Donkey Blanket

Day 40: In the words of the immortal Donkey, "In the morning, I'm makin' waffles!" Thus this throw shall be known henceforth as the Donkey Blanket. When released from tension, this deeply textured weave contracts into ridges and pits not unlike those found in a breakfast waffle. It makes for a deliciously warm fabric. As weavings go, it's easy to set up on a four-shaft loom, even a table model operated with four jacks. However, this time around, I've warped it onto my floor loom which has the benefit of having six treadles, two of which can be employed both in the textural weave and as tabby sheds (border, bottom). I am using a direct tie-up which is a little different from that shown in Mary Black's "Key to Weaving." Rather than tying multiple treadles to harnesses 2, 3 and 4 as she suggests, I discovered that if a direct tie-up was used for 1, 2, 3 and 4, and treadles 5 and 6 were set to operate harnesses 1/3 and 2/4 (the tabby), by treadling the sequence as 1, 2, 1/3, 1/6, 2/5, 1/6, 1/3, 2, I could open the same sheds. What does this mean? Most importantly, it means that I don't have to crawl around on the floor changing the tie-up I normally have set up! This is another fascinating thing about weaving: there are often multiple ways the same end result can be achieved. This, then, is my own recipe for waffles. Maple syrup, anyone?

How's It Hangin'?

Day 39: This was as far as I got with hanging a new warp on the floor loom last night. One of the drawbacks to having multiple projects going at once is having to find time to devote to one in particular, but on the other hand, it keeps me from getting bored. This will eventually turn into a waffle-weave lap throw, and is a fantastic solution for all those little balls of yarn we all save because there's too much to throw away. For each waffle repeat, I needed six strands 18' long of each colour, and where some colours had to be used two or three times, the repeats were kept separated, but still in random order. The weft will be black. Call it "Joseph's Coat," if you will, bright and cheerful in its chaos. I love doing tag-end projects whether as crazy-quilts or woven pieces. The challenge is to keep repetition to a minimum, i.e., if red occurs next to blue, it can only do so again if a different red or blue is used as one of the pairings. Chaos isn't as easy to create as you might imagine, although to look at my "loom room," you might think otherwise.

Post-Wash Waffles

Day 2: As expected, the waffle-weave towels fulled up beautifully when washed, and the characteristic recesses developed. The shrinkage was a bit more than I'd expected with the final measurements coming out at 21" x 11.5". Had I sett the warp at 15 epi instead of 12, they would have come closer to 12" wide after washing, but perhaps wouldn't have felt quite as soft and fluffy. Shortly, I'll be moving on to another waffle project, a layette-sized baby blanket destined for auction at the Nisqually Land Trust's annual fund-raiser. Handwoven items and quilts are always popular with bidders. 100% of the winning bid goes to the Land Trust. If I can't be out there pulling invasives and clearing brush these days, at least I can weave and sew to benefit their conservation efforts.