I guess one of the small yarn balls in my superwash box wasn’t….
Category: Weaving
Chain-dyeing
Instead of cutting mini skeins to dye, when I knew I’d be using at least some of it for weft, I decided to try to dye the unbroken yarn. I wound up small loops, tied, wound another etc. until the whole ball of yarn was used up, and then painted them side by side. I then use steaming so the colours don’t run too much, but having soaked the yarn in vinegar water first and also having vinegar in the dye solutions makes this superwash yarn absorb and hold most of the dye anyway.
The process from soak to dye layout to steaming and then tossed into the hot water to cool after steaming (with more vinegar to prevent bleeding) did cause some tangling obviously, that’s the nature of yarn, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. And now we’re ready to weave again.
According to my calculations
…since my shuttle is empty, I must be round about halfway through my rainbow blanket. Perhaps more?
I do have more mini skeins, they are all twins or triplets however, so I think I shall have to dye some new ones. What fun! The variegated yarns don’t show all their glory with the uniform warp, especially since I also decided to try out a closer sett (more threads per inch/cm) – probably not the project to do that, but I’ve been told to think less and just do, right? š
I can’t remember the blanket as it disappears around the cloth beam, so it will be interesting when I get to cut off and unroll.
As I was hemstitching I noticed I’d missed a thread in one hole, so I thought it would be fun to try a little fix. Then much later I saw that I’d also threaded two into one slot, but by then I couldn’t care less, I’d already woven a fair bit. I make mistakes anyway, weaving in too dark without reading glasses = sticky warp threads go unnoticed and suddenly you’ve skipped a couple.
Where’s my weft?
All warped up and no yarn to weave. Can you believe my weft has gone missing? Meant to wind it on a shuttle while – well never mind why, the thing is, I can’t find the darn thing. I can find a multitude of other cakes, but that’s not my weft…
Usually as soon as I complain about such matters, they have a tendency to turn up, so it’s now official. Any psychics out there are welcome to chime in however….
FOUND AND WOUND!
I just knew that whining was good for something.
Warp speed
In case y’all wondered just how fast that really is, I can tell you it’s right around snail pace.
Spent a couple of hours last night threading the heddle with those colourful warp chains, then I had to finish making dinner so it went up on the wall to be cat safe. Getting some use out of my homemade adjustable warping board too.
Needless to say, I’ve been rather dreading how to get this mess wound on straight to begin weaving! I’m as yet undecided whether I’ll be making squares with black lines intersecting or use a more wabi sabi saori approach. I’ll know when I see the first passes. Maybe. There will be three panels that are to be joined side by side, but even if I think I do make even squares there really is no guarantee they will match up completely at this point in my journey. Rigid heddle looms are not the most precise creatures I suspect.
Now, since I did not get it done over the weekend, I was debating whether to try this on my own or wait for an assistant. My immediate response is usually the former, but it’s not always a wise choice. š But it was preying on my mind, distracting me from my other tasks of the day, so I thought I could at least tie it to the beam.
Now it’s 3.30 pm, I’m knackered, the house needs tidying, the dog needs walking, so the loom is back on the wall and I hope to get back to my paints during the week. I just wanted to have a project started that doesn’t need as much light, quiet and equilibrium. Well, it’s started!