Monday, November 24, 2008

TOWEL ONE WOVEN

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Towel 1 begun Weaving these towels is very different from the weaving I normally do. First of all, it is really fast!  Well, not as fast as Laura Fry weaves, but certainly a lot faster than the crackle I have been weaving.

I recently purchased Laura Fry’s latest CD.  One of the things on it is a video clip of Laura weaving.  Talk about fast weaving! If I were interested in doing production weaving where speed was essential, I would definitely use Laura’s performance in this video clip as my model.  I would look at it and try to imitate.  Look again, refine the imitation.  And so on. By the time I get to the fifth towel on this warp, I may be looking at how to speed things up…. To learn more about Laura’s CD, go to her website here.

Another thing that I am finding intriguing is the slant of the twill.  Since I sett the yarn at 24 epi, I intended to weave it at 24 ppi.  This would give me the 90-degree angle twill I was after.  Well, it’s close.  But the ppi is 20.  And while I am not slamming the beater into the fell, I am beating quite hard. 

The cause of this is no doubt in the draw-in.  There is quite a bit of draw-in and the selvedges have closed up considerably.  So it is probably the closeness of the selvedge threads that is preventing me from easily beating any more weft into a given inch.

I could use temples to keep the warp yarns spread out during the beating.  But I am weaving towels.  Towels that I hope will get hard use.  Those tight selvedges will protect the edges of the towels very nicely. 

One thing Laura said on her CD which I take to heart:  if you can’t do it perfectly, do it consistently.

By the way, while the color in the cloth is accurate, the color of the floor is definitely NOT accurate!

"Towel One Begun" was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 24, 2008. © 2008 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

6 comments:

Leigh said...

Isn't it a fun change to have something that weaves up quickly? I've never used a temple so I never realized how it effected the selvedges. Interesting. It is something for me to explore in the future.

Susan B. said...

I'm weaving something quickly now as well! It is nice! I too need to look into the temple but it's nice to know when it really might not be useful to the project!

Jessica Madsen said...

I like the color combo! These towels will look great!
-Jessica

Peg in South Carolina said...

Leigh and Susan, yes it is fun. And because I have those horizontal stripes, total boredom has not yet set in. When that starts to happen, I will probably try some different things with color or design.
Jessica, thanks for the compliment. I really wanted to do something like black, red, and white and she is a New Yorker. But I needed colors that wouldn't bleed and that can be a problem with unmercerized cotton.

Anonymous said...

YUM!! How pretty are those? And just the thing to inspire a person to tidy up the kitchen so that she can show them off.

I'm envious of your weaving time, I'm still not at my loom. Am putting together all of the modern interpretations for the coverlet project, and now I fear that my holiday weaving plans have taken such a back seat that I shall have to punt them into the new year.

While lovely, I do know what you mean about that moment when as a weaver, the weaving doldrums set in on a project after so much repetition. Good time to listen to a podcast or a book on tape?

Have a lovely Thanksgiving, Miss Peg. And thank you for all that you share with our weaving community.

Jane

Peg in South Carolina said...

Jane, I wouldn't trust myself listening to a podcast or a book. but I can listen to music. And that is what I will do if things get tough!