For the lady, a sample?

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When last we left off, I was planning some curtains using leno for the living room.

I want something that, when drawn, will provide a little interest and will still let some light through. Last year when my handweaver's guild went to MOMA I found this partition by Anni Albers quite inspiring:

Curtain inspo

So more rep weave and I'll leave learning leno for another day. I won't be using the braided horse hair (!) she used for a weft, and I'm looking to use an 8/4 cotton warp with a rep-weave-like sett. Instead of black, I'm going to do teal and white stripes with a white weft. I'm a magpie at heart, so I'm also thinking of a couple of thin stripes of silver within the stripes. The only thing I wasn't sure about was the weft. So I sampled.

Look, I love a good gauge swatch when I'm knitting, but if I'm honest, I hate sampling. I know I need to, but getting a warp on the loom for me is still a little challenging. Especially since I'm not following a draft from a book or magazine or anything on this project, I knew I needed to sample.

Curtain inspiration
From bottom to top, the sample wefts are:
  • 2 strands of 8/16 cotton held together
  • clothesline from a hardware store
  • mop cotton
  • paracord from a hardware store
I was thinking that something like clothesline or hemp rope or something might be cheaper to get at a hardware store and might be a more cost effective route. Then I did some math and realized that would certainly not be the case. I learned a few other things from this sample:
  • I forgot to double the yarns I was using when I made the warp, so I need to do that next time.
  • I also need to double the strands of metallic to cover both the top and the bottom.
  • It will be easier to weave the stripes if every other stripe is on a different set of harnesses. 3" isn't enough space for me to pass the shuttle through without getting it stuck on the next stripe.
  • The mop cotton, I think, is going to end up being the winner here. It felt like the fabric was the right weight and the mop cotton made the space between the stripes look the best in my opinion.
I am going to do another sample, I think, to make sure I get the sett right, but the table I put the warping wheel on to warp has a large LEGO build on it right now, so I need to finish that first!

Once I figure out the sett, I need to check my math to ensure I have enough warp yarn, then I can start weaving three 36" wide by 8' long panels.

No, I haven't yet figured out how I'm going to connect the stripes to each other to create one panel yet... One stop at a time with this project! (but if you have any ideas, please let me know!)

Curtain inspiration
My weaving journal entry for these curtains

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