The Suspense…

OK, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer.  Of course I woke up in the morning, went right to the loom, re-tied the treadles, and started weaving.  One inch in I knew there was something wrong.  Sure enough, I had shaft 4 instead of shaft 5 tied to one of the treadles.  Silly me…

So I unwove, corrected the errant tie-up, and wove off about 10 inches.  I took a picture and then promptly moved onto the next task at hand.  And forgot to share the photo with you dear readers.  I’m so sorry!

I am really happy with the subtleties of this warp.  Though at first glance it just looks like stripes, it is really about 40 different skeins of yarn, many died in the same dyebath, but different fibers and textures.  I love working this way.  And I’m getting so much better and just grabbing warp ends and winding.  I have an eye on the draft, which is in color, but what goes on in each color section is just what I grab.  When I run out, I toss that cone or in this case index card!

I got this thought, that I’d love to have all seven of my Tools of the Trade looms warped at the same time.  I’m not sure what I’m trying to prove, but it will give me something to come home to when I leave the end of January for my month long teaching trip to California.  I’m actually not far, there are only two of the seven looms with nothing on them, the big ones, but I quickly thought of a warp that needed to get on the 36″ loom pronto.  I am in need of a stack of instant Christmas gifts, and dish towels (I’m on a roll) would be a perfect solution.  I called up WEBS and ordered some Cotlin (cotton and linen for those not in the know…) and Bri will pick it up at the guild meeting tomorrow night and bring it home with her the end of the week.  (It should be noted that three of the seven TOTT looms have the remains from workshops I’ve attended, which is pretty embarrassing, but my New Year’s resolution will be to clear all my looms!)

So that left loom  number 7, my big 45″ 8 shaft, naked.  I looked over my shelves, and thought I should get some yardage on there, and saw the multitude of cones and part cones of mohair I’ve accumulated over the years.  And we are talking years.  I wove mohair wefts in my production garments and sold them in the 1980’s in craft fairs.  I’m still sitting on a jackpot of mohair.

I lined up all the cones, sort of a waterfall of color, and the largest quantity is of course a muddy grey, where I have a few pounds.  It would be fine for the weft, but there wasn’t anything that stood out as workable for warp, so I decided to just use it all.  I did some quick figuring, I could probably get 12 yards of 32″ wide fabric at 6 picks per inch of weft.  And I’m thinking I have more than enough warp.  I eliminated the two skeins in the middle, the blue/white mohair skein has metallic and I kind of didn’t want that in the yardage, and I thought the white would be too contrast-y, and the hand dyed teal loop mohair wasn’t really the right color with the rest of the group.

I like using my AVL warping wheel to wind narrow warp chains.  So much faster than a standard mill since this is three yards per turn.  I wind 2 inch chains and tie them onto the front beam of the loom.  And I’m winding them the same way I wound the scarves,  just grab a couple ends and go.  I’m trying to work dark to light in the blues, and then light to dark to the naturals, so we will see how this all comes together.  I like not planning so much.  There is a big leap of faith that this will turn out alright, since 12 yards of mohair yardage is a lot to commit to without a real concrete plan.

Stay tuned…