CORRECTING TREADLING ERRORS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

After I used the sewing machine to zigzag the edges of the crackle sample,  I trimmed off the ends.  Then I took the fabric to my little work table in the family room.  Here, with good light, I checked the weaving for treadling errors. 

Earlier, while the fabric was still on the loom, I had seen a couple of errors with the red tabby weft.  Those I corrected on the spot.

Looking at the fabric off the loom, I discovered only one more treadling error.  It was clear only on the wrong side of the fabric, though had I looked carefully enough, I would have seen it on the right side of the fabric as well. In the photo you can see the long overshot in the center where I have pulled the loop up slightly to make it more visible.  Looking to the left, the same weft produced another error on the left side. 

Keep your eyes on the right side, however.  Notice anything?

I threaded a darning needle with a length of the light gray weft, long enough to go across the entire width plus extra.  What I am going to do is to replace that entire weft shot with a new weft.  With this yarn, the weaving in is easy and will create a much neater look than if I had used separate threads to mend the center float and the float on the side.  This photo shows the beginning of the mending. The weft yarn stays in because it provides, at least in part, a duplicate of the path the yarn I am weaving in is to go.  So weaving that part in is easy.

At this point the photo shows my needle just following the path of the weft yarn originally woven in.  If you haven’t been able to answer the above question, look again at where the needle is going.  Is it going where it should be?

In this next photo, I am mending the long float in the center.  How do I know where to put the needle?  Look at the light gray rows below.  These were all woven the same because they are part of the same woven block.  I am using the weft threads there as my pattern.

Where I have stopped the needle is where I have gotten confused.  I don’t know where to put the needle in next.  Looking at the row below shows that there should be no weft floats on the top side there, but there are.  So I turned the work over.  That is where the weft floats should be.  So I then worked on the underside, following the pattern there.  When I got to where the weft floats on the underside stopped, I turned back to this side and continued working.  And I worked until I had mended that float on the left.

Next I carefully pulled the woven weft floats out, using the tip of my darning needle to grab them. I pulled out the entire length of the weft. But I still had one more thing to do.  I had to weave the end of the woven weft back in at the edges for an inch or so to lock the wefts in.  The doubled end is visible.  But that is exactly what happens when I weave and have to end off with a thread and weave in a new one.

For those who haven’t figured out the question I asked about the right side, go back to the top two photos and look carefully.  Look not only at the weft thread on the right side, look at those gray weft threads in the rows below. There is no weft float….   In the block beneath, there are weft floats there.  Not in the block I am working with.

I totally missed it.  I didn’t see it until I started working with the photos.

I have already washed the fabric and it is drying. To wash and full it, I put it in a dishpan of very hot water to which I had added baby shampoo.  I let it soak for 15 minutes.  Then I kneaded and massaged it a bit.  I went through this routine twice more. But I don’t think it has yet fulled as much as I would like, so, once dry, I will put it in the washing machine to full a bit more. 

Before I do that, I can mend the error on the right hand side and after the second fulling, there should be little difference between it and the rest of the yarn.  Or to be more precise, that is my hope!

Wherever there were tails I cut them, but not off.  I left short tails.  The sett is so wide that I feared something might come unglued, whoops, unwoven.  I will cut them off after the cloth has dried. 

Related Posts: 
The Mending is Done
Mending Fabric
Treadling Mistakes

"Correcting Treadling Errors” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on February 9, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina