Thursday, February 11, 2010

Moving Right Along

Um, I was supposed to show you these in progress....

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And I suppose they are still in progress, since they just came off the loom last night and they haven't been washed yet. For that matter, I haven't decided what to do with the fringe, either.

So, to begin where we left off, I did indeed twist the fringe and wash and press that gorgeous, stunning, OMG-I-made-that!? blue silk scarf. I'm a better weaver than photographer, though, so all you get is this:

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Then I threw eight yards of blue Bartlett worsted-weight warp across the 36" width of the Purrington 4-harness, and wove the three throws you saw above, each with a different treadling on a rosepath threading, using as weft my 2-ply handspun Romney from a lovely fleece I bought at Rhinebeck in 2007. Unlike the silk scarf, I did not have a single broken warp end. In fact, I had no trouble whatsoever. Those little white ends you see? Those are the weft ends; once I wash the fabric, I'll trim those back. The even tinier medium blue threads hanging off the sides? Those are how I kept track of the length of each throw - one thread per foot. Two of the throws are two yards long, on the loom; the last throw was just over 8 feet long. I wove that one till the warp ran out. I expect these to shrink considerably in the washing.

Here's a shot of the backs and one close-up of a front, just for fun.

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I feel so virtuous. Close to 5 pounds of handspun used up. Almost all of 10 skeins of Bartlett yarn, bought at a 40% off sale at my LYS, used up. Acres and acres of woven cloth created.

On the other hand, now I have to find a place to store a clothes-basket full of woolen fabric. Apparently, as one uses up one's stash of yarn and fiber, one creates a stash of precious fabric. Fabric too good to leave out where the cats can get to it with their pointy ends and delicate tummies.

Anyhow, I'm sure I'll find a way to cope. It'll be a while till I get a chance to wash and finish these throws anyway; tomorrow night is flame-on time for the Ravelympics, and as a loyal member of Team Suck Less, I intend to weave a 3' x 5' rag rug before the Olympic flame goes out. The first rag rug I've ever woven, wherein lies the challenge. A rag rug that, I hope, looks something like this beauty, from the book Favorite Rag Rugs:

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A rug for which I had practically everything in my stash already; I just needed one spool of red cotton rug warp yarn.

Some people
think I'll get through this quickly, and that then I should take on the challenge of dyeing some handspun and weaving krokbragd for a bag. Some people might just have a good handle on just how crazy I really am. Stay tuned.

4 comments :

Anonymous said...

Hey, takes a nut to know a nut ;-D.

P.S. The weaving is amazing, and pretty!

Batty said...

Your weaving is incredible. I'm floored.

Laurie said...

Beautiful fabric! Now you need to sew. Isn't that how it works??

Hope your ravelympics is proceeding apace.

Mardi said...

WOW!!