Heading Towards Placemats

starting the placemats


So of all the choices of activities at my disposal today, getting that placemat warp started was the most appealing.

This is pretty typical of how I begin most warps. After tying on I weave a few picks of - generally - plain weave, then twill, checking for threading/sleying errors. I find using up already wound bobbins works well, and usually have quite a selection of them to hand. What is used is less important than it have a high contrast in order to make any errors really stand out.

Quite often the outside threads will tend to roll inwards so I will take a loop of the heading weft and wrap it around the rod. You can see in the photo that a strand of the white thread is going off to each side. This is not a mistake but done deliberately and helps in keeping the warp ends all in a nice plane.

Then I wove a few picks of the intended weft, a combination of a fairly thick soft cotton with a cotton flake in a slightly lighter colour both wound onto one bobbin. Just wanted to make sure the colours were going to look nice in the woven cloth.

And then I started the hem. Forty picks of a 2/8 cotton in plain weave. The end was tucked into the first shed of the placemat, which is being woven in a broken twill treadling on a straight twill draw. Between each placemat I will weave a contrasting thread to use as a cutting line.

I'm pleased with the results and eager to get some more weaving done. If all it takes is to weave for an hour or so each day to keep my bp well controlled, I can do that! :)