Thursday, February 16, 2012

Tick. Tick.

It's always nice to cross things off my To Weave list, but two in one day was great, since it's been a long time since I last crossed anything off that list. I'm talking about Tim's and Mom's cashmere scarves.
Tim's.
Mom's.
Bad:
1) This was the first time I put on cashmere on the big loom.  Because the yarn is spongy, it was harder to get a consistent tension; weave more and learn.
2) There is so much loom waste on the big loom, and I wonder if I can be more innovative at the warp beam end to reduce this.
3) Wonky arms, 15 minute increments, no rhythm, makes for even more inconsistent beating, and some dubious selvedges.  Let us pray.
4) I remembered I have never learned how to hem ends properly, but learned by looking at other weavers' works and unpicking a couple of them.  I must get someone to show me so I can improve; Tim's piece's hemming is something shocking.

Good:
1) Wefts in singles and doubles both work well in different ways.  Singles have room to breath and fulls nicely; the resultant scarf is airy and light.  Doubled, the scarf has meaty and hangs nicely, like grownup cloth.   Interestingly, they both feel as if they weight about the same. 
2) The silk in Mom's have a lovely understated shine, but the values of the gray and the burgundy are so close the piece shimmers.

Tag, label, deliver/post.  Go watch someone hem and figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Boy, it's good to get pieces finished, though. Both around 8 inches wide; Tim's is around 210cm long, Mom's 180.

6 comments:

  1. Yum. Lovely. These colors call out for more making. I think conte on nice spongey colored paper.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was thinking more like... soft compressed charcoal... or willow for the gray.

    ReplyDelete
  3. They look warm and soft, gorgeous colours!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks, Sampling. The burnt orange is one of my favs and they discontinued the color last year so I have 3 new cones. The burgundy, I don't think I've ever seen on the color chart, but Mom had some, and since this is hers, all of it went into this scarf. I have about 2 meters of it left.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful scarves! I love the strong colours. I'm interested in your good and bad notes, especially as the problems with tension of soft yarns and hemming happen to me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hemming. Ah yes. That is one thing I'm happy to hire someone else to do for me, to tell you the truth.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments. Thank you for taking the time to leave one. But do be sure to leave your real or blog name.