Norse Kitchen

Day 356: For all of Norse Kitchen having been a "bucket list" project for me (the one draft from "A Handweaver's Pattern Book" I most wanted to weave), I got distracted from it by quilting and other fiberarts. My weaving friend Ed said he'd like to come up from Oregon for a visit, and I thought, "Damn, I really wish I had that thing off the loom!" I've spent the last three days finishing up the runner. Done! The two towels (lavender and dark blue) measure in the raw at 31.5" x 20", and the runner (teal) is 51" x 20". I am expecting the towels to shrink to roughly 27" x 17", and the runner to 46" x 17" after a thorough wash-and-dry. It's hard to believe that this is a four-shaft design, and trust me, the draft was difficult to decipher. As Marguerite Davison had written the repeats, it was hard to tell what went where. I eventually wrote out all 495 threads in Fiberworks and taped a printout together so I could check off each section as I threaded it. Yes, this one requires very meticulous attention while threading! The treadling is less confusing, but this is not a pattern you can work on while your mind is on anything else. I wove it on my table loom which meant that I was working standing up at the desk which serves as my workbench. Merry nearly always occupied the chair which was tucked into the knee-hole, and every now and then, a little soft, grey hand would reach up from underneath to let me know I'd been weaving long enough for one session. If I failed to respond appropriately, a light nip on my leg would remind me where the true Center of the Universe is situated. I probably won't reload the table loom until I'm closer to the end of the warp on the floor loom. I need to get that piece done because I need the extra width to weave a winter ruana.

Update: Got a little more shrinkage in the length than I anticipated. Towels are 24", runner 41". Width came in exactly at 17" as predicted. Fibers were 10/2 cotton for warp and tabby, 8/2 for overshot thread. 

Norse Kitchen In Blue

Day 167: One of the most enjoyable aspects of warping for several iterations of a project (for example, towels) is that you can change up the colour every time. As much as I liked the lavender version of Norse Kitchen, I did want to create something more traditionally Scandinavian. I'm not particularly fond of red, so although it's arguably found more often, blue at least runs a close second. I've warped for three large towels, and haven't quite decided on what the last one will be.

My table loom sits on a makeshift platform on top of an old desk, the drawers of which are handy for holding shuttles and other assorted tools of the trade out of reach of inquiring kitty hands. I weave on it standing up, partly because the desk was too high even without the addition of the plywood, but more because I want something to do which doesn't involve sitting in a chair. Shifting my weight from foot to foot isn't exactly aerobic exercise, but with the weather we've been having lately, walking or hiking has been out of the question. That said, some day, I hope to replace Schacht with a 25-30" floor loom, although the likelihood of that happening is fairly small.

When I Said Complicated...

Day 162: This is Norse Kitchen, and when I said it was complicated, I meant complicated! But only in the threading. The weaving/treadling is actually relatively easy, and especially once the bottom border is done and you're into the central motifs. There, it's just a matter of 1/4 three times, 3/4 three times, 1/4 three times, 1/2 three times, over and over and over until you're ready to add the border again at the end. Oh, did I mention that this is woven on a four-shaft loom, and that the design is entirely loom-controlled? I can't imagine how anyone developed the draft ages before weaving software became a thing. From the time I got my copy of "A Handweaver's Pattern Book," Norse Kitchen has been on my Bucket List. To me, it represented the ultimate challenge for a four-shaft loom. As I am weaving it, there are 497 ends (495 for the cloth, and a floating selvedge adds 2 more). That it required meticulous care in threading goes without saying, proof of the aphorism, "Patience is its own reward."

Norse Kitchen

Day 161: It's official. The actual weaving of Norse Kitchen has begun. This is a rather complicated overshot with a wide border on all four sides, and a center section which can be made with any number of repeats. That is just one of the constraints I had to deal with when laying it out. Because I am weaving it on the table loom, it couldn't be wider than 24 inches. Since that is rather wide for a hand towel, I elected to go with 20 inches, which meant that the center section could only have six repeats if I used a sett of 24 epi (ends per inch) for 10/2 cotton warp. A wider sett would have meant fewer repeats, and I really wanted at least six. The narrower sett is making the design taller than it is shown in the book (a wider sett would have allowed the weft to pack more tightly), and I figure the center motifs will be closer to square than being wide diamonds, but there ya go. It's all about compromise. I was pleased to see that I had threaded it correctly (every weaver's worst nightmare is a mistake in threading a complicated piece). The tabby is 10/2 with 8/2 cotton for the overshot design. Norse Kitchen appears on page 186 of "A Handweaver's Pattern Book" by Marguerite Porter Davison (green version).

Inventive Solution

Day 160: Halfway through the complicated threading of "Norse Kitchen," I became aware that something was grievously wrong. I had counted heddles carefully, but I was coming up short for those on two shafts. I looked at the draft I'd printed out, and compared it to my calculations. They did not agree on the number of repeats in the center section. After much study, I discovered a second mistake. It was time for a major rewrite, and it had to be one which would allow me to use the warp I had already measured and rolled onto the loom. I took a "sanity break" before sitting down with the calculator, and once I'd made the adjustments, I saw that I was going to have to add nine more warp threads on each side. Now how was I going to do that? It meant I'd have to pull the four-yard warp off the loom, and I certainly didn't want to leave it in a pile on the floor, so I wound it onto my 16-inch rigid heddle loom. Merry got a little too helpful during the next phase and had to be locked in the bathroom for the duration, but by dinnertime, I had the warp wound back onto Schacht. If the Gods of Weaving are benevolent, they will reward me for my diligence today with a smooth and error-free threading process.