Sunday, August 8, 2010

And So It Begins - Again



Sleyed the warp this morning and started weaving again. The first scarf is going to be this simple diamond pattern in order to check to make sure I had no threading or sleying oopsies.

I had one sleying error - in the very last dent! Easy to fix. And some tension issues, which were handily dealt with in the weaving of the header.

One of the advantages of having more shafts is that you can use a simple threading and treadling sequence - in this case a point progression - and save the complexity for the tie up. :)

Another advantage of having more shafts is that you can get 'fancy' in the threading and keep it simple in the treadling.

Or you can go for broke and do something complicated in both the threading and treadling and do things that you could only do with a pick up stick otherwise.

The advantage of doing this on a dobby loom is that you don't have to keep track of the treadling sequence, the loom does that pretty much for you (when it's behaving properly, of course! - not always a guarantee).

And the advantage of doing complex things on a computer assisted dobby loom is that you can spend your designing time comfortably in front of your computer and then quickly change files and change your pattern. Which is pretty much what I am doing on these Diversified Plain Weave warps.

On this warp I will be exploring some of the motifs I did on the first warp a bit further, making changes as I go along. But this morning I just wanted to get started weaving and prove that the warp was good to go.

Currently reading Nemesis by Lindsey Davis - if you like historical detective fiction, she has a great series

6 comments:

barbara said...

Really like the look of the first scarf .......... great job. I wish I understand more on just what is involved in designing one's own pattern. Right now, the concept does not really "compute" with my brain. I enjoy your posts about this process. Weaverly yours .... Barbara

Sharon Schulze said...

That's very much like the scarf I'm doing with two shuttles, except of course yours has more detail and the diamonds are a lot bigger. I am not groovin' on the two shuttles, though, and just want to finish this so I can try turning the draft on the next one. Which will make my diamonds even smaller because I have to leave room for a tabby. Oh well! At least I'll be using one shuttle and will finish something!

You are using rayon chenille, right? It looks so ... something. Shiny or sparkly? Something good.

Laura Fry said...

Hi Barbara, if you can wrap your brain around profile drafting, that might help. I might be able to send you a file with info - email me and I'll look for it.

Hi Sharon,

It took me the first warp to get (reasonably) comfortable with the hop,hop,skip rhythm of weaving with two shuttles so I can understand that you aren't enjoying it much. :(

Hope that you can turn the draft so you can weave with one shuttle. :) Email me if you have any more questions.

Cheers,
Laura

Peg Cherre said...

So Laura, I did go read all your posts about DPW, and now have a MUCH greater understanding. Thanks!

One more question --- when you're planning your design, do you basically plan the pattern with the thick/chenille yarn? That is, I know you have to put the thin rayon, or in your case the 2/16 bamboo, in there on 2 harnesses, but you don't use those harnesses for your pattern, right?

Also, do you use PCX for your computer planning?

Thanks again!

Sandra Rude said...

That will be a very elegant, striking scarf! Love those BIG diamonds!

Laura Fry said...

The rayon chenille is the pattern, the 16/2 bamboo are what holds it all together. The pattern happens because of the contrast of the black pattern warp ends being on the surface or not. If you click on the DPW label and scroll down (waaaay down) you'll get the draft.

I use PCW Fiberworks for my main software program. I've used it since the late 1980's and so far haven't taken the time to learn any other program well enough to not frustrate me. :}

Cheers,
Laura
playing with undulating lines now