Saturday, July 12, 2008

Picky

It's not just the warp tension. My picks need improvement.

In the past, when I wove on merino warps, I had three kinds of picks: "bang" for merino/mohair wefts that needed packing, "snug" for merino/mohair/silk mix that needed to sit snugly against the previous weft, and "space" for merino wefts where I wanted a space roughly the width of the weft yarn between each pick. And depending on the weft and the sett, my body controlled these almost automatically. Even when the picks were a little irregular, I was able to more or less disguise it in the washing/fulling process.

It doesn't work that way with the loose way I weave my cashmeres, and as for cottons, a far more disciplined beating is required, but my body hasn't learned the different degrees of control yet, and still I hate to stop/check because then there is no rhythm in my motion.

I said I wasn't grumpy or cranky tonight, didn't I? I think I'll go to bed before the Black Holes sucks me in.

2 comments:

  1. My silk gets pressed to the fell very hard, not really banged. And I weave with this stuff so much that it is really hard to adjust pick tension for wool. And since I don't do it very often, I never really develop a rhythm. I hope the black hole didn't suck you in.

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  2. I crawled out of the Black Hole this morning, to the smell of fluffy eggs Beloved was cooking. Then I made myself oatmeal and put in a chopped, ripe banana into the mix; we have one more ripe banana that he won't touch, but this way it adds a nice aroma to my oatmeal.

    It's interesting how the body gets used to things in weaving; the picks, the treadling, the advancing of the warp... And at least I don't really notice it until I sit on someone else's loom, or try a new fiber or structure.

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