Diversified Plain Weave

a little oopsie...see the line???

This afternoon I tied on and started weaving on the Diversified Plain Weave warp I had prepared a while ago.

DPW is an interesting weave structure consisting of two different yarns, generally a thick yarn and a much finer one in both warp and weft. The thick yarn is what creates the pattern, the fine yarns hold it all together. The weave structure is perfect for using rayon chenille as the pattern thread as the plain weave tie downs hold everything together and help prevent the rayon chenille from 'worming' (backing out of the weave structure creating little pig-tails of yarn).

Given the complexity of the threading, even though I used a simple point progression for the units, it was a good idea to start with something simple to prove that everything was correct.

In fact, everything wasn't correct - I'd made a simple error in the treadling and while fixing it I left a slight imperfection in the spacing of the wefts. It may come out in the wet finishing, it may not. If not, I guess I have a new scarf. ;) Or it can go as a gift to someone who doesn't mind my 'seconds'.

It also became apparent that I did not have the tension set properly on the two warps - the fine warp was too loose - the thick warp was too tight.

I also realized after I'd tied on that I ought to have used the cheese grater breast beam but hopefully I'll be able to weave at least a couple of scarves before the sandpaper beam stops gripping. When that happens I'll have to cut off and insert the other beam, tie on and set off once more. Since this is such a narrow warp it may even go to more length before I need to change it but when it fails it generally fails catastrophically so I'll probably be a bit conservative and cut off before that happens. Hopefully.

The pattern in Diversified Plain Weave is balanced but opposite colour will show on the two sides. In other words, what is red on the face will be black on the back. You might be able to see that on the face there are thick red stripes and thin black ones while on the reverse there are thick black stripes with thinner red ones.

When this situation exists, I will tie up my loom so that I lift the fewest possible shafts. Which means that for some of my patterns I may well be weaving them back to front.

I also need to bear in mind that what I am weaving are scarves which generally get draped over someone's shoulders. What will be upright at one end of the scarf will be upside down on the other. So motifs that are directional will quite often get alternated in their orientation.

While I have a number of ideas for motifs/patterns I've not actually hammered them out so my next task will be to start generating the liftplans (treadlings) for more.

Weaving on this warp is, as expected, very, very slow. But right now that's not a bad thing. :)

Just finished reading Hook, Line and Sinister (short mystery stories revolving around fishing). Currently reading The Complaints by Ian Rankin