Just Because You Can
I’ve got a couple weaving things going, here are some updates.
The log cabin fabric is done, although I haven’t gotten around to making the new purse of it that I wanted. I don’t have anything I like for the straps, so I’ll just have to weave something. But the fabric turned out nicely:
The carpet warp tracks heavily, I had to seriously iron the fabric to un-wrinkle. That means the yarn has overtwist in the ply. But it will wear forever. Take that, balanced yarn fetish people.
I finished measuring warp for some yardage that I’m still not entirely sure what I’ll do with. It’s green and brown, which means it will be for somebody else. I experimented with measuring with a warping paddle, which looks like a little section of rigid heddle. The idea is you wind many ends at once and then the paddle lets you keep them in order.
I can see how this would work great with a warping mill, but it’s a giant pain in the ass with a warping board. To go back and forth you have to turn the paddle at various points and the yarn gets twisted. Also I don’t have a tension box or even a decent spool rack. All told it didn’t end up taking any longer than without, but I’m going to wait until I have more appropriate equipment before I try this again.
I am, however, pleased that I managed to not end up with huge amounts of leftovers. I measured from five spools and the original cone and here was what remained:
I’m working on a jacket from a re-issued vintage Simplicity pattern. I want it to be extra-special nice so I’m actually doing the lining for a change. And to make it as comfortable as possible (as in, not feel like I’m wearing a plastic bag) it’s all silk. The shantung fashion fabric is great: it has enough body to handle complex seams yet a bit of drape and feels wonderful. The organza interfacing (not nasty fusible) preserves the hand of the fabric rather than turning it into cardboard. Sure, basting the layers together took more work but it was worth it.
Now, the lining is another story. It’s a lightweight silk twill, in a paisley that screams “I’m a Necktie!” But for a lining, that doesn’t matter. (It is indeed tie fabric and I have a bolt of it.) I had hoped that a twill would be somewhat better behaved than a satin. But it will not lie still and every time I look at it my cut pattern piece is a different size. It’s almost as bad as charmeuse. Way more than the organza. I’ve had to use tons of pins to get it to stay put long enough to stitch.
So far I’ve gotten the jacket and the lining each assembled, the lining took almost twice as long. Now I just have to put them together.
I found a nice scroll frame at Goodwill this morning, attached to somebody’s mostly-finished needlepoint sampler:
Given the condition of the masking tape protecting the cut edges of the canvas, it’s been sitting around a while.
I’ve never been all that fond of needlepoint. I only occasionally am interested in embroidery, which is why I was willing to pay all of $2 for the frame. The project has only one square and part of the border to complete. I could, if I wanted to, get a similar yarn, rip out some stitches and finish it. It was apparently intended for a small pillow. I have no idea what the initials might be.
I was going through the fiber closet and came out with a bag full of random cotton rug warp, originally from tablet and inkle projects. There wasn’t enough to do much, but I figured two mostly full spools of light and dark blue would work for a narrow fabric. I’ve been meaning to make another bag to hold my phone.
Narrow fabric on the big loom is a problem because my end feed and boat shuttles are longer than the warp is wide and don’t work well passed from hand to hand. So I dug out the table loom and emptied some stick shuttles.
I don’t really like the table loom, direct tie-up drives me nuts. Opening sheds one lever at a time is slooooow. Also this loom uses texsolv heddles, which refuse to move around easily. So I took out the other six harnesses and warped it for tabby.
I’m doing a very basic log cabin pattern, squares of stripes in alternating directions. The structure is plain weave but the pattern comes from the color arrangement. I’ve got enough for about 3m of finished fabric, 20cm wide. That’s fine for little bags and the yarn is indestructible.
Ok, here’s the picture:
