Why not?
Flush with the success of the first set, I went ahead and washed the four hanks of the first Maysville Rug Filler I acquired, one brown and three blue.
They were not as smelly as the six other ones, but they were not fresh, either.
The sweet husband surprised me last night by swapping out the broken drum on the Beast!
I was able to begin warping for the taquete rug; however, the remainder of the warp does not arrive until Thursday.
In Lil' Miss news, she is weaving right along. We are on the 4th of 9 towels. I have been alternating plain weave stripes with point twill patterns on each one. She is such a sweet little loom!
The decision to acquire a second loom was sound one. I love having one up and running at all times.
One of the things I have discovered with the draft I am using is that it was developed for a falling shed loom, rather than a rising shed of my looms.
When the shafts are at rest, they are in neutral position. When a treadle is engaged, countermarche looms raise some shafts and drop others, which creates a falling shed. My looms are jack looms and when I press down on a treadle, it raises some shafts, leaving others in place. Jack looms are rising shed looms. The shed is the area between the threads through which the weft is thrown with a shuttle.
In translation, this means for the design on the draft to face me while I am weaving (rather than on the back side of the fabric), I need to tie up my treadles for the blank squares, rather than the ones with black dots in them. It's not a big deal at all, I just like looking at the pretty side of the fabric. Although, it is easier to ensure the thread changes are on the wrong side this way.
Here is the draft I am using:
The switch up is more obvious with the pattern on either side of the light blue, the one that matches the top center pattern in the draft.
Again, this is not a big deal at all, and I could take five minutes to get on the floor and change the tie ups to "correct" this, but I won't. If I were to do it mid-towel, the design would flip and look like an error. I am accustomed to it now, but I will tuck the knowledge away for future projects.
How does one know whether the draft is created for shed rising or shed falling looms?
Some people can read the draft and instinctively know. I am apparently not one of those.
I would like to say it would become obvious on sampling, but I did not notice it until I was into my second towel done in pattern...although, now I know to look for it.
We will ignore that I have used this pattern on, at least, one other occasion last year, and I failed to notice it at all until a couple of days ago.
My story is the draft shows the weft in white and warp in blue, which threw me, as my weft is in white...
In fact, now that I am cross-eyed studying it all, I am not sure.
Both sides are gorgeous!
The knitting front has obviously slowed down.
At the moment, I have two pairs of socks for the husband, which are my travel projects, and one sweater.
The first pair sits in a candy dish in the living room.
I am all still working on the Fair Isle Oa, but I am closing in on the divide for the sleeves. Once I reach that point, work on the body will stall, as I knit both of the sleeves to the point where they will join the body.
Further, instead of leaving this a pullover, I have decided it will ultimately be a cardigan. As this is an afterthought, I did not provide steeking stitches down the front of the middle, but I can still reinforce and cut them when the time comes. For me, I think this will get a good deal more wear as a cardigan.
I have had to rethink my opinion of Cascade Yarns with this project, too. In the past, I have used 220 Worsted and it has felt rough and somewhat like acrylic in my hands, even though it is 100% wool. This sport weight 220; however, is actually very soft and lovely. I chose it based on color and price. It was far more economical than the Wollmeise that first caught my eye, AND it is solid and not tonal. I thought the former would work better with the pattern.
As spring is here in South Texas, I should actually be thinking about yard and garden projects...
Anyone else?
They were not as smelly as the six other ones, but they were not fresh, either.
The sweet husband surprised me last night by swapping out the broken drum on the Beast!
I was able to begin warping for the taquete rug; however, the remainder of the warp does not arrive until Thursday.
This was the five day old drum before:
Here is the after:
In Lil' Miss news, she is weaving right along. We are on the 4th of 9 towels. I have been alternating plain weave stripes with point twill patterns on each one. She is such a sweet little loom!
The decision to acquire a second loom was sound one. I love having one up and running at all times.
One of the things I have discovered with the draft I am using is that it was developed for a falling shed loom, rather than a rising shed of my looms.
When the shafts are at rest, they are in neutral position. When a treadle is engaged, countermarche looms raise some shafts and drop others, which creates a falling shed. My looms are jack looms and when I press down on a treadle, it raises some shafts, leaving others in place. Jack looms are rising shed looms. The shed is the area between the threads through which the weft is thrown with a shuttle.
In translation, this means for the design on the draft to face me while I am weaving (rather than on the back side of the fabric), I need to tie up my treadles for the blank squares, rather than the ones with black dots in them. It's not a big deal at all, I just like looking at the pretty side of the fabric. Although, it is easier to ensure the thread changes are on the wrong side this way.
Here is the draft I am using:
While it may be hard to read, but in the upper right hand corner is a box four squares tall and wide. They are numbered 1 to 4 from the bottom up and from left to right. This represents the tie ups for the treadles. Line number one read from the bottom up shows shafts 1 and 2 are blackened in. For a falling shed loom, that means shafts 1 and 2 should be attached to treadle number 1, and that is how I tied up my treadle; however, my loom is a rising shed. This means I should have tied shafts 3 and 4 (the ones that are left blank) to treadle number 1 in order to have the pattern facing me as I weave.
I am actually using two threading patterns from the above draft. For the center light blue section of my weaving, I am using the pattern on the top far left. For the other colors on either side of the middle light blue section, I am using the threading pattern in the top middle.
Here is a photo of the top of my fabric, what I see as I am weaving:
Here is what the underside looks like:
The switch up is more obvious with the pattern on either side of the light blue, the one that matches the top center pattern in the draft.
Again, this is not a big deal at all, and I could take five minutes to get on the floor and change the tie ups to "correct" this, but I won't. If I were to do it mid-towel, the design would flip and look like an error. I am accustomed to it now, but I will tuck the knowledge away for future projects.
How does one know whether the draft is created for shed rising or shed falling looms?
Some people can read the draft and instinctively know. I am apparently not one of those.
I would like to say it would become obvious on sampling, but I did not notice it until I was into my second towel done in pattern...although, now I know to look for it.
We will ignore that I have used this pattern on, at least, one other occasion last year, and I failed to notice it at all until a couple of days ago.
My story is the draft shows the weft in white and warp in blue, which threw me, as my weft is in white...
In fact, now that I am cross-eyed studying it all, I am not sure.
Both sides are gorgeous!
The knitting front has obviously slowed down.
At the moment, I have two pairs of socks for the husband, which are my travel projects, and one sweater.
The first pair sits in a candy dish in the living room.
The second pair is usually in my car:
Further, instead of leaving this a pullover, I have decided it will ultimately be a cardigan. As this is an afterthought, I did not provide steeking stitches down the front of the middle, but I can still reinforce and cut them when the time comes. For me, I think this will get a good deal more wear as a cardigan.
I have had to rethink my opinion of Cascade Yarns with this project, too. In the past, I have used 220 Worsted and it has felt rough and somewhat like acrylic in my hands, even though it is 100% wool. This sport weight 220; however, is actually very soft and lovely. I chose it based on color and price. It was far more economical than the Wollmeise that first caught my eye, AND it is solid and not tonal. I thought the former would work better with the pattern.
As spring is here in South Texas, I should actually be thinking about yard and garden projects...
Anyone else?
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