"Warped Weavers" Tartan Ruana

You'll have to forgive the less-than-glamorous model. Your attention should be directed to the ruana. This is the "Warped Weavers" tartan, developed by Caryl Bohn for the Acton Creative weavers' group on Facebook, and registered with the Scottish Registry of Tartans, #15142. After much experimentation to get a 50/50 weave using 8/2 cotton, I settled on 24 epi with a slightly harder than usual beat. It was woven as two panels matching the wider red stripe in the center back. Finished, it measures 60" x 40", and has a turned hem. There are many ways to wear a ruana (belted or otherwise), the most elementary being to just drape it around your shoulders as I have done in the center photo. Alternately, one end can then be thrown over a shoulder. It's perfect for those times when you just want to warm up a bit without putting on a sweater/jumper or a long-sleeved shirt.

Warped Weavers Tartan

I'm back in the saddle again! Since discovering that I didn't have enough of the dark purple thread for the weft of this project, I've been waiting, first for my supplier to restock it, and then for the shipper to deliver it (a process which took much longer than it should have). It arrived yesterday, and almost immediately, I wound a bobbin and picked up where I'd left off, weaving several inches before bedtime. This is the "Warped Weavers" tartan, designed and officially registered by a member of a weaving group I belong to. As a Scot, I find myself in two minds about this. "Tartan" to me identifies a person as a member of a specific clan, linked by genetics. However, in recent years, the rules have been relaxed, and businesses and groups are creating their own tartans and can submit them to the Scottish Registry of Tartans for approval. If a new tartan does not conflict with an existing one and follows basic rules of design, it can be registered and becomes "official." In one way, that ruffles my feathers, but on the other hand, it speaks of an allegiance not unlike what clans were in the dim beginnings. The tipping point for me in this case was the appeal of the colours. I love every shade in this design! I deliberated for some time as to whether or not I'd actually weave something using it, and finally decided in favour of a ruana. Don't worry. If I go to any Highland Games, I'll be wrapped in my family McLeod.

Lab vs. Field

As any scientist will tell you, something which works perfectly in the lab still may not play out properly in the field. That was the case here. I did a careful "twill test" to determine that a sett of 26 ends per inch would give me a 45-degree angle (a balanced weave, same number of throws per inch as warp threads per inch). I even washed and dried the blankety-blank thing. Then I warped the loom accordingly, spacing out 26 threads in 12 slots, 2-2-2-2-2-3. My purple weft thread hasn't arrived yet, so I decided to do one more test. I put in a "slicky cord" header which was obviously not cooperating to give 26 throws per inch, but that was slicky cord. Even allowing for its slightly different behaviour, I thought it was prudent to do weave a bit with the real stuff, i.e., 8/2 cotton. If someone told you there'd been an explosion near Mount Rainier this morning, that would have been me. Sigh. I am now re-threading the reed at 24 epi. At least I didn't have to re-thread the heddles.

The Twill Test

My next weaving project will be a tartan pattern, but it will be woven with 8/2 cotton rather than wool. It occurred to me that in 50-plus years of weaving, I had never done a twill with this thread, so in order to make it a 50-50 weave (the same number of weft throws per inch as the warp sett), I was going to have to do a twill test whether I wanted to or not (good excuse to use up some more of that hideous pink thread). I made a guess (educated, or so I thought) at 22 ends per inch, considering that when I weave a tabby structure, I sett it at 15 epi, but the resultant twill went off at an angle somewhere between 50-55 degrees rather than a tidy 45. I counted threads. Yeah, there were 23 ends to an inch (hmmm...that reed must be 12.5 epi rather than 12), but I had 28 throws opposing them. Some quick mental math advised upping the ends per inch to 26 for the next trial. This is a balancing act, more or less. And to further complicate the issue, there is always some elongation in the length of fabric due to being held under tension. I wouldn't know if I'd hit the magic combination until I washed, dried and ironed my test swatch. Well, as you can see, I nailed it. Next pictures and story will be winding 18' of warp with a total of 578 ends, fingers crossed that I can keep track of the colour changes. The final outcome will be a light spring/summer ruana in the official (registered!) Warped Weavers tartan.