What's on the Loom????

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

I re-warped the loom Sunday after my failed double weave attempt that turned into a back scrubber.  Which by the way works beautifully.

I want to try and do simple warp floats on a stripe background that is reversible.  

I wanted to use my new #3 mercerized cotton crochet threads that Gail sent me (the next piece will be done in yarn cphilip) sent me.  I wanted it to be a good size, and I intend to keep it for myself.  I originally wanted to use cobalt blue and forest green together.  I only had these in #10 and although I love these two colors together I decided I wanted something with alot more contrast as light to dark. 

So I chose Navy, sage green, lime green and gold accent.  The has only 4 revolutions, two on each side and it is #10.  It is 174 revolutions on the warp board, which means 348 threads wide.  All are single threaded as this yarn is heavy enough for me to see it well.  It is a 56 in. long warp and the width of the weave is 7 1/8 in.  My weaving's sometimes get a little wider as I go though.

I did make one serendipitous mistake though, and I quite like it, so I have decided to keep it.  Especially since there is so much yummy yarn at stake.  I was warping with a double cross and someone, at the exact half way point, I switched the crosses.  This means instead of shed one being an entirely green stripe it is now 1/2 green and them becomes navy.  On the other side the opposite.  So instead of one really wide stripe/pattern area, I have two more narrow columns (1/2 the size intended) with two opposite striping patterns.  It already looks kind of 3d.  So basically I will have to work smaller motif's when I actually thought I would be working VERY large ones.  The indigenous weavers tend to do small motif's so I like to make them my own and make the HUGE by comparison.  Big and bold.  I also like to make my own designs that are less exotic and more Americana...we shall see.

Here are the pictures for the 'so far'....see where the navy blue changes sides...

If you take a really close look you can see where the stripes reverse themselves.  Didn't mean to do it...but I like it well enough.  Can't wait to see what it becomes.