Weaving Spirit: It's All a Learning Process

Saturday, April 24, 2010

It's All a Learning Process

Georgia is off the loom! In the past, I have talked about the "Fudge Factor"--- knowing where you can fudge and where you can't. After so many years of weaving, you would think I would know better, but noooo.

Back story: What I am trying to "learn" in this weaving is "Can I weave a shawl long enough with just a 3 yard warp?" (trying to bring the price down on the Color Horoscope Weaving Yarn Kits) So there I am just about 4 inches from the end, and a thread breaks. Rather than take the time to fix the broken thread, I cut the piece off the loom. Duh! The length of the shawl just off the loom is 80". Generally I expect to loose 10" in the laundering process---not the end of the world, but a tad short.

I decided to wind another warp, the same Georgia O'Keeffe horoscope, the same 3 yard warp, but to make it interesting use Bambu 12 (doubled) for the warp. And this time weave every inch.

Here is the Bambu 12 warp chains draped over the Bambu 7 weaving. The color choices in Bambu 12 are far more limited than the B7. It will be interesting to see the difference. I have to say that I actually like weaving with the B12 doubled and sett at 24 epi better than the B7, but that's just my preference. I just wish the colors weren't so wonky. In way, though, it does point out that the exact individual colors don't make as much difference as I think it will. Once the piece is woven and the colors all blend together in the most unexpected way, it just looks right.