Not my cup of tea

I’ve long admired the finished product of soft, flowing curves in woven items. Particularly with only 4 shafts, this isn’t always eas to produce. So when I saw Bonnie Inouye’s article on Weavezine, I decided I had to give it a shot. I had several other projects that had to take priority, though, so while I waited my desire just increased.

This week I was finally at a point where I could check it out. I used Bonnie’s draft and set up my loom. Trust me when I tell you i took LOTS of attention to thread the heddles correctly – 72 threads in one pattern repeat!

I used a deep, rich purple 8/2 rayon for the warp, sett at 18 ends per inch. I’ve used this sett with this yarn for a variety of patterns, and always liked the result. To show the curves off well, I picked a medium green rayon for weft. I figured it would be a lovely as the amethyst & peridot jewelry I’ve made.

Hah! Wrong again!

I started with a few rows of plain weave, as I usually do for stability. Then I wove one repeat of the 70-row treadling pattern. This was clearly too loose to make a stable fabric, plus I didn’t like how it looked.

Next I tried another repeat of the 70-row treadling, this time beating much more firmly. Much more stable, but not much better looking, to my eye at least.

I waited overnight to see if I’d like it better the next day. That sometimes works. I can see the beauty of things after a time away, or their flaws, or get an idea on how to improve things.

I didn’t like it any better, but did have an idea. Maybe my weft needed to be much thicker than the warp for it to work well. So I made two shots of each row, doubling the weft thickness, for a third 70-row pattern. Yes, the pattern shows up better, but I still don’t like it.

I’m going to unweave all this, unthread reed & heddles, and re-thread in another pattern. Not sure exactly what yet, but I’ll use a tried & true, I think. I want to weave something I’m pretty certain to like!

March 14th, 2012 |