Swatch E

Image 1: Swatch E Image 2: Swatch E detail

Construction Technique

Woven, warp-faced plain weave with weft-faced twill accent. The stripes were brushed after weaving.

Suggested Use

Decorative hanging. The fuzzy llama yarn contrasts with the smooth background.

Notes

Maximum 54 points

Examiner 1: 35

Examiner 2: 40

This swatch is apparently not large enough. The woven portion of the fabric is approximately 9 x 12 cm, at 108 square cm that is slightly larger than the minimum size of 100 square cm. And that is not including the fringe. One of my suggested uses for this yarn is weaving accent, so I did several stripes neatly centered in the woven area. I thought of it more as a small sample decorative hanging, fully finished, rather than only a swatch showing a technique. But there is only a small amount of the contrast llama yarn, as Examiner 2 put it "not enough for a 4" x 4" piece — the required size."

I asked about swatches, to clarify both size and technique. The directions say "any suitable technique," "not less than 16 square inches (100 square cm)" and "no larger than a size that can be displayed in a manila file folder." Some of my early ideas were a long, narrow band or an embroidery sampler. The mentor said that the band was ok as long as the total area met the requirement no matter the specific dimensions. You can use other yarns with it, "embroidery thread would be displayed as it is expected to be used." From this, I decided this swatch was acceptable. I put in enough stripes to have a symmetrical design across the woven area, done in weft-faced pickup on the warp-faced ground with long floats to show the yarn. I used a pickup stick for one pattern shed and did the rest by hand because it's a very small warp to try to tie up five different harnesses with sticks and string.