaving the "leftover" warp still remaining on the loom (I always warp extra in order to have a sample at the very least, or another small item). But this brings me to a drawback with boat shuttles: they don't hold as much as a stick shuttle, and it's pure guesswork to know if you've wound on too much or too little to finish out a project. As it turned out, I ended the last pattern throw with about four inches to spare on the bobbin, by pure luck. Yes, I had more thread in the colour, but it would have been annoying to have to load just enough for three or four throws. I probably would have wound enough onto a stick shuttle (i.e., a known length) to finish out the project.

Minimizing Loom Waste

When starting a piece of weaving, most people use spacers of cardboard, yarn, even toilet paper to spread out the warp threads. This takes up several inches of the warp. I don't like having that much wastage, so I use "slicky cord" (my name for it) instead. Simply put, slicky cord is nylon cord of a size close to matching that of the warp. In this case, I used 0.5mm yellow cord because I couldn't find the length of green 1mm I'd ordinarily have paired with 8/2 cotton, but as they say, it was "close enough for gov'mint work." There are numerous advantages to using slicky cord, the first being that it can be pulled to adjust the width. The second is that it is easy to withdraw, so after I have woven the first few inches of my piece, I pull out a few rows and do the hemstitching, then remove the slicky cord entirely. The third advantage is that it allows you to use inches of warp you'd otherwise have consigned to loom waste. I usually weave 6-10 throws of slicky cord before beginning the actual weaving, but as I mentioned, I couldn't find the longer green bit I usually use, so had to make do with three throws with the thinner yellow. Predictably, when I went to put the yellow back in the box, I discovered the green had been right there in front of me the whole time.