I was ambitious when I thought about what to enter in the County Fair this year. I entered 5 items but only 4 were finished by the deadline. I almost had a good reason.
The last piece was a shawl that I did finish after the Fair was over. I found some interesting yarn that I had to have. It had several different textures: chenille, a sleek nylon cord, a couple of different slubby yarns, etc. I thought it would be fantastic.
Of course I didn't think about the fact that these were just different yarns tied together. As I was winding the warp, I quickly found that the yarns were tied with BIG knots that couldn't be left in the warp. The length of each type of yarn was only long enough for 4 warp threads, with almost another whole (but not quite) warp thread length left. So there was lots of waste.
I didn't have enough yarn for the warp I had planned, so I supplemented it with Tahki Cotton Classic in a very close shade of light blue. I set the warp at 8 epi. I might have sett it at 6 epi. if I had had a six-dent reed. I wove it in plain weave. I found that some of the larger slubs in one of the yarn textures was almost too big to fit through the 8 dent reed and they hung up a little in the heddle eyes. Fortunately there was only one broken thread due to the slubs and that was at the very beginning. The weaving was slower than it might ordinarily - due to these fat slubs.
Here is a picture of the shawl on the loom. The color isn't quite as dramatic as in the picture, although there was color differences between the different yarn types.
The shawl did turn out very nicely. I twisted the fringe with a hair twister since with the different kinds of yarn, the fringe looked pretty messy. The twisted fringe was a bit heavy, but it looks nice.
It didn't make it to the Fair, but it was a learning experience.
The last piece was a shawl that I did finish after the Fair was over. I found some interesting yarn that I had to have. It had several different textures: chenille, a sleek nylon cord, a couple of different slubby yarns, etc. I thought it would be fantastic.
Of course I didn't think about the fact that these were just different yarns tied together. As I was winding the warp, I quickly found that the yarns were tied with BIG knots that couldn't be left in the warp. The length of each type of yarn was only long enough for 4 warp threads, with almost another whole (but not quite) warp thread length left. So there was lots of waste.
I didn't have enough yarn for the warp I had planned, so I supplemented it with Tahki Cotton Classic in a very close shade of light blue. I set the warp at 8 epi. I might have sett it at 6 epi. if I had had a six-dent reed. I wove it in plain weave. I found that some of the larger slubs in one of the yarn textures was almost too big to fit through the 8 dent reed and they hung up a little in the heddle eyes. Fortunately there was only one broken thread due to the slubs and that was at the very beginning. The weaving was slower than it might ordinarily - due to these fat slubs.
Here is a picture of the shawl on the loom. The color isn't quite as dramatic as in the picture, although there was color differences between the different yarn types.
It didn't make it to the Fair, but it was a learning experience.
2 comments:
I like the colors-the subtlety of the blues reminds me of the sky on lightly cloudy days here where the SF Bay is a mile or so and the Pacific only ten as the crow flies. Our skies attain that color some afternoons an hour or two before sunset. I painted my kitchen to match it; paint company named it Crystal Water. That works for me too.
I was really attracted to the yarn and had to find a project where I could use it.
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