Woven To Match

Day 290: Two more steps done and dusted! Over the last week, I have been working on stitching together the three panels of this lap throw/tablecloth as well as completing the band I'll be using for trim. Because I ran into a flaw in the warp toward the end of the band, I'm not sure I'll have enough to go around all four sides once both pieces have been washed and dried. Strangely, bandweaving shrinks more in length than cloth. You'd think it would work the other way around, given how firmly bandweaving is beaten, but experience proves otherwise. If I do run short, I'll have two options: leave the selvedges plain, or weave another length of band to apply to them. If I choose to do the latter, I will again have two options: weave an entirely different band to cover both selvedges, or weave another length of the same band since I know I have enough of this one for three sides. Choices! Choices! 

One Off, One On

Day 230: In this household, looms do not stay empty long. I usually have the next warp already measured (I call it the "warp-in-waiting") so that as soon as I cut a project off, I can begin hanging the next one. However, taking a piece off the loom does not mean it's done, not by a long shot! The lavender and black Orange Peel coverlet was woven as two panels which had to be meticulously joined, and even before I wash it to full the fibers, I have to twist the fringes. That said, when I'm taking breaks from the finishing work, I will be working on hanging the new warp which in this case is a crackle-weave called Fantasy VI from the Handweaver's Pattern Book by Marguerite Porter Davison. The crackle will be three identical panels, each changing colour seven times, and will be stitched together to make a spring-hued tablecloth. Meanwhile, the Orange Peel will be an entry in this year's Washington State Fair.

Busy Day

Day 326: Yesterday was a busy and very productive day on the fiberarts scene. Not only did I complete the third of the three panels for the summer-and-winter piece, I finished plying a four-ounce skein of yarn. If that doesn't sound like enough, I also devised a method for making tidy selvedges when weaving krokbragd on the frame loom which was a September Morn present-to-self. The system can be adapted to the rigid heddle as well. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before: simply weave two or more selvedge threads in tabby. D'uh! As for the summer-and-winter, I still have quite a bit of warp left on the loom. I always add extra. There might even be enough for a fourth panel, although I wouldn't want to add it to the coverlet. I will probably use it for a matching pillow. It will be a week or ten days before I'm ready to take this weaving off the loom, but I feel I can rest on my laurels, knowing the coverlet panels are done and, I might add, in record time (August 10-September 3, i.e., 24 days). What's next? I'm considering another coverlet, this time in overshot. We'll see. I have a week or two to think about it.

Warp Speed, Aye!

Day 340: "Warp speed, aye, Captain!" I measured the warp for this project on September 13, a mere five days ago. On the 14th, I spent all day putting it on the loom, i.e., mounting it on the back beam, threading 502 heddles, threading the reed, winding it onto the beam. I made a few passes with the shuttle that evening just to be sure I'd threaded the double-width draft correctly and satisfied that I had, I went to bed with the backache from hell. On the 15th, I wove for a few hours after a work party, and then again for a few hours during the morning of the 16th. Yesterday, I got serious, and by the time the day was done, I had put an additional three feet on the project, leaving only two to go this morning.

The weaving is done, but the blanket is not yet complete. The ends need to be hemstitched before the fringes can be twisted and knotted. I've just recently started using twisted fringe to finish projects and feel that they give a more elegant touch to my handwovens. This style fringe is time-consuming, though, especially when you're talking about 502 threads on each end which will be twisted as two pairs of three or four threads each. It will probably take me longer to finish the fringe than it did to weave the coverlet.