I was able to use the same warp of 2/8 unmercerized cotton that I had on the Jane loom from my last sample foray. I kept the sett at 24 epi but rethreaded and changed the weft to 2/8 orlec. Orlec is a well known yarn in Canada and is essentially Orlon that has all the properties of 2/8 mercerized cotton without the shrinkage and has a wonderful price point. This combination produced a dull warp with a shiny weft which showed the Paper Spot weave on eight shafts off perfectly.
This group of weaves actually has no spots of which to speak; it is actually a dropped weave with an appearance much like Huck Lace, but without any holes in the fabric.
The weave structure is a series of floats which are weft faced on the front of the piece, so in my case shiny; and warp faced on the back which is dull. It is a perfect weave structure to use with linen for tableware as the unwoven or dropped threads are held firmly in place structurally by plain weave.
I wove one pattern repeat in a darker colour to show the lovely pattern. I think that this weave structure has plenty of potential and is rarely used as far as I can tell.Well today is Ngaire’s birthday so I’m off to the kitchen to make one of Julia Child’s favourite cakes the ‘Queen of Sheba’ chocolate cake to finish off what I'm hoping is a wonderful birthday dinner.
Happy New Year and see you in 2010!
10 comments:
Have a delicious birthday dinner-the photos look great, the subject matter helps!
Lovely piece you're weaving. I keep reading about Orlec on the Canadian blogs but have never seen it here in the states. Where do you get it? I might have to try it out.
Interesting weave structure for table linens. Another thing I'd like to try some day! (An exhaustingly long list at this point!)
That birthday cake sounds scrumptious!! Happy birthday Ngaire!!
Sue
I really like the dropped weave! The shiny floats bring it to life. Orlec is an under used yarn.
I love that it has over 90 different shades!
Happy birthday to Ngaire... lucky girl to have you cooking for her.
Bon appetit!
Susan
I do love the weave structure.The 5th of Januari is my mothers birthday so I prommised myself to start a new piece the 6th of Januari. Maybe a structure like yours but I am not shure if I want to weave with 8 schafts. But yours looks so nice so maybe I will this time......
This queen of Sheba chocolate cake sounds very delicious! The weave structure looks beautiful, I just wonder if this might be what we call "byggkorn". I wove curtains with byggkorn once, the warp was cotton and the weft tow linen.
I wish you a happy new year!
This is a good start with the new camera, the weave pattern shows clearly - and such an interesting and attractive pattern too!
I absolutely LOVE what you are weaving. I love the tone on tone texture and can't wait to see what they look like after they have been washed.
Hello! I found your blog (which I will continue reading--nice find for me!) because I am thinking about getting a Louet Jane. I have a Louet Spring which I continue to love 18 years later, but need a portable loom due to life/puppy/small living room. I'm going to get an 8 harness which I'm excited about. Are you happy with your Jane? Would you do it again? Would you recommend it? Thank you very much!
Hi Mary,
About the Jane loom, I want to say a whole bunch of nice things, but other than it being very light it's no better and much more costly than many other looms out there. I find it still has the same spongyness that most table looms have and you have to keep the web very tight to get a balanced weave. It does have a great shed, much larger than almost any other table loom I've used. I would highly recommend buying the stand that goes with the loom as it allows you to drop both the cloth and back beams onto the stand so you can put on decent sized warps. The cloth beam as it is attached to the loom would limit you to only 4" of cloth thickness.... So I guess my answer is a qualified yes, I would recommend it, but at the price point I feel there may be better buys out there. I do however love, love, love my 12 shaft Spring loom; Louet really got that one right!
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