Weaverly

Double Plain Weave Cut Off

The double weave yardage was cut off yesterday, washed, tumble dried, and scanned. You saw it on the loom here. Now here it is after finishing. The pink rayon weft cooperated well with my original plan, and shrank a lot more than the cotton and bamboo, and I've got a nice crinkly fabric. Front and back views follow (or is it back and front? It really doesn't matter with true double weave).

 

 

And here's a scan at about 12x magnification, so you can see all the little fibers and the structure (click to enlarge).

To summarize: the white warp is bamboo, the white weft mercerized cotton, the red weft unmercerized cotton, and the pink weft rayon. All yarns in the 20/2 to 16/2 range, and sett 40 epi. Networked plain double weave on an 8-end initial, hence the extreme sawtoothing (is that a word?). 

Weaverly's about to set off on a journey, so you may not hear much from this station for a while. I'll try to post whenever possible; but until then, happy weaving all!

Expect the Unexpected

Swimming laps at the Y is normally a very predictable activity for me. I go at a certain time, I know there will be lanes available, I greet the usual crew. But in the summer all hell breaks loose. For one thing, all the day camp kids are there, and the women's locker room is bedlam. Little girls scream a lot, and they love the way their voices reverberate in the enclosed space. And they lose their shoes. And they lose their underwear. And they use up all the hot water in the showers.

But this past Friday was in a class by itself. I arrived at my usual time to find only one lap lane available (I know, I should have checked in advance). The pool had been taken over by these guys:

They were very sweet, actually. They apologized every time they splashed the lap swimmers, and even offered me a turn at the diving equipment (I declined). 

DuPont State Forest

DuPont State Forest is only 35 miles away, but I had never been there before today. What a treasure! Beautiful hiking trails and waterfalls, rhododendrons, mountain laurel, and all sorts of other wildlife.

Here's one of the trails with rhododendron foliage:

…and the mountain laurel is just coming into bloom.

I was setting up my camera at Hooker Falls,

…when a guy in a blue kayak shot over the falls and landed gracefully at the bottom just as I pressed the shutter.

A Day at the Races

Among Catalina's many fine qualities are persistence and determination.

I'd Rather Be Weaving

Just back from Road Atlanta where we attended The Mitty. Great fun! I've got an impressive sunburn and impaired hearing, from not taking precautions, but I enjoyed every minute. More in the days ahead, maybe a video or two. 

Now what does auto racing have to do with weaving? For one thing, my favorite bumper sticker says "I'd rather be weaving", which is actually a weird thing to announce on the back of your car. And secondly, the ubiquitous black and white checkerboard motif at the track, which suggest the checkered winner's flag, is a perfect two-block profile. What more could you ask for?

Hey Batter Batter

This morning we watched this:

He got several base hits and I think he was pleased with his performance. The outfielding was a bit lacking in finesse, but give them time…