Black Cottolin Table Runners on 8 Shafts

The warp for the table runners is 2/22 black cottolin is 6 yards and 12 inches long.  The plan is to weave 2 runners at about 50 inches and 1 runner at 70 inches.  For the weft of the first runner I used 2/22 cottolin in a beige linen colour and I wove that one to 70 inches with added hems of 4.5 inches.  The second runner is 2/16 gold ramie.

I just finished the gold ramie runner it was woven to 50 inches with added hems of 4.5 inches.  It wasn’t a pleasure to weave, the draw of the ramie in the end feed shuttle was sticky and hard.  Also there was a lot of knots in the cone of ramie so lots of starting and stopping to put in new pirns.  

There is only one runner left to weave, it should be 50 inches but looking at the back beam it feels like there is a lot of warp still left.  I found a lovely blue/green silk with flecks of brown that I thought would look spectacular with the black warp.

I tried it out and it just died against the black.  All the colour was washed away and it just looked grey and blah.  I was really hopeful about this weft, so I actually left it overnight to see if it would look better in the morning sun.  Nope. 

Next I tried a bright red and royal purple both 2/22 cottolin.  They both work but I felt that the red was a little aggressive and I wasn’t sure if it would be all that nice to live with on a dining room table.  So the purple is the winner.  I haven’t started the purple runner yet so no photos.

Someone asked if we leave the trial weft colours in the warp and that becomes waste or do you take them out.  We take them out, the audition weft aren’t even taken off the cones.

Final photos are of another botany walk at a local park, it is surprising how green and lush the forest is looking in early December.  

The walk took us along a stream and ended at the ocean looking over to the snow peaked coastal mountain range on the mainland of British Columbia.

Twill Table Runners on 8 Shafts

After threading the black 2/22 cottolin for the table runners, the next step is to pick the weft for them.  I choose to weave the 70 inch runner first so I wanted to pick a classic colour combination, black and beige.  I had two choices of colours in 2/22 cottolin, a more linen-y beige and a more cotton-y beige.

I went with the linen-y colour, but it looks quite grey in the photo.  I have done this pattern for years, it is an absolute favourite but I still take a photo of the end of the hem and the start of the pattern just to make sure that the other end of the table runner will match!

Surprisingly the picture above is the only photo that I took of the runner!  It wove up quickly and easily.  By the end of the runner I was starting to notice that the left hand side of the warp was getting a little spongy and loose.  I could really see the distortion when I started the new runner.

I unwove the start of the new runner and I added pipe insulation (or pool noodle) to the back of the warp beam.  It allows the warp to even out the tension by allowing the tighter threads to bite into the pipe insulation to give some ease of tension.

It works but the pipe insulation likes to move forward with the warp as you are advancing the warp so I have to get up and push the pipe insulation back into position every time, it is a little annoying.

For the second runner I choose a bright gold 2/16 ramie, ramie is a bast fibre made from a plant in the nettle family.  Again, here is the start of the runner just in case I need to refer back to it to correctly end the runner.

Some of you eagle eyed people may have noticed that I’ve changed my shuttle, the ramie needed to have a different tension in the shuttle than the 2/22 cottolin that I had used for the previous runner.  The ramie is quite stiff and a little sticky so the draw from the shuttle is a bit ‘hard’, it isn’t that nice to weave with but the runner is stunning.  I’m happy that the runner is only going to be 50 inches, though!

This summer we’ve been hearing the call of a pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) also called the pacific chorus frog, in the back garden and last week I found it hiding under some pots by the greenhouse.  It is only about 5 cm long (about 2 inches) super cute and quite noisy!