Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Everything Went Wrong!

Have you ever had one of those projects that just don’t work out no matter what you do?
I desperately want to use yarns that have been living in my stash for years so I went hunting and found this amazing 2/8 natural rayon and thought it would make a great shawl. Then I spotted the large cone of absolutely stunning rayon knot yarn. This yarn is so lustrous and has a soft orchid creamy pink that begs to be used with the creamy white rayon.

My plan was to use the knot yarn in narrow stripes in the warp and then to do some kind of ‘laid in’ technique along the hems to make the shawl a show stopper.

This rayon yarn is heavy for its size, so I need a fairly open sett to keep the whole thing light enough to make a garment. I settled on 20 epi in a 10 dent reed, 2 per dent and threaded a straight 4 shaft twill draft. Four shafts and three treadles were all I was going to need for the ‘laid in’ pickup technique, on a plain weave background.
I got the warp on the loom and then noticed that the novelty yarn was not making a strong enough statement, so I added 2 more threads to each stripe and that made it really pop.
Then I started to weave and found that the novelty yarn was too spaced out.  I pulled it out and resleyed the novelty yarns with 4 threads per dent and the rest of the yarns at 2 per dent.  This was a huge improvement.  My plan was to do the ‘laid in’ technique between the warp stripes and so I started, and pulled out, changed the technique, and pulled out, changed the design, and pulled out.  I’m sure you get the picture….
I was left with only two options, weave the shawl off or cut my losses and cut the warp off the loom…….I chose the first option and this is my Plain Jane Shawl…..
I have crossed the warp with the novelty yarn at regular intervals and changed the treadling to a plain 2/2 twill and although this isn’t at all what I had in mind, it’s quite sweet.  I didn't carry the novelty yarn up the selvedges I turned them in.

Weaving Words:
Turning In - To start or finish the weft at the selvedge, the end (half an inch or so) is usually tucked (turned in) into the next shed.  When heavy pattern weft is used on a fine ground the turning-in should be avoided.  It is better to cut off the end, if possible after laundering.  (Encyclopedia of Hand-Weaving by S.A. Zielinski)

5 comments:

Cindie said...

It's not what you planned but it's lovely!

Loree Jackson said...

I really like the way this came out. It's very feminine...delicate colors. I've definitely had projects start out one way and come out another. It's kind of neat though.

Kerstin på Spinnhuset said...

When you do the "turnings in" of so few picks - how do you do it?
(I have experimented with cutting a piece of yarn, putting the middle portion in the first pick, letting the "turning in" occur as a "meeting" of the two ends somewhere in the shed. Sometimes it has been succseeful, sometimes not - .)

ladyoftheloom said...

Yes, I thought it was my inexperience at work. I am so glad to see that others have this same problem. I don't know if I have the patience to work it out as many times as you did Lynette.

I like the result you are getting though!

Lynnette said...

Hi Kerstin,
The way I did the turning in on this shawl was to start the novelty yarn in the same shed with the last pick of the rayon yarn. I turned in 2 inches of yarn and hid the end in the first warp stripe. I then proceeded to weave the 4 ends of novelty yarn catching and carrying the rayon yarn at the selvedges. Then I cut off the novelty yarn a with 4 inch tail and turned it the shed in with the first pick of the rayon pulling it through the web at the first warp stripe. I'll cut the excess off after it's washed and fulled.