Commission: Ms H, 1

The commission piece I've been working on is one of two for Ms H, who was my Mom's high school friend in the beginning. That makes them friends for nigh on seventy years! She quoted Mom an extremely generous price, which allowed me to think "big" and "cashmere" at the same time.

What appeared to be a restriction at first, (the best available loom being an 8-shaft Ashford table loom 60cm wide,) quickly turned into a blessing, pushing me to use more imagination and a bit of legwork. The result is a composite of the simplest options examined. So, yay, me.  

I wanted this piece to look "irregular" yet be easy to weave. It was always going to have one weft and silly-simple lifting. The overall look was to be straight lines rather than curves, and the colors, after listening to Mom about the colors Ms H wears, gray with a bit of interest.

I tried pointed threading with uneven legs, if you get my drift, and did the same with the lifting; I tried erratic movements of the points; and I tried changing warp colors irregularly to offset the color boarders from the threading boarders, and yet my best effort lacked oomph.

Friday morning I woke up, as I often do, with that familiar "Doh!" feeling. (Really? Really? Is it spelled "D'oh"???) Move the threading a bit more visibly! So it's been smooth sailing since with a regular threading, regular color changes, and regular lifting, without the rigid symmetrical look.

The warp is, obviously, not a black and white stripe but in a gentle gradation of AA-AB-BB-BC- and so forth and back to AA twice. Above shows where the color scheme changes. The green stood out a bit too much for my liking, but the gray weft has tamed it as I had hoped.

I planned and started weaving the piece at 15EPI, but the weft appeared too dark, and I kept dropping the shuttle through the yarn. This morning I rethreaded at 18EPI, which made the weaving easier, the balance of the weft and warp better, and I think the narrower, sturdier fabric suits Ms H better.

The lifting took about an hour to learn, but it is a regular twill so it's not only easy to weave, but also to unpick, LOL. I love it, though, when the head stops thinking, "1-5-8, 1-2-6,..." etc, and the eyes and the hands start to move automatically.

The loom is a tad touchy, but it shouldn't be too difficult from now.