Weaverly

Catching Color

The third warp is tied on, beamed, and gated. The weaving has begun. Slightly different colorway this time.

A few more inches of weaving on the double weave warp.

And a closer look. At the moment it looks like window screening, but after a good wash it will soften and close up.

Meanwhile I've been embroidering labels on my old Bernina. Each line of text has to be individually programmed, not a very brainy machine. But she gets the job done. I wouldn't trade her in for the fanciest of fancies. Besides, what's the hurry?

Hand stitching the label to the back of one of last week's diaries. This one's already been washed, & looking much softer.

An interesting aside - I found that the cottolin yarns were bleeding in the wash, especially the yarns containing red. So as a precaution, I've been using color catcher sheets in the washing machine for this project. Here are a couple of the used sheets, next to white paper for comparison. They've plainly done the job!

Hemming

You may recall that the current warp was tied on to another, and was woven in double plain weave as in this post and also as Jin.

Jin is another name for turned tacqueté. It is one of the many structures that can be woven on the same warp setup as double weave: two colors, warped end and end. I wove a length of Jin at the end of the warp, enough for three small dishtowels. 

I'll be tying another warp on to this one when color inspiration strikes. Meanwhile, I've washed and hemmed the towels.

Somehow I see similar patterning wherever I look these days. 

Adding Color

At the end of this warp there was enough left onto which I could tie. I had the urge to add more color. 

Which I did.

A view at the back of the loom. Notice Uncle Potch's self portrait on the wall next to the loom. He's my guardian angel. He did this drawing over 100 years ago. 

The gated warp at the front of the loom, ready to do battle.

Well, that didn't go too badly!

A closeup of the double plain weave. This time around the color of the light warp is pale blue and the dark warp is an assortment of bright colors. The light weft is beige and deep charcoal gray. 

Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised at how much more interesting the weaving appears with color. The graphic punch is still owing to value contrast, but the color is a plus. 

And for emphasis, there was a rainbow over Paris Mountain this morning. 

Just finished reading The Great Influenza: the Story of the Greatest Pandemic in History by John Barry. In 2005 the National Academies of Science named this book the year's outstanding book on science or medicine. Especially interesting is the narrative about the state of medical science, medical schools and their evolution at the start of the 20th century. A new edition came out in 2018, just before the current pandemic. The author couldn't have known what was coming, but his predictions are spot on. A very compelling read.

Jin

The eight shaft table loom has been sitting naked for too long. After lunch I said "enough is enough" and wound a short warp of two colors of silk noil. The yarn was hiding in my stash because I had always thought it was too fragile for warp. But today was a day for seizing opportunity. It seems to be working out OK.

The structure is called Jin, another name for turned taqueté. The warp is 2 colors alternated. The weft is a handspun wool/silk blend.

Here is this morning's sky with a view toward Paris Mountain from my front porch. I'd like to say it was my color inspiration, but such is not the case. Mere coincidence.

Reattached

At the end of the second double weave piece, you can see the hemstitching, a bit of stuffer weft, and a rod woven in with ties. This is all prep for cutting off.

Here's a peek at the reverse side of the double weave, as the cloth makes its way to the storage beam. For this piece, I chose the same 16/2 cottolin for weft that I used in the warp; only the colors are different: natural for the light weft, instead of yellow. The brown is the same.

The completed weaving has been cut off, and now the warp is reattached to the cloth apron rod, and weaving can recommence (that will happen tomorrow, if the creek don't rise).

There's only an inch or two of warp lost in the process. I suppose I could leave all the weaving on the loom, rolled up, until I got to the end of the warp, and then cut everything off together, but I am much too impatient to take that route. Besides, I like to evaluate each piece after washing, and plan modifications for the next piece.

I do occasionally take a break to see what is going on outdoors. Here is last night's sky, two different vantage points, from my back porch.

And this morning, early, the woods on my walk. I can catch a nice cool window of opportunity if I get up at 7. 

Misadventures

Way back in the last millennium I wove some pieces based on the printed word, a nod to my interest in font design and page layouts. I decided to revisit this study last week. The structure was to be double plain weave on the dobby loom and I started by weaving some small samples for determining sett & yarn choices. I wanted to use cottolin for its scrunchy texture, similar to my favorite sketchbook paper. One of the weft yarns was a red cottolin of uncertain provenance. After washing, I had an unpleasant surprise. The red yarn bled badly. Glad I sampled.

The sample on the left is at 24 epi each layer, total 48, and the one on the right is 20 epi each layer, total 40. I liked the looser one best, so that is what I chose. I warped up with pale gold and chocolate brown. I made a number of threading errors and had to redo several times. It was a humbling experience, but it took my mind off the news. I finally prevailed. Here's a view at the back of the loom after warping. 

Fortunately there's plenty of warp for more sampling. I discovered a sleying error (see red arrow) and had to resley the righthand section. Um, that's an error you expect to see in Weaving 101. Bad doggie.

Got that sorted out. Tried some different weft colors & materials. 

Settled on pearl gray and dark green. I was going for the look of old ledger paper, and I think we're there. The turquoise lines are a nod to margin rules.

So far so good.

Just finished reading Camus's The Plague, in English translation. I think I read it before, in college, but I don't remember any of it.