Planning Problems!

Today I saw my first bunch of blooming Snowdrops in someone’s garden, and this afternoon we started digging a new garden bed, so I’m thinking that winter may be on its way out here on Vancouver Island! The sun is shining and the tips of the magnolia are swelling a little bit more every day and I’m feeling hopeful!

For my newest project I put on a 4-1/2 yard warp for 2 table runners; each would have a 4 inch hem and be woven 60 inches long. I used 2 ply bleached Normandy wet spun linen for the warp that had been in my stash for about 5 years. I love to see a warp beautifully loaded on the loom and know that there is a whole world of possibilities in front of me. I had this yarn stored in hanks, so since I had to unwind the hanks to pull the warp, I decided to make all of it into warp chains for runners, so more runners are in my future!

I wasn’t very far along in the threading process before I knew that I had made the warp too wide, so I dropped 68 ends….34 from each end. To conserve the warp threads I’ve just chained them and let them hang….I’ll add them to the other warp threads and make another set of runners!

I’ve just taken this warp off the loom and haven’t wet finished or pressed it yet, so please ignore the wrinkles! I’ve gone back again and revisited my favourite pattern ‘du jour’, twill blocks or Drall. I reworked my pattern down to 300 ends, sett at a nice firm 20 epi and I’ve used a soft golden tan coloured 2/5 mercerized cotton for the weft. I started weaving my pattern for about 30 inches then reversed the beginning sequence to finish. I love weaving Drall!

The second runner has the same threading but has amethyst 2 ply linen weft and it’s stunning. I had just 2.4 ounces of this weft, so I had to really watch where I was in the pattern so I didn’t run out of weft. I changed up the treadling and did an opening pattern of varying sized blocks that was 19 inches long; then moved into the centre portion where all the blocks were the same size until it measured 38 inches long, then repeated the opening sequence in reverse, so I should have had 57 inches to my way of thinking…well not so, I completely mismeasured and this runner is shorter than I planned!

Well, I’m not one to waste linen warp, so I hunted out a wee ball of soft khaki coloured linen and made this little centerpiece….definitely not what I had planned, but pretty nice all the same.  It will have a fringe on each end rather than a turned hem.

On another note I have hemmed the Rep Weave runner and both of the shadow weave tea clothes that were in my stash box….so I’m moving forward on reducing my unfinished pieces.  As soon as we get a really sunny day and I can keep myself from running outside to play I'll photo the runner for the Etsy Shop.