Variegated Purple/Green Merino/Mohair Warp 1

I really enjoyed the color experiments with the previous warp and remembered I had a similar one on the ready-made warp rack. (I promise I'll post a pic of the warp colors in the next post.) It's half and half merino/mohair, approximately 2/16, and I used to use it in the warp at 18 or 20EPI when I wove with 2/16 (110/2) merino weft. I'm planning to use 2/30 merino in the weft, same as the previous three pieces, and I went back and forth between 21 and 24EPI, but decided to start with 21EPI to give the weft room to fluff up.

The draft is a variation of the 13-shaft wood grain draft I used some time ago, 13 shafts because I used three for twill borders. I wove the series in 2/20 mercerized cotton, the warp at 42EPI. Coincidentally I found a narrow black warp in 100% merino intended as borders for this, but the two yarns have different shrinkage, so I'll weave without it.

I also have very little of the warp yarn left; I counted 178 ends but I threaded only 176, saving two for potential broken warps. It's Merino/Mohair, and is sticky, so I foresee a few broken warp ends.

I probably wound much too much weft for sampling, not just different colors but a few in two colors or doubled up. The scarves will be only 7 or 8 inches wide, so probably around 180cm long, so I have plenty to play around. 

Sorry these next pics aren't exactly in focus; it's late and I had to take these under artificial light with as little of my hands, etc., in, but I wanted to show them to you tonight. 

This is A-side, (the side I look at while I weave,) with 2/30 merino doubled up in the weft. The size of the yarn feels balanced against the warp yarn, or perhaps more familiar, closer to 2/16 merino, and  the cloth is fluffy but not as much as the old 2/16 weft.

I also found long floats you see there on the right. I was very surprised because I edit fussy twills line by line to make sure there are no unseemly floats and there they were! Upon checking the draft I see I have nothing like that, so there must be a threading mistake. Hee hee, that explains the mysterious one extra end I had when I thought I was finished. :-D   

This is the same side with one 2/30 merino in the weft. I worried the design will look squashed with the thinner weft, but after a good wash I really like the different densities (?) of interlacements. With only half the wool in the weft, the cloth is thinner but not inferior.

The real surprise was the B-side. When I took it off the loom it had a very sad and sorry look with the warp ends barely visible, but after a good wash, it has a very different look to the A-side.  

It's even better here, and a look so different from anything I expected. 

Tomorrow I'll fist fix the threading mistake, of course. I'm also very tempted to try 18EPI to see how the texture differ, and if the design looks even more squashed and the draft needs editing. 

So... this was supposed to be a quick and easy project, but you know I thrive on these experiments.

More tomorrow or Friday, friends.