Weaving Finished on the Shawl

Weaving part finished on the shawl this afternoon about three o'clock.  Plain weave, even double plain weave goes pretty fast if the warp tension is good and the yarn is heavy-duty and rather thick rug yarn.  I will have to weave in quite a few ends with a needle, but I can do that inside the nice comfy office.

I realized I had about 1/2 a yard of warp left, so I'm now doing a 2/2 twill and alternating the rust/red and orange/gold blocks in hopes of getting enough 20 inch wide fabric to make a hat to go with everything else.  I remembered that if I just re-tied the harnesses from the double-weave tie-up to twill, the threading would work for either.  I put two sticks in-between the end of the shawl and before the start of the twill bit.  That should leave a nice space for cutting them apart and hemming before the water finishing.

I may decide to partly felt the twill, if I have enough fabric which it looks like I will.  Viking hats just need the four triangles, and if the fabric is wide enough to get seven inches plus seam allowance on both sides of the fabric, I won't really need all that much.  Might even be enough left for a small pouch or something.  Just depends on how long the loom keeps weaving. 

One of the advantages of the Baby Wolf looms is the extra long cords attached to the warping beams that let you start weaving sooner and keep going longer than on many older looms.  I think most modern looms have something similar but a lot of the old ones do not.

Anyway, hopefully more photos in a day or two.  Meanwhile, another from the first day of weaving...

 And since a couple of folks asked me this on Face Book, yes the weaving will be a lot tighter after it is washed, also I will be weaving in all the odd ends that stick out at the sides.  This is what is called a "Weft Faced" Weave because in order to weave double-wide cloth, the warp threads end up being farther apart than they would be otherwise.  I have tried double threading with this yarn, but it is too thick and the loom just won't move.  But, since what I want is a loose and draping shawl effect, the very loose weave works fine.  However, I thought it was too loose for the hat, which is one reason I switched to twill weave for the last bit. 

Hopefully a picture of that in a day or two.

Starting New Shawl project

Well, after a couple of months doing many other things, it is back to weaving time.  For now, I am working on a second Osberg style shawl, this time in the more appealing colors of rust and burnt orange for the warp and the addition of red and gold silk with the weft.

I have huge amounts of the burnt orange, and only a small amount of the rust, so I am using the rust every few rows for a small stripe, that turns the pattern into a light plaid effect. 

Because my loom is a narrow four harness, I needed to use double weave in order to make a wide shawl.  This also meant using a plain weave pattern and a low thread count, with the heavy rug yarn.  The photo shows the wide gaps between the treads, those will close up when I wash and slightly felt the shawl/blanket but it will still be a pretty open weave.

I really like how the silk perks up the pattern, you can't really see it in photos, but in real life it catches the light well.

Here is a photo of the work in progress.  More to follow....from
The Cat Who Plays With String...