Finished & washed. Looking good. Click to enlarge.
It shrank down to 22" wide, 2/1/2 yds in length. I think I will leave it as a shawl. It feels heavenly. It would be a shame to cut into it. I might only wear it once a year, but it will be a very special event. Maybe opening night at the opera.
After many months of slow weaving, I cut off the deflected double weave piece from my 8 shaft loom. It was 26" in the reed, and is now about 24" wide. There is approximately 2 2/3 yards of fabric here. I was envisioning a generously sized shawl, but it's still way too big. We'll see how much shrinkage occurs in washing.
The white yarn is a wool/silk noil blend from Hanry's Attic, purchased eons ago and languishing in my stash until now. The red is 6/2 unmercerised cotton. I'm separating out the two colors for a barber pole effect in the fringe. If this shawl thingie turns out to be still too big after washing, I'll cut it up and make something like a vest, and just sacrifice the fringe. We'll see.
I'm noticing some congruences in my daily life these days. Now that most of the trees are bare, it's easy to see the branching structures.
And in my kitchen, more trees! Cauliflower for lunch.
...and I didn't hear it...
...because I was in the studio tying on a double warp to a dummy warp.
I've just woven the first couple of inches, but it seems to be working OK. This is a deflected double weave on 8 shafts. The red is 8.2 unmercerized cotton, and the natural is a wool/silk noil blend from my stash.
The idea here was to create an asymmetrical design in deflected double weave. This will improve a lot after washing, I expect.
The other loom is naked, a sad state of affairs in my life, and so I've been doodling with a new draft. This will be tied double cloth on 16 shafts. The idea is to have warp-effect twills on both sides with opposing diagonals. Here's a screen shot of the face:
And the reverse:
There's still a lot of noodling to do, but it's a start.
And news from the Department of Quarantine: we're finally out of confinement.
Check that one off. Big feeling of accomplishment. There's a little surprise here, if you click to enlarge.
Only an hour and a half in line. This was a satellite voting location.
Meanwhile, back in the studio, I'm tying a new warp onto a dummy warp. Actually two new warps onto a dummy warp. It will be deflected double weave in wool/silk (natural) and unmercerized cotton (raspberry).
You've seen this woven pattern before, dear reader. Clockwise from lower left, 16/2 cottolin at 40 epi and ppi, then 8/2 and 6/2 cotton at 20 epi and ppi, and still on the loom and under tension, black 2-ply handspun wool and orange cotton at 16 epi. Deflected double weave. Each warp tied on to the previous one.
The orange and black cloth will shrink up quite a bit after cutting off and washing. Patience, patience.
Tonight after dinner this is what I saw out the back door. A nice reward for the day's craziness.
This has been a banner week for book arrivals here at the home place. I don't know where to start!
The fabric from yesterday's post has been washed & tumbled dry. Here are scans of the face and reverse of the cloth. Click to enlarge. Very fun!
My word, did this ever shrink!!! Take-up and shrinkage in both directions was a whopping 25%. Beware.
The draft is on handweaving.net as 74557.
It is interesting to compare the scale differential of the deflected double weave at 40 epi (small sample) and 20 epi (large sample). Exactly the same draft. In fact, the larger sample was tied onto the warp of the smaller sample, after resleying the reed.
I may go yet a bit bigger yarnwise & settwise, in order to weave something that after shrinkage will be wide enough to be a placemat, instead of a wimpy washcloth.
Now, in other news, I'm saving my spent tealeaves & wrapping them up in white linen to stain them randomly for who knows what. Maybe some stitching.
And today we finally broke loose from confinement and ventured downtown to see the sights. What a gorgeous almost-fall day, clear and windy and cool. The few strolling folks we met were (mostly) masked, and we easily found parking. It was so good to have a change of scenery. Bruce did his click! click! click! thing, and I just looked around in amazement at all the changes. It was too windy to get the sketchbook out.
The wild boar gave his attention to the hand sanitizer kiosk.
The sign in the window of the Chocolate Moose Bakery is a Julia Child quote: A Party without cake is really just a meeting. All Zoomers take note.
Yes, it was great to get out. I must do it more often. Instead of sitting around the breakfast table taking selfies with a spoon.
What if the sley of the little deflected double weave sample were doubled, and fatter yarns were used? For one thing, the width of the warp in the reed would be twice as large!
All those spaces will close up after washing, as you know.
Tech stuff: warp, 6/2 unmercerized cotton, natural, and lt. brown 5/2 cotton, mercerized, 20 epi, 2 ends per dent in a 10 dent reed. Weft same, 20 ppi.
The healing power of weaving.
The turned taqueté scarf after washing, as promised:
The draft looks like this (and when I get around to it I will be uploading it to Handweaving.net):
Switching gears, I am doing some experiments with deflected double weave on eight shafts, reducing the color segments to two threads each instead of four:
Showing face and reverse of the first sample, click to embiggen:
And here are the same samples after machine washing and tumbling dry:
Tech stuff: 16/2 cottolin, warp and weft, purple and pale green, 40 epi/ppi, 4 ends per dent (2 purple & 2 pale green) in each dent of a 10-dent reed, 8 shafts.
A new warp, 6" wide sample this time, for deflected double weave. Dark purple and pale green. The yellow is to save the crosses. The red is the choke ties.
Or should we make it bright green and pale lavender?
I think I have too much time on my hands.
I liked the reindeer sample so much I decided to finish off the warp with a reindeer scarf. Here it is. There was just barely enough warp left. Deflected doubleweave. Cotton & linen.
No one but me will know there are reindeer here. Where shall I wear it? Maybe to a concert of Grieg's music
Apologies to my Norwegian friends if I've got my facts wrong.