I decided to weave some holiday inspired towels. I have made festive trees from time to time and didn't have any more left. Instead of the same old-same old trees I have been weaving, I thought I would try something different. I turned to "A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns" edited by Carol Strickler to find some inspiration for Rosepath trees.
There are a fair number of different designs for figures woven with a basic 8-shaft rosepath threading. I found a nice tall tree that looked interesting but it was woven with 11 treadles. As I contemplated skeleton tie-ups or pick up techniques (it might not be too bad since the trees are only woven as a band on one side of the towel), and started worrying a bit. Then I realized I did have a loom with more than 10 treadles. My AVL Studio loom was sitting in the corner with an infinite number of "treadles" - empty with nothing on it at all.
As I got to work, I thought about the fact that so far, I have been winding the warp - back to front - but because of the placement of the raddle, the yarn would hang off the back of the loom instead of coming through the shafts from the front. I decided that that wouldn't work and figured out a way to bring the warp from the front of the loom through the treadles, around the first back beam and onto the warp beam.
This worked really well, which was good because the 10/2 unmercerized cotton I was using for the warp was very sticky. It took much longer to wind on than the perle cotton I have been using does.
I tried the tree pattern I found and I decided it looked too tall, so left off some of the upper "branches". I also realized "just in time" that I needed to flip the pattern so that the trunks would weave first - not the tree tops - so that they weren't upside down. Fortunately Fiberworks PCW has an easy way to flip the design.
I tried the trees two ways and thought about other motifs that might be fun. I found a pattern that was kind of star-like and tried that. One with variegated yarn for the stars and one with solid stars.
I still have warp enough for about 6 towels and I'm still thinking of what I can do with the designs.
There are a fair number of different designs for figures woven with a basic 8-shaft rosepath threading. I found a nice tall tree that looked interesting but it was woven with 11 treadles. As I contemplated skeleton tie-ups or pick up techniques (it might not be too bad since the trees are only woven as a band on one side of the towel), and started worrying a bit. Then I realized I did have a loom with more than 10 treadles. My AVL Studio loom was sitting in the corner with an infinite number of "treadles" - empty with nothing on it at all.
As I got to work, I thought about the fact that so far, I have been winding the warp - back to front - but because of the placement of the raddle, the yarn would hang off the back of the loom instead of coming through the shafts from the front. I decided that that wouldn't work and figured out a way to bring the warp from the front of the loom through the treadles, around the first back beam and onto the warp beam.This worked really well, which was good because the 10/2 unmercerized cotton I was using for the warp was very sticky. It took much longer to wind on than the perle cotton I have been using does.
I tried the tree pattern I found and I decided it looked too tall, so left off some of the upper "branches". I also realized "just in time" that I needed to flip the pattern so that the trunks would weave first - not the tree tops - so that they weren't upside down. Fortunately Fiberworks PCW has an easy way to flip the design.
I tried the trees two ways and thought about other motifs that might be fun. I found a pattern that was kind of star-like and tried that. One with variegated yarn for the stars and one with solid stars. I still have warp enough for about 6 towels and I'm still thinking of what I can do with the designs.
1 comment:
What wonderful towels for display at Christmas time. I love your new tree series.
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