HANDSPUN SCARF: END OF THE LINE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Dave guessed that I would be able to weave a sample four inches long.  His guess was off by 14 inches……  Above is the apron spread from back beam to the heddles.

Waste at back: 17" x 98 ends = 1,666" ÷36" = 46 yards

Is this too much?  In this case, no, because I had more than enough handspun.  Still 46 yards of plied handspun seems like a lot to me. But the fact that I could weave as far as I could on the warp will cause me to think carefully next time as to whether or not I will use a dummy warp.

And here is a close up that shows just how close the rod came to the heddles.

Actually, too close for comfort.  The back rod was rubbing against the heddles and I didn’t like that one bit.  Had I been really intent on weaving as much as I could (and I could have woven possible two to three more inches), I would have taken the trouble to move the rod and apron back a wee bit.  But this was only a sample and I just wanted to finish the weaving.

The amazing thing was that this last bit of weaving created a great deal of tension on the warp because the warp ends, when sheds were created created terribly great angles when a shed was made.  But not a broken thread in the bunch.

And no floating shafts!  Why do I have trouble with floating shafts in my complex crackles and no floating shafts in plain twill?  It does not happen because of unequal distribution of warp ends on the shafts.  Give or take one end, there are always the same number on each shaft.

Related Posts: 
Floating Shafts
Handspun and Dummy Warps

"Handspun Scarf: End of the Line” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 11, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.