Star Warps

NAME: Spiral Houndstooth Cowl DATES: 4/23/2022 to 1/2/2023 YARNS USED: Harrisville Shetland in Black and Delphinium PATTERN: #59 SOURCE: A Handweaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns LENGTH OF WARP: 120" WIDTH OF WARP: 15" SETT (ENDS PER INCH): 8 EPI DIMENSIONS BEFORE WASHING: 14" x 79" DIMENSIONS AFTER WASHING: 12" x 70" % SHRINKAGE: 11% LENGTH OF WASTE WARP: ~16" GOAL OF PROJECT: a balanced fabric 10 1/2" x 68" for a cowl WAS GOAL MET? absolutely! DISCOVERIES: Firstly, I'm super proud of this one. I absolutely hated weaving it, though. I'm used to knitting and I'd compare the process of weaving this to knitting alpaca yarn on metal needles. It can be done, but it feels kind of slimy. While on the loom the pattern wasn't really that visible. It looked like a simple checked pattern. It really only became visible after the fabric was blocked (I guess in weaving terms this is wet finished). I made a sample so I...

I don't watch a lot of TV. Name a show and there's an 85% chance I haven't seen it. I don't really watch a lot of movies either. If someone puts something on, I'll watch it, but I just don't think to put the TV on, for the most part. most things on the TV are for backgrond noise to drown out my tinnitus. There's an exception. Sports. I love watching sports. Baseball (go BOSOX!), football (go PATS!), tennis, basketball (mostly NCAA - I love my URI Rams), skiing, snowboarding, kabaddi, marble racing, bowling, axe throwing, you name it, I'll watch it. While I'm sure there are sports my grandma woudln't watch, she was always crafting while watching sports. When she lived in Cape Cod her craft room had an old TV. Her two floor looms were set up to face the TV so she could watch the Red Sox or the tennis matches while she wove. When my cousin and I were there we'd change it to The Real World or Road Rules, but I'm pretty sure that was mos...

The above image is of the sample for my next project. I'd woven with this yarn as a warp at 10 EPI for a sampler last year during the MAFA Weaving 101 workshop. While great to learn with, the resulting fabric felt a little to stiff for a cowl I was planning so I thought i'd try to see what this draft (#59 from A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns ) would look and feel like at 8 EPI instead. Y'all, it's gross to weave. I hate it. I need to beat it so softly that it feels super unnatural to me. I was convinced while on the loom that I would need to change the sett to 10 EPI after I blocked it. But then I blocked it. And it's just about exactly what I wanted in a fabric. It has drape and you can see the pattern! I'm a little annoyed it worked out this way because it does feel so gross to weave, but I'm hoping I'm as much of a product weaver as I am a product knitter . ONWARDS!

So, I have some carry over vacation days to use and I'm using them this week. Unfortunately, I'll be spending the week away from Rey at my parents' in Rhode Island. There is, however, a table loom (also from my grandmother) that I'm going to try to use while I'm there just to keep learning. I have a lot of pink wool yarn that I think I'll use with some black Harrisville shetland yarn that came with the Macomber that I'll use to create a scarf. I talked with someone I met at the NY Handweaver's Guild (virtual) meeting in December a couple of weeks ago. She said that one of her first projects was a warp where she tried out a bunch of twill patterns with some plainweave between. She said she learned a lot from that, so I think I might try something similar with this black and pink wool (using the pink as the warp because I have so much of it). When I get back to Rey, after I finish replacing the apron strings, I have a couple of projects in mind. I...