Thoughts While Weaving Samples

One of my intentions in weaving these samples is to find a design I might like for an afghan. I have envisioned the afghan in the same acrylic yarn I used for the baby blanket because it is so light, soft, and cuddly. Also, way back in my machine-knitting days I knit a lace afghan for our bedroom which I have truly worn out, I have liked it so much.

Why acrylic? Why not a nice soft merino or merino-silk? Yes, these would make lovely afghans. And I am not allergic to wool. However, in this case, the ability to throw the piece in the washer and dryer is a definite plus. The older I get, the more of a plus it becomes. This is not because I am lazy---which I am. It is because I am now old enough that I can imagine myself ending up in some kind of facility where everything I own will end up in the washer and dryer. So I am taking precautions against a possible future which I am working hard to avoid.

I have envisioned this new afghan in the same squares as the baby blankets, but in 3 colors. Actually, the idea came upon me because I have a lot of leftover yarn and was trying to think how I might use it up. I thought it might be fun to get a third color of the same yarn and weave an afghan with it.

As I have gotten into weaving the samples and have begun feeling the woven fabric between my fingers, I have discovered that this fabric seems to be thicker than the baby blanket fabric. Also, it feels like it will not drape so well. But really, this is not a surprise. The baby blanket was woven with a straight twill treadling on a straight twill threading, and this comibnation will probably yield the most drapeable fabric possible with any given yarn. And pressing only makes the fabric drape more nicely.

Why should I want an afghan to drape nicely? To me, a soft fabric that drapes well feels much more warm and comforting than a fabric which does not have these characteristics. So I will definitely have to wash and press the samples to see if pressing brings out softness and draping.

Baby Blanket

During the Washington trip I actually did engage in a weaving related activity. I did not just go to The Textile Museum.

I took with me the baby blanket I had just finished weaving and crocheted an edging around it. I had done this on a blanket a few years ago and liked the appearance of it. I used the same acrylic yarn on that blanket as I did on this blanket. I only changed the colors from lavender and pale yellow to baby blue and pale yellow. And I changed the size of the squares from 5” to 2 ½”.

On that earlier baby blanket I had zigzagged the raw edges with my sewing machine. Then I had made a hand-turned ½” hem, turning it under ¼” to hide the zigzagged edge. When I crocheted the edges, I crocheted into the hem, as well as into the selvedge lengthwise edges. I did not like this particularly as the hemmed edges seemed too bulky. When I wove the blanket, I could have used a finer thread for weaving the hems, but I did not have any acrylic yarn any finer than what I was weaving with. And I did not want to weave it with something like cotton sewing thread. I was afraid that that might affect the washing in a way I would not like. So I tried something different with this blanket.

I did zigzag the raw edges with my sewing machine. This time, however, I did not turn those edges under. I simply crocheted directly into the fabric, taking a deep enough pick with the crochet hook to cover the zigzagging. This did create a slight bulge at those two edges, but it looks much better than the version where I actually made a hem.

I did 7 rounds of crochet. Instead of crocheting round and round, however, I returned in the opposite direction whenever I reached the end of a round. This seems to make the crochet edge look a little more balanced.

I did the first two rows in single crochet. Then I alternated a filet crochet row with a single crochet row. I did this a second time. I put in the single crochet rows to give the edging a bit of stability. But the third time, I did only the filet crochet row and that was it. Nothing particularly fancy. After all, it is for a little boy!

I have to admit that crocheting round and round does get to me after awhile. I finished the last round on the ride home. I thought I would never finish. But I desperately wanted it done, finished, kaput by the time we arrived home. I made it with about 30 minutes to spare.

I still have a little bit of trimming of some tiny bits and pieces, but I think it will wash and press quite nicely. Yes, I am going to press the acrylic………

I have no pictures of this to share yet. I arrived home to a very sick computer. She is now in the computer hospital being, hopefully, fixed. But here are the directions are used for the filet crochet rows:

3 ch (counts as 1 dc), skip first sc, 1 dc into next sc, *1 ch, skip 1 sc, 1 dc into each of next 2 sc; rep from * to end, turn.

Crackle Jacket: A Different Path?

4:00 am. I woke up. I woke up with the image of those oyster shells vivid before my eyes. Frequently when I am planning a project, at some point I have a change of heart. Sometimes this happens in the middle of the night. It happened last night.

The startling blue and gold which stood out so brilliantly against the darkish neutrals. The splatterings of black. I started thinking of having an occasional black warp. Maybe I could have it repeat at regular intervals against the irregular size blocks. Or maybe a colored warp that I dyed black in spots. Maybe both.

How would I do this? The solid black threads are no problem. But the colored warp with black spots. Well, I could separate out threads and paint them. Oh dear, we are talking dyeing cotton and using MX dyes. I've used MX dyes but I have never cared for them. They are the devil to wash out and the dissolved dye keeps for only a few days. The acid dyes, on the other hand (which I use on silk) are easy to wash out, assuming that there is even any excess dye to wash out, and the dissolved dye keeps for ever. The last means much less mixing of powders. Both more convenient and less exposure to the danger of breathing in the dye powders.

Ahh, but there are some warm or hot water reactive dyes. I've not used them myself, but I know people swear by them, and so in my head I am thinking of going to the ProChem site and checking that out.

And then I start thinking of what I might do with painted warps if I turned the draft so that the treadling became the threading and the threading the treadling. This raises all sorts of new ideas, especially for warp painting possibilities.

STOP!!!! Enough already. I begin to realize that these shells have inspired a second project, not a change in this project. After all, the intent is an easy-to-wear cotton jacket for spring summer and fall (in South Carolina), casual enough to wear with my khaki's, but just slightly dressy enough to wear with linen skirts and pants. Whew. Back to sleep.

And today I have to make notes of all this so that I don't lose my thoughts from the wee hours of the morning.

By the way, the blanket warp is now fully covering the width of the loom and ready to weave.

I think an unwoven warp is a lovely thing.

What you see at the back of the loom, by the way, is my raddle. I usually always remove the raddle before starting to weave, but leave the lease sticks in. When I was in Santa Fe I learned that the Mexican rug weavers left their raddles in. I asked, why? The response was, why not? Then my friend Leigh tried leaving her raddle in and found she liked weaving that way. So tried it, and removed with fear and trepidation the lease sticks as well. I discovered that I liked that also. And, even though I had removed the lease sticks to help with finding a broken warp thread, I realized that the raddle would still make it quite easy to find them.