Back Or Front

Day 79: Floats of some sort or another appear in all weaving except the most basic "over-and-under" of tabby. These are threads (warp or weft) which cross more than one thread (weft or warp, appropriately) at 90 degrees, and are what give textured weaves their character. Sometimes, floats create a distinctive "back side" or "front side" to the cloth, but in others such as this waffle weave, either side can be "up." In the insets, however, you will see that the floats appear in a different order on the top and bottom. In the left photo, the floating thread forms a cross in the center of the orange section. In the right photo, the float creates a border on the right side of each coloured section. This is a very important factor to consider when you are stitching together panels as I will be doing here. So which side is truly "up?" In the case of waffle, it doesn't matter as long as the panels match. And on that note, I will confess that I hoped to have the waffle throw done by New Year's Day, so I could start the year with a fresh warp, but I didn't make it. I had a couple of other projects which needed to be finished up sooner, and the waffles went on the back burner, so to speak. That said, by evening, I should be able to hang a new warp on the bonker loom. I have only a few inches to go on the current band, and have already measured out the warp for another one. I'll still be starting the New Year off with a new weaving, and my resolution will be to dedicate myself to finishing the waffles over the next few days.

Let's Twist Again

Day 12: When is a gadget not a gadget? When it becomes an important tool! And a tool is exactly what this fringe-twister is. It has saved me an enormous amount of time and aggravation, and I no longer dread finishing woven pieces with fringe. It's actually a pretty amazing piece of engineering. A crank handle operates three bent rods which go through a triangular shaped piece, then through a paddle, where they terminate in alligator clips. The crank is rotated manually, and the motion imparted by the bent rods causes each clip to spin in place, subsequently twisting the strands caught in its grip. Some models have only two clips, but the principle is the same. With a few turns of the handle, the fringe bundles are ready to knot, and a job which once took hours can now be completed in a quarter of the time or less. My bonus project for the October Weave-Along is almost done and with plenty of time to spare. Let's twist again!

The Waffle Project

Day 363: The three waffle-weave towels for the October Weave-Along are done, and I am quite happy with them despite the fact that I somehow ignored the instruction to double-sley the reed. In fact, I am so pleased with them that I'll probably warp the same way for the next ones, directions aside. After all, weaving is a creative process. The towels haven't been washed yet, so they're still fairly flat. Washing will cause the weave to draw up, leaving little divots between the long floats, very like those you'd see on your breakfast waffle. Finished measurement (raw) is 26" x 15". This should draw in to roughly 24" x 13". I don't know yet if I will hem them or leave a fringe. That will depend on how well the fiber holds up in the wash. At any rate, they are hemstitched. Oh, and I realized why I got three towels when I thought I had warped for two. When I was winding the warp, I used the guide string I'd measured out for weaving on the floor loom. When I changed to the table loom, I didn't change the string, and therefore had an extra three feet of warp in my measure.

Murphy's Law

Day 355: Weavers are no strangers to Murphy's Law: "If it can go wrong, it will." But there are ways around Murphy, even if you feel like just throwing the whole thing in the bin when he shows up. So far on this project, I've had four "catastrophes," and here's how I've turned them to my favour.

First of all, when I measured out my warp the first time, I had a particular colour sequence in mind. I was thinking I'd create towels which looked like real waffles. Somehow between reading the draft and stepping to the warping board, a six-thread repeat became a seven-thread sequence. I didn't realize I had one extra thread in each repeat until I began to thread the heddles on my floor loom. I used a lot of bad language just then! I didn't want to unwarp the loom, so I dragged out my table loom, re-wound a warp in the correct sequence, and then set to designing a weave I could do on a 7-thread repeat for the warp on the floor loom. I'm happy to say that it's working out well.

 

The second disaster came when I began weaving the correct warp on the table loom. One of the tie-up cords snapped. Fortunately, that was a fairly easy fix.

 

The third near-disaster was when I realized that my colourway simply wasn't going to work. It had looked fine in tabby, but wasn't suited to waffle-weave. A not-so-quick review of my thread stash finally resulted in a brighter, more heavily "buttered" waffle because I used yellow instead of brown, but hey, I like butter.

 

The fourth mishap was when I discovered that I had somehow missed Mary Black's instruction to double-sley. By adjusting the beat just slightly and knowing how much this particular thread plumps up when it's fulled, I didn't have to start over. 

 

Most of the time, the woopsies we make are not nearly as catastrophic as they seem. Don't despair if your project isn't going right. It may not be exactly what you had in mind, but it's still hand-woven, and you've had a valuable learning experience.

Weave-Along Waffles

Day 354: Amongst the other projects I'm working on at the moment, I decided to participate in Acton Creative's "October Weave-Along." The rules are simple: everyone begins and (hopefully) finishes a project during the month of October using the same weaving pattern. You may create whatever you like in whatever colours you choose. It just has to be woven in a particular pattern. In this case, that's waffle-weave, and there is even quite a bit of latitude within that stipulation. There are a number of weaves which give the "waffle" effect, and since I am weaving on a four-shaft loom, I opted for the one in Mary E. Black's "Key to Weaving." Ms. Black suggested using 12 dents/inch for 8/2 cotton, and I am already wishing I'd listened to the Voice of Experience instead of following her instructions. Weaving at 15 epi for 8/2 as I usually do would have rendered square "waffle" divots rather than rectangles. The divots are not readily apparent in the fabric while it is on the loom, but the structure of the weave is such that they will form when the finished cloth is laundered, giving the "waffle" effect for which the weave is named. Fortunately, this is a short-term project consisting of only two towels. I like the weave, but next time, I'll space the warp threads closer together.