Table Runners Part 4

While I was weaving the grey silk and white cotton table runner something weird happened.  After I advanced the warp I noticed that one of the warp threads was loose, turns out that it had frayed apart.  I think that this is only the second time that I have had a broken warp thread.

I finished the runner with just the tiniest amount of silk left on the pirn.  The runner ended up being 58 inches long on the loom, honestly longer than I thought.  I was sure that the silk would run out at about 40 inches.

For the last runner I threw caution to the wind and used a coral coloured cottolin.  It is amazingly pretty.  The coral just glows against the cream warp.

The cottolin is a thicker grist then the grey silk so it woven up slightly wider than the grey silk.  I had to add venetian blinds around the cloth beam to support the wider width of the coral runner.  If you don't give the extra width support it will pull the warp tension tighter at the edge as it travels around the cloth beam at a different rate.

This warp seemed to be just as dusty as the last runner warp with the pima cotton.  Although this warp produced some impressive stalactites and stalagmites made from dust under and on the loom.  We are truly embracing our blog name and creating amazing 'dust bunnies'.

I have cut the runners off the loom and have machine sewed the edges to stabilize them before washing.  I’m hoping that I can wash them tomorrow; a nice, sunny day has been forcast.

Now that the runners are off the loom I’m trying to find my next project by going through some old Handwoven magazines.  I’m also doing some homework for my weaving study group; we are looking at weaving layers, like double weave/pique/Finnweave/Bedford cords/swivel/deflected double weave and the ilk.

This January has been record breaking as one of the rainiest and cloudiest in the last 60 years.  So it has been hard to take photos of the new pima cotton table runners but we finally had some sunny weather so here are the beauty shots for the pima cotton runners.

The pima cotton and blue bamboo rayon runner.  For Sale.

The pima cotton and green cotton runner.  For Sale.

And I also finally got photos of the fine white cotton and blue bamboo runner.  For Sale.

Final Garden Shot is of our first crocuses pushing up through last years alyssum.  These used to be in the front garden but the deer would eat the blossoms clean off, so I moved them to a cool spot in the back garden and hoped.  I am very surprized about how many flowers there are!  They started out with only 5 free bulbs that came with a seed order.