Thursday, December 17, 2015

The Last of the Collapse Weave

I think that collapse weave scarves have run their course for now.  I wove four of them and although I really enjoyed the process of weaving them, I’m longing to do some pattern weaving!
After the two  rose collapse weave scarves were finished, I tied on a scarf in cream merino and rayon slub and I think that this one is my favourite.  The merino became very lofty and soft after washing and the shrinkage was very even.  The overall effect is a very soft meander with shallow wrinkles.
Please excuse the poor photo; we have a very grey drizzly day today and it was impossible to find good light.
My last kick at the can and this time I threw caution to the wind and really mixed up the fibres; using 2/18 merino, tencel and a cotton novelty yarn.  Here it is off the loom, but before washing.  You can already see the movement in the scarf.
This scarf had much more warp shrinkage; mainly because the merino was much finer and there was more of it in the warp.  There is so much twisting and bumping, it is not like the previous scarves at all! We have had to pull and snap this scarf several times to calm down the curling fibres and it is still very lively!
Here they are side by side, so you can really see the differential shrinkage, so in this case, your fibre choices make all the difference!
Now that I’ve shaken off the collapse weave urge, here is my next warp.  This is one of my hand painted silk warps just through the raddle and ready to pull onto the loom.  The plan is to weave it in Crackle Weave.  Unfortunately you really can't see the stunning colours ~ darn rain!  I'm trying out a new pattern that I've modified for the 200 ends I had in the warp.  The pattern repeat is more than 240 picks long, so it will be quite a challenge after a month of plain weave!

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