Diversified Plain Weave

After the Piano Scarves were finished I had fifty three inches of warp left on the loom.  It wasn’t enough to do anything with but I had an idea.

I pulled two chenille threads off the old warp and knotted them together and placed them on the warping board; I did this for all the other warp threads, ending up with half as many warp threads.  The other threads on the warping board are thin 2/20 Tencel in white.

To put some tension on the warp I put a small binder clips on the bottom of the threads to stop them from sagging on the warping board.  It worked surprisingly well.

At this point the warp is now half sized.  But I had a little bit of white chenille on the bobbin and some on the cone left.  So I pulled the rest of the warp normally.

It is my first time doing Diversified Plain Weave there is one thick thread to every two thin threads.  The thin threads are woven in plain weave and they are the back bone of the weave structure.  The thick thread is the pattern thread and is tied down by the thin threads.

I set up the treadles a little differently this time.  I place the two plain weave treadles right in the middle and the pattern treadles on the outsides.  Sorry for the tilted picture!

I created my own Diversified Plain Weave pattern, it used all twelve shafts.  It is a pretty diamond motif.  But for some reason my loom didn’t like weaving the pattern.  The treadles were very heavy but I had the treadles evenly balanced six shafts going up and six shafts going down.  Also my loom made some loud wooden snapping sounds.  It was like some of the shafts were crossing and sticking together.  I have no idea what was wrong.

But I like my loom more then I liked the pattern!  So I stopped weaving the pattern.  I unwoven what was there and I started all over again.  I went to back to the Handwoven article (May/June 2013) that I was using as a reference and used the draft.  It is large circles on eight shafts.

Diversified Plain Weave is a two shuttle weave.  Again one thick thread and two thin threads are used.  It was quite easy to get into the rhythm of using two shuttles.

The finished Diversified Plain Weave scarf has joined its friends the Piano scarves waiting to be hemmed and washed!

The Final Shot.  The Snowbirds Air Demonstration Team are back for the Spring Training session at the Comox Air Force Base.  They are here for two weeks and they practice twice a day.  You can go to the appropriately named Air Force Beach and watch the air show and listen to the commentary.  Next week the CF -18 Hornet demo team arrives and it is very loud!