If you clicked on the picture in the previous post, you saw a lot of little loops of weft yarn at the selvedges, especially the left selvedge. But there is yet another problem. It is invisible in that picture. On the reverse side of the cloth there are occasional lumps of yarn. Theses lumps are actually little loops where the weft didn't stretch out fully.
So much for my "euphoric bliss."
All this makes me particularly unhappy because otherwise this piece is revealing itself nicely
SHEDS AND LOOPS OF YARN IN CLOTH
However, I see solutions beginning to 
happen. One thing I started to notice was that the sheds were not always clear right down to the fell of the cloth. In this image you can see that. I suspect that one thing that was happening on these sheds was that the weft was occasionally getting caught up and pull out by the misaligned warps at the fell. So now I use my hand to clear any sheds that look like this. Doing that, I think, has taken care of the little loops on the underside. At least I don't seem to be feeling them anymore.
PIRN HANDLING
And I have settled down on an easy and effective technique of holding pirn and yarn after I have passed the pirn through. This probably accounts for the little loops at the selvedge beginning to clear up. I need more practice here in order to build up the necessary skill.
© 2008
5 comments:
HI Peg,
You should be able to make an adjustment to the tension if ou have a Schacht end delivery shuttle. Sounds like its set too loose.
But the scarf looks great! Love the colour...
Susan
Duncan, BC.
Hi Susan, I love my end feed shuttles and they might work if I were using a shuttle, and, on this very closely warped and woven fabric worked with great care to get the tension exactly right. But I am simply handing pirns back and forth with my hands, no shuttle involved. I am making frequent color changes and the warp is only 7 inches wide. So what I am having to learn is how to manage the tension manually. Probably not a bad skill to develop anyway! Practice, practice, practice.
I don't know why but no matter what I weave my left selvages are not a nice as my right. Doesn't matter what I'm weaving or what shuttles I'm using at the time.
Love to know why.
A message to 'bspinner':
One side is always better due to which hand you throw the shuttle with. A friend suggested that I shift my bum on the bench over a couple of inches toward the 'bad' side and see if it improves. It helped somewhat. Another friend thinks that the twist of the plied yarn may be involved too. ( Z or S ply) One side would lay nice and the other has the ply opposite the twist in the warp. Something to think about...
Peg: I didn't realize or read that you were hand passing the pirns. Have you tried a flat stick shuttle? I guess it's 6 of one and half dozen of another isn't it?
Susan
Duncan, BC
Susan, the idea of winding yarn by hand on a flat stick shuttle boggles my mind! I'm using 15 colors of very very fine silk.
And to bspinner, it is the left selvedge that gives me the most trouble as well, though, as I have discovered, it seems that the trouble is not caused by throwing the shuttle from left to right so much as it is caused by the weft yarn, when it is thrown right to left, not quite going straight through, getting caught in the last few threads on the left. What generally solves this, both now and on weaving with actual shuttles (grin!), is pulling that weft thread taut on the left before throwing the shuttle. But, as Susan suggests, perhaps moving my bum to the left would solve that as well! I'm right-handed by the way. Perhaps my left hand doesn't pull as hard on the left as my right hand does on the right?
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