Learning to Weave Weave Sample
The first assignment of Lesson 6 asks the weaver to experiment with different plain weave variations at different setts — you weave plain weave, basketweave, rib weave, and twill, then you cut off the sample and resley to tighter and looser setts. (For the non-weavers: this means you mess around with simple stuff, experimenting with thread density. It’s kind of like swatching different knit and purl patterns with different needle sizes.)
This assignment was a disaster.
I decided to use Naturespun Fingering in red and black, because I had two one-pound cones of each. At 2800 yards per cone, I figured I had plenty to play with for these samples. Mistake #1: I didn’t measure the wpi to determine my own sett. (For non-weavers: I didn’t check the yarn’s actual thickness to see how densely to space the threads.) I took Woodland Woolworks’ word for it that the yarn was 17 wpi and should be sett at 10 epi.
10 epi produced a fantastic weft-faced fabric! It took forever to weave, and was not the “good balanced weave” that the assignment called for.
Mistake #2: I figured that any coned yarn sold by a weaving store would be suitable for warp, and didn’t really think about whether or not Naturespun Fingering was suitable for this project. Like I said, I chose it because I had a lot of it in two different colors.
The selvedge threads started to break about three inches into the weaving. Many selvedge threads. And after I cut off the first sample and resleyed to 12 epi, threads in the middle of the piece started breaking, too.
This is a view of the warp from right before I cut it off and threw it away.
Sorry, teacher. I didn’t finish the assignment. But I certainly learned my lesson about thinking harder about warp choices. And I did learn that Naturespun in basketweave and rib weave makes an attractive, if very weft-faced, bag-worthy fabric at 10 and 12 epi.
- Date: 7/24/2006-7/27/2006
- Warp Yarn: Brown Sheep Company Naturespun Fingering in “scarlet” (N48) (Woodland Woolworks)
- Weft Yarn: Brown Sheep Company Naturespun Fingering in “pepper” (601) and “scarlet” (N48) (Woodland Woolworks)
- Sett: 10 epi for longer piece, 12 epi for shorter piece
- PPI: About a million. It felt like it.
- Finishing: Overhand knotted fringe on one end of one piece; no finishing on the rest. I didn’t even wash them.
