Weaving The File Sample

Day 100: The rigid-heddle project was relegated to the back burner for several months while I was nursing a bad shoulder. At long last, I finished it up this morning: a 6' table runner, a single placemat and the file sample you see me weaving here. I keep a record card for my weavings, details such as ends per inch, fiber, number of warp threads, pattern, raw vs. fulled measurements, etc., and whenever possible, I like to include a small piece of the cloth so that I have a quick visual reference. These details are often helpful when I want to start a new project. I can look back at my notes to see where I might increase the width/length, identify which colours worked well with others and so on. In order to do this, I add an extra foot or so to the length of the warp. Sometimes, if it's very stretchy, this extra length is enough to make an additional item. If not, I use it to weave the sample. As you can see here, I don't weave the full width, but rather cut away the warps at either side of a central section so that it's easier to see my work, and then weave just enough to show the pattern and/or colour sequence. In this case, I didn't need to show the whole rainbow change, only the transition from one colour to the next.