Friend Evelyn

Day 75: After a false start in which I determined that a sett of 15 epi was too loose for this draft, "Friend Evelyn" (A Handweaver's Pattern Book, green edition, p. 142) is under way. I had woven one full pattern sequence and had even done the hemstitching across 412 threads by fours when I said, "Nope, this just isn't going to do." I picked out the hemstitching, unwilling to simply cut the piece off the loom and thereby waste the thread, and then carefully unwove my work. I rethreaded at 18 epi and started over, and by bedtime, I was back to the point where I'd stopped, including the hemstitching. "Friend Evelyn" had been established officially as my "Christmas Weave." The colour looks a bit off in the image. The ground/tabby displays fairly accurately, but the forest green pattern threads are a bit bluer in the photo than they are in real life. What I love about "Friend Evelyn" is that each full treadling sequence creates four distinctly different motifs in a 2 x 2 square. Two full sequences are shown here. The yellow thread at the top of the cloth is my measuring device. I will weave the next repeat and measure from it to be sure I have 3.5 inches or "close enough" (i.e., within two threads). Minor adjustments can be made when stitching panels together, but if there is too much variance, no amount of wishing and/or washing will make them match up. If the measurement is not "close enough for gov'mint work," the sequence will have to be unwoven and redone. Long years of weaving and joining panels have taught me what I can get away with, and what I can't. When finished, "Friend Evelyn" will be a coverlet.