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Wednesday, November 05, 2008

I Planned, I Warped and I Wove

I warped my loom last nite during the Presidential Race, because quite frankly I was really tired of the campaigning and all that back and forth. I figured I could relax at the loom without any utterance that someone approved this message. I'm glad this only happens every four years, cause after a while it just makes you numb.

Below is the warp and some sample weave, I'm glad I started sampling before diving in to the weaving pattern. From the top of the picture is one shot of each color weft, then two shots of each color, then each color on its own and last is the actual pattern. I like the pattern it's really interesting, but the selvages, ugh! What a task. The lift is up /three shots/ one white, one brown, on white, then down /three shots/ one brown, one white, and one brown. Like this the edges are left open and I don't have a tabby at the end to hold the weft in place. so it's wiggling around and leaving nasty edges and picking up the warp thread that is next to the last and puckering. My question to the more experienced weavers is how do I tabby the last two warp threads on each side so that I can anchor them down? Do I use a pick up stick in the back for each pass? I don't want to leave it the way it is on the sample because the piece is going to be a table runner, if I were to be using the fabric for a sewing project I would not care. Any pearls of wisdom you all would like to share? I need some virtual help.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can you make a floating selvage? That would help you in keeping the ends tightened up.

Lona said...

Are you saying that the edge threads are not always caught by the weave? Sometime when I weave a twill that happens (I'm a plain-jane kind of weaver, mostly). In this case, I always go OVER the first thread and UNDER the last thread, no matter the pattern. If you do it on both sides, it will catch each time.

Andrew Kieran said...

on the 2 long pieces i made i just cut the floats off, and it didn't make a huge difference to the overall look. if you're maiking individual scarves it'd be worth your while darning the selvedge threads into the body of the fabric where they're left out of the weave, but i don't know if it's hugely important if your aim is fabric production for clothing or upholstery, as the selvedges tend to never be seen anyway

-hb

Anonymous said...

Floating selvedge is your friend, but if you cant add one in, then you fiddle with picking up each end where you need to. I have to say its a lot easier on a table or floor loom than a rigid heddle, but it can be done. This is one of those learning experiences.....


Kimmen

Anonymous said...

I think you can add the floating selvage even though you've already started weaving the sample. I would try by adding it to the fabric as if it was a broken warp thread- good luck!