02-03-2019

This is slow weaving. I’m weaving 2 picks in the same shed with a light beat in between (neater than just using the wool held doubled), then changing shed and doing another 2 picks and a light beat. Then change shed again, and use the knife edge of the stick shuttle to really pack the 4 picks in there. You can’t see the weft anymore at all and it’s really dense upholstery cloth. But S.L.O.W.

13-04-2020

Took it off my RH loom. Will attempt this again on my floor loom once that becomes available…

27-04-2020

14” x 15” before fulling.

I will do this again, but on the floor loom I think.

06-01-2021

Restarting in my floor loom. Warp is 300yd/50g cotton, a bit soft I think but what the heck. This is much faster now on the heavier loom. I’m doing 3 treadle cycles per pattern row instead of 4 to get the right proportions. For the narrower stripes only 2 cycles. I’ve done a point threading instead of the rose path, so I can do tabby for the pillow front.

Threading 123432 and repeat. I’ve included floating selvedges as part of the warp - new technique for me.

Tie up:
1 = 23 (1, 4 sink)
2= 134 (2 sinks)
3 = 124 (3 sinks)
4 unused
5 = 13
6 = 24

In this way I can do 3 harness bound rose path as well as krabbasnår on a tabby ground with the same warp. The pillow back is different motifs taken from the “3-harness weaving from Bosarp” in the same magazine.

08-01-2021

finished the back. Now on to the front!! Much more of a challenge. I’m using a pickup stick/weaving sword to pick everything up and then using either a stick shuttle (for rows that are all one colour) or little finger skeins.

Takes a bit of mind-bending to read the pattern, since one is working from behind. The coloured squares on the diagram show where you have to lift, and therefore you don’t see the pattern develop as you work. Confusing.

I want to work in my initials, but of course these have to be mirror imaged since one works from the back. Alphabet from a danish cross-stitch book I inherited from my mom, then into Exel for a mirror-rotation!

08-01-2021

OK, after about 2 bands of this I’m cutting it off, I’m going to give it a wash to see if I like it. I’m not convinced the weft is giving enough coverage…

10-01-2021

Looks good actually. The yarn fluffs up a lot, so in fact I don’t need to beat so hard! I could do with a 4 picks of black on the krabbasnår; 2 is a little thin and disappears in the red poofiness.

The pillow back looks AMAZING.

13-01-2021

Have ditched the bobbins, because every time I beat they would jump off the loom. It’s just as fast to work with loose ends, not even with little finger skeins…

It takes a while to get some consistency in the beating and also in the tension of the inlays. Also, it’s much easier to work with the fabric already over the breast beam…

Finally, hard to spot mistakes! Check everything twice before putting in the tabby picks. You can unpick and rework with a tapestry needle if the mistake is only a row deep, but further than that and it becomes much harder.

22-01-2021

OK, I broke the point off of my letter opener! So now am using a tapestry bobbin, which is actually nicer. Not quite so sharp, but it’s round so it stays in the shed very nicely - doesn’t tip over like the letter opener did. I tied using tapestry bobbins for all the threads, it works as long as you don’t have more than, say, 10 colours. I need more, and it becomes a mess - the bobbins get tangled. Far easier to work with loose threads, as long as they are not too long (1m at most).

17-06-2022

Back at this after a long time away…

notes to self:
enlarge the chart or you’ll go blind (scan, enlarge, and print from computer).

Two pattern picks using doubled yarn per row (ie. work back and then forth).
Two shots of tabby after each pattern pick using single white yarn.

I get about 1/2” per hour done. Very slow. Forget my initials - let’s just get ‘er done!

21-06-2022

Ooof. Finally done the top!! Wasn’t too bad once I got restarted. You get into a rhythm.

Now just waiting for a piece of custom foam, so I can make a good weaving bench cushion!

Final note:
Next time, try the krabbasnår on a 2/16 cotton or cottolin ground, and singles 2/14 wool. This yarn does fluff a lot. The surface of my pillow is very, very poofy!