Friday 16 January 2009

Second practice piece


Second go on my RH loom. I'm rather pleased with this attempt, I was very much afraid that I'd set up the loom to be too short, but this was long and wide enough to have worked out very well. The yarn wasn't specified for warp or weft just 'suitable for weaving', I wanted to find out if the yarn was robust enough to be used as a warp and it is, if used double; I had no snapped threads. It does stretch a little on the loom and the nature of the yarns meant that they tried to cling to one another frequently when moving the heddle up and down and when passing the shuttle through the shed. My selvedges are still a bit wonky but getting better. Better pictures will of course, be available on my picturetrail in the 'Ravelry Projects' folder.

12.5 dent reed (50/10cm)

Warp: Texere's Silk Heather (40% silk, 30% wool, 30% cotton) two strands, one oatmeal colour, the second "Moss Mix" (brown). Both yarns are a tweed (9/1nm -- whatever that means).
Weft: two strands together of Silk Heather oatmeal and two strands held together of Texere's Enigma (50% silk, 50% wool, 10/1nm) in "Spruce" (blue), Enigma is another tweed yarn. All yarns come on cones, spun in oil.
Measurement: I haven't washed the test piece yet, so it hasn't bloomed, shrunk/grown or done anything. It's been off the loom for an hour or two now and the size is 17cm wide and 31cm long. I will try to remember to measure it again after it's been washed and dried.

I'm torn on whether to take my chances and put it through a machine wash or just handwash it in soap flakes.

I am so satisfied with the results of this piece that I want to use it here in the house, perhaps as a small mat for something or in the display cabinet.

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