09-04-2023

about halfway through the threading.
Just finished watching a Tom Knisely video where he warps front to back, lashing on to the front apron rod. This looks very handy, will try this with this warp instead of using overhand knots to tie the warp on directly.

12-04-2023

The lashing on works really well. Will do this from now on! Tensioning is much easier.

Ditched the 2-colours approach, not working for me. Too much contrast and the design is totally lost.

So…switching yarns to 2/14 angora blend, but this doesn’t weave square, I’m getting 19-20 ppi. And I do want square! So will have to unweave and resley to 22epi. Which I should’ve known, since I’ve done lots of sampling with this!! Not a total loss as “wider is better”.

Note: weaving this wide is not so ergonomically easy. Also I’m using a temple - one of those stick things with nasty pointy teeth at the edges - and I’m not convinced it’s any better than my cheap ‘n dirty alligator clips with elastic…

13-04-2023

ok, resleyed to 22. Weaving again. Well, it’s still not square, but I’m not resleying again - mostly because I think this is at the limit for what is ergonomically OK for me, width-wise. The design will just have to be “elongated”.

The temple is working better now - it does make the edges neater and it really combats draw-in (narrowing). It also forces me to stop every inch or so, which allows me to frequently measure design checkpoints for later matching. I’m marking on a paper strip that I haul out for this purpose, and then also mark the checkpoints on the treadling sequence.

Also: I’ve restarted, but this time from the BOTTOM of the drawdown, so the thing should match the picture I’ve posted instead of some rotation/inversion/mirror or whatever.

14-04-2023

horrible slanting fell line. After trying several spacers, shoving a pickup stick between the cloth and the front beam seems to fix it. The left side of the cloth is inches longer than the right. Argh.

I seem to be beating pretty consistently however.

17-04-2023

Not going well.

Have had to cut this off, after trying to rebeam it back and forth a few times to resolve tension issues. Nope. Am washing the fragment I’ve woven, and will be able to make design adjustments to square it up…and if the tensioning is better now that I’ve rebeamed the remaining warp, I can get half the coverlet done. I still have enough for another warp so not a total loss.
I think the issue is that this thread is stretchy, so I really should beam it through the lease sticks…

17-04-2023

I fulled the scrappy piece (perm. press warm, short cycle, and a brief dryer tumble) and it has a lovely texture and thickened up nicely. It’s even more elongated because of the widthwise shrinkage of the wool vs. the cotton warp.

Did the math to adjust the pattern so it will be much more square after fulling. Now weaving again, and it is going beautifully, solid flat fell line and even tension, so my Spring is allowing me to beat very consistently. Hope I will be able to match the pattern on the second half!!

17-04-2023

Huh. Just had a thought. If I have to wind more warp for the second half anyways, why not make the coverlet LONGER? Instead of square (4 reps x 4 reps) I can make it rectangular: 6 reps by 4 reps.

18-04-2023

Gonna stop at 5 reps of the pattern. I’m approaching the end of the warp (it was tight for 8 reps) and I’ve broached my last cone of weft - heading for weft chicken, I fear…
I’m matching my measurements for each pattern repeat quite closely (within 1mm), with quite a light beat.

20-04-2023

Done the first half! Off-loom it’s about 68” long, so if I wind another warp of 3+ yd I’ll be good.

I’m thinking about the center seam. I’ve put in a red thread to the exact midpoint, for sewing, later. But in the interests of making the blanket reversible (ie. just as nice on both sides) I should do a lapped seam up the middle - ie. continue the pattern beyond the midpoint, so I can overlap the seam on one side. I’ll need to shift some heddles, but now’s the time!!

10-05-2023

wound more warp for 2nd half of coverlet, and am tying it on…700 threads…oof!

14-05-2023

rethreaded the edge for more overlap on the seam, and am about 60% done the second half…hoping to finish in the next day or so - then sewing the halves together, fulling, and edging.

15-05-2023

Done the weaving!! Less than a bobbin of the green left! Sewed together by hand, then lapped the central seam and redid by machine. The floating selvedge thread was 2/8 cotton, much thicker than the warp, and I tried to cut it off on one side but that didn’t work well. Next time, make a wider center seam so you have room to trim and fold it. The seam matches pretty well.

Then fulled on delicates, warm, short cycle, and 20 mins in the dryer before hanging out to finish drying. I fulled it less than the trial piece, because I wanted to be sure to make it as square as possible - the slow approach, right? You can always full more, but you can’t unshrink it! It’s pretty close to square I think - lemme check - yes, the large square motifs are, in fact, square!

final woven dimensions: 45” wide x 60” long

excellent technique for adding binding here

I still have more than a yard of warp left…hm….let’s faff around…

learning: if you adjust the floating breast beam to be “soft”, you can maintain the same beat and increase the PPI. Same effect as “beating harder”, without having to do that!