So, as Karen and I so often do, we were working away in the studio several days ago while throwing around ideas for new projects. I, for one, am pretty consistent with the work ethic of warp the loom, weave 6" of the project, and start planning the next project. Works for me every time.
Karen mentioned her husband, ever the trusty sales guy, thought having a "theme" scarf quarterly or seasonally might be a good idea. we tossed it around, decided we liked the idea, and promptly shelved it on the to do list in our collective brains.
Last week I put on a warp at home on my wonderful Harrisville loom with enough length for two scarves: one for my dear weaving friend Walker, who turns 60 this week, and the other to sell. After I wove, wet finished, and pressed it I brought it to the studio for Karen to critique.
She loved them as much as I did. That's when she mentioned Jeff's idea of the seasonal scarf. I started thinking about it and told her i agreed. Almost in unison we said what about doing a tone-on-tone piece. I have successfully started warping my Baby Wolf (back to front no less) with this gorgeous 60/2 spun silk. Tomorrow I will start threading and can hardly wait! It sits at 40epi with a weaving width of 15". Just so you don't have to do the math, that is 608 warp ends, taking into account the floating selvedges. Got to love a weaver who loves tedious! That's me.
I am now continuing this blog entry several days after the above portion. Why, you ask? First, let remind you I am just past 50 and the mind is not like it used to be. It happened like this: I sat down to thread this lovely silk and as soon as I did I head-slapped myself. I had wound the warp on a 4 shaft and not an 8 shaft loom; hence I would not be able to use the planned pattern discussed at length in the above section.
Never daunted, I sat down with Anne Dixon's 4 Shaft Pattern Book and found just the one. And boy oh boy did I ever hit the jackpot.
I carefully threaded and tied the warp to the front beam and started to weave late this afternoon using 60/2 Tussah silk. Karen was in the studio and was able to share with me the beauty of the cloth beginning to take shape before my eyes. Is there any better time for a weaver than when he/she sees the magic of the warp and weft coming together to form something beautiful. Well, this cloth is giving me chills.
60 epi for plain weave and 72 for twill are more usual setts for 60/2 silk. Given a hard steam press, the silk will drape just beautifully.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts regarding usual setts. the effect i generally attempt to achieve is very ethereal, which a sett at 72 does not allow.
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