WINDOW SCREENING

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

My second attempt proves to have a great deal more promise than my first attempt.  I wove the same thing twice:  once with light gray and once with blue.  I watched the little empty squares between the warp and the weft.  I tried to make those spaces square. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it and reveal those spaces even more clearly.

I decided to weave a lot more of the “plain weave.”  It’s not true plain weave.  Note the doubled warp ends.  But I knew doing that would make it easier for me to read what was happening.

In the first attempt, with gray weft, the picks per inch were 7.  Almost square and the warp sett at 8 epi.  I was clearly moving in the right direction. 

When I started with the blue weft I concentrated very hard. I didn’t settle the weft in for its final placement until I changed the shed.  Then I pulled on the beater ever so slightly more.  For me, unused as I am to this kind of weaving, my concentration was fiercely intense.  But I won!   8 ppi!

The fabric looks better.  It feels better.  It is still coarse, but that will disappear in the washing.  The yarns now have plenty of room to expand and soften.

But before I cut this sampling off for washing I want to weave another sample, but this time with the overshots close together, as on that first sampling, but still keeping the plain weave shots open as they are here.

Related Post:  Discouraged But Not Totally

"Window Screening" was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 12, 2009. © 2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina