What Came Off The Loom Yesterday

A while ago I warped up my loom with 6 yards of lace weight wool.  (2 ply lace weight yarn from Hide & Hare: Romney, Corriedale, & Merino cross)  (EDIT: Since someone asked, my loom was set up for an even weave/twill with 18 epi.)  The idea at the time was to weave several samples for a long term historic weaving project.  I will post more about this in the future.  At the end of the 5 samples I still had a lot of warp left.  In truth, one of the samples was suppose to be yardage but weaving with a weft of cobweb weight (2 passes for each shed) was getting to me.  I will write more on this soon, I promise.   I used the rest of warp with 3 separate wefts of different yarns. 

The top one has a weft of Berroco Boboli Lace (42% Wool, 35% Acrylic, and 23% Rayon)

The middle has a weft of Plymouth Yarn - Mushishi (95% wool/5% silk, Colorway: 13)

The bottom has weft of hand spun teeswater wool.

All examples are pre-washing (photos of washed fabric are below).

Most of these are going to be Christmas presents for family.  I suspect that they will become table clothes and place mats, and perhaps an infinity cowl.  The fabric started as 22" wide but has shrunk between 21" and 18" wide.  Each is about 1.5 yards long.

Oddly enough the teeswater weft which was highly twisted and single ply, made the fabric do this after it came off the loom.  The corners curled up wildly on their own.  I was a little worried and thought that this would be forced to become pillows.  However it has relaxed almost completely after washing and hang drying.  During the middle ages c. 1350, many fabrics were woven with a warp of single ply z-twist and a weft of single ply s-twist to create a balanced weave with single ply yarns.  Here is a perfect example of what happens when you don't do that.

Above: Before Washing

Below: After Machine Washing

The fabrics all softened a lot after washing and they got a lot more fuzzy. The fabric in the middle, shrunk the most and fuzzed up (bloomed) the most but the colors in the weft are now a lot more visible.   And unsurprisingly the one that shrank the least, and bloomed the least, was the one with the wool/acrylic blend yarn. The historic weaving samples have washed up quiet differently and are more pleasant to work with and to look at I think,  Its more like a nice wool fabric that you might buy than the "novelty" weaves if this post. Having now washed all of these I suspect they will all become infinity cowls for Christmas presents.

Perhaps a List Would Be A Good Idea

The Current Project List (Running Post Updated Often)

Mostly this post is to keep track of too many projects.  Some of these are no more than random thoughts, plans laid by mice & men, or half baked ideas.  If it is in red text then the project is done. Links to Yarn & What Knot blog posts and Ravelry pattern pages are provided for easy reference.  

1. 1 lb of Cormo wool spun in the grease
1. "Spinning in the Grease"
2. "Spinning in the Grease - Part Two"
3. "Spinning in the Grease - Part Three (The Final Yarn)"
4. Bobbin One, Two, Three, Four
5. The sweater project (??)
2. Weaving Projects
1. 5 oz of Teeswater wool spun and woven - Christmas present for Mom
1. "I Digress"
2. "What Came off the Loom Yesterday"
1. Cowl for me
1. "What Came off the Loom Yesterday"
2. Christmas present for Mom
1. "What Came off the Loom Yesterday"
3. Hand Woven Table Runner in Rainbow Cotton (Breaking in the the New Loom)
3. "The Textiles from the Account Books of Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of Clare, 1350-1351" 
1. Test of "Apple Blossom" colored wool
2. Test of rayed (striped) twill of various types of wools/sizes/colors 
3. The final list of fabrics to be woven
4. The Golden Fleece Project (Otherwise known as 7 lbs of THAT ROMNEY FLEECE)
1. "The Golden Fleece"
5. Random Hand Spun Yarns
1. The Loud Batt - Mood Swing (this was mentioned very briefly in "the Golden Fleece" post but I need to write up something more when its done.
1. Spun, Plyed, Knitted
2. Screaming Orange Yarn (Alpaca and Silk)
3. Rainbow Yarn (50/50 Merino/Silk)
4. Teal Yarn
6. Random Sewing Projects
1. a curtain for the studio
2. Dress for the little cousin
3. Hoodie for the little cousin 
7. Linen Waistcoat (Jacket) c.1630 based upon extant examples
1. This jacket is almost done. I need to finish writing this documentation.  
8. Half Baked Knitting Projects (By this, I mean half done projects)
1. Scarf out of rainbow cotton yarn as Christmas present for Miss L with a bonus headband
2. A bunny out of handspun for Miss E
3. Cowl out of Noro yarn 
4. Lacy Scarf out of alpaca/silk handspun lace weight
5. Something out of Malabrigo Rasta yarn in super bulky - color Archangel
6. Scarf for my sister in law
9. Round 10 Stitch Blanket project for the house made of handspun (the thing that will never be done - ever.)
1. yarn one (spun - knit)
2. yarn two (spun - knit)

I Digress

I have taken a break from the natural colored Cormo I've been spinning in the raw, to work on something with color.  I'm in love with color.  Color make me happy.  So I needed to take a little 1 bobbin/yarn break.  I choose the ball of Teeswater wool roving, dyed in blue, light blues, gray and purple.  I spun it up over two days (5.5 oz) in a nice lace weight.  

Teeswater wool is usually processed as locks for tail spinning (Spin Art: Mastering the Craft of Spinning Textured Art Yarn by Jacey Boggs, page 44-49) but this was processed as top.  I love that the fibers are very long and have a high gloss to them, therefore they reflect light and color almost like silk.  However its not a next to the skin type wool.  I may end up weaving with it for the fun of it. The yarn is very strong and perfect for weaving.  It would make a good warp thread but in this case it will be a weft thread.  

Single ply Teeswater yarn waiting to be plyed.

As I sit here writing I am wondering if I even need to ply it to weave with it given what is on my loom right now for a warp.  I may be better off if I leave it as a single ply.

In any case, I won't weave itself.