Plain weave double weave...eventually!

September 5, 2011

SOoooooo…I just had to give it a try. There is a new Weave-A-Long on Ravelry, in the backstrap group.  It is for plain weave...be it warp face or plain weave.  In the beginning it didn't interest me as I am usually doing more design/warp floats than plain weave.  But I changed my mind and I guess I will be the one doing plain weave without a heddle/reed. 

I twined my warp for spacing, at both ends. I also doubled my worsted cotton to make my string heddles, hoping this would also help spacing. I got that idea from a fellow Ravelry member, she used a plastic bag cut into strips for heddles. I figure if they are ‘fat’ they will help with the spacing.

I originally warped up to try balance dbl wv…finnweave. But I decided as this is waste yarn (small balls left over from other projects), and I am new to this twining for spacing thing, and continuous string heddles are not my strong suit (normally I use individual heddle loops), and I want to see if I can keep a consistent width, that it was plenty enough to contend with at one time. 

I actually am wondering if I can pick my even weave dbl wv by hand, like we do for warp face dbl wv??? until I can get the hang of all of the threading/heddles/shafts.

Anyway, I have 2 threads in each heddle, a pink and a purple, for both sheds, just like for warp face dbl wv. I decided to leave them that way and use a dble strand of weft, one pink one purple, basket weave at this point, and see how close I could get to a balanced fabric. My twining was originally one thread at a time…but I re-twined it using the pairs so that I could just leave the sheds like they were wound on the warp board, instead of repicking and making them individuals.

The camera flash (which I can’t figure out how to shut off) made them a little big glared…but here are some pictures.

When it grows up it will be back scrubbie!

The bottom twined, and bound to the breast beam.

Twined and bound to the warp beam.

A better view.

Continuous string heddles, made with double strands of worsted cotton.

The beginning of the weaving.  Later I un-wove this and inserted a braided purple cord to make a handle for the back-scrubber.  Believe it or not I finished this 34 in. warp in one day.  It turned out very well.  I will take pictures and post tomorrow.  I think the prototype back-scrubber turned out well.  That and maybe a washcloth or two will make great gifts.