King's Flower Cloth

Day 99: The King's Flower cloth is off the loom, all 183 inches of it, and I am halfway through warping my next project. My original plan for this warp didn't work out, and I wound up having to change out the weft when the floats looked to me like they would be too long even after wet-finishing. I wove a sample piece using 8/2, but switched to 3/2 (the blue) for the remainder of the cloth. After washing the sample, I realized it would have been okay ("okay," but not ideal) if I'd stuck with it, but by then, I was well into this piece. I used up the single cone of mismatched blue dye lots, then switched to another weft to finish out the warp with two tabby-woven placemats. From start to finish, this was a "winging it" exercise, but hardly the first in my long weaving career. That said, now I'm faced with figuring out the best way to utilize five yards of King's Flower. I love the pattern, but this is not the cloth of my vision.

End Of My Rope

Day 92: I've reached the end of my rope, which is to say that I have used one entire cone of blue 3/2 cotton, weaving it in the "King's Flower" overshot pattern. I have another cone, but the dye lot is different and does not match, so I will be finishing out the warp with another "ship's-hawser" cotton and tabby weave. I should be able to get two (possibly three) placemats out of the remaining warp. The mats will require another step: weaving a band to apply as a border on all four sides. I just happened to have three coordinating colours of 8/2 cotton in my stash to match the variegation. As to a purpose for the overshot, I haven't decided how best to use it. If you will recall, switching to 3/2 cotton was an emergency measure when my intended project wasn't working out according to plan. Weavers must be able to think on their feet when the vision doesn't correspond to the reality.

King's Flower

Day 23: I've flipped this image over so that the emphasis is on the right side of the fabric (lower portion), although the reverse is also attractive. It's called "King's Flower" in Marguerite Porter Davidson's green book, and I had intended to weave it entirely in 8/2 cotton. However, once I actually began weaving, I felt that the floats were too long for the fineness of the thread. In a fit of, "How do I salvage this?" I cut the initial sixteen or so inches off the loom, re-tied the warp and changed up to the 3/2 blue cotton you see here. It was a less than optimum solution (the thread is lumpy), but it will yield roughly five yards of usable fabric, even though it's not the Christmas tablecloth I had in mind. As Murphy would have predicted, once I washed and dried the section I had cut off, it wasn't as airy as I'd expected it to be, even though the floats were still a little longer than I would have liked. I'm chalking this up to a learning experience, and now I know what the design demands. I love the pattern, and I will warp it again at a closer sett of 20 epi instead of 15, which will shorten the float length by 25 percent. Weaving sometimes requires you to think on your feet in order to tame an uncooperative project.

King's Flower

Day 362: Oh, those infamous words: "It seemed like a good idea at the time." For all my careful planning, measuring, weighing, colour selection, etc., once I had woven 16" on the proposed holiday tablecloth, I said with emphatic asperity, "I do not like this, no, not one bit." I ruminated on the problem for a couple of days, trying to decide whether to keep going despite my sentiments or to simply cut it off the loom, thereby leaving myself short of the warp length I'd need to complete the seasonal project. I liked the pattern, but the floats were too long for my customary 8/2 cotton, and the colours I'd chosen simply didn't play well together. A pair of options faced me: I could rethread the loom with a different pattern, or I could try a heavier thread for the overshot and hope that it would plump up sufficiently to accommodate the floats. I happened to have two cones of a 5/2 blue with the same dye lot, so I elected to do the latter. The floats are still rather loose, but I think once the piece is subjected to a hot-water wash and high-heat drying, it will have shrunk up sufficiently to be used for bedroom curtains or some other low abrasion purpose. The next time I weave King's Flower, I will sett it at 24 epi so I can use 8/2 throughout.