Experiments

 

I took these last night and the colour isn't great, but I did an 'experiment' and have been documenting the process.

These 'samples' are scarves, one at 24 epi one at 25 epi (2/dent in a 12 dent reed on the left; 5/dent in a 5 dent reed on the right), woven in huck lace at one end of the scarf.

The warp has areas of plain weave threaded in (the black stripes) and the issue when combining two different weave structures with vastly different take up rates is that the tension goes 'wrong' very quickly.

However, a short section of huck doesn't distort the cloth too much and can make a nice effect.  So these scarves are woven huck in a symmetrical presentation, colours and lace reflecting the threading, with the balance of the scarf woven in plain weave.

By the end of the square, the fell looked like:

The black stripe is threaded to weave plain weave at all times which means the maximum number of interlacements while the huck lace areas shift and move and take up less than the areas of plain weave.  If this is done over a long length, it can actually cause tension issues in the warp, but over the 12" or so of the 'gamp', the threads soon equalized and the rest of the scarf wove off with no problems at all.

The 24 epi version with 2/dent in a 12 dent reed wove off very nicely with few issues while the 25 with 5 per dent needed a bit more coaxing.  The reed marks in the 5 dent sample are much more obvious but should lessen during wet finishing.  OTOH, they are consistent so I won't be too bothered if they don't disappear entirely.

Both required careful attention to the difference in beat required for the huck lace areas, but the enduring plain weave stripes helped keep the beat even in the lace areas.

There was a slight difference in the width, of course, but very little difference in how 'lacey' the cloth is, even before wet finishing.  I put a piece of white paper underneath the cloth so that the transparency can more easily be seen.

The yarn is 2/10 mercerized cotton and at this point it is very stiff, but after wet finishing it should develop a nicer hand and more drape.

I didn't feel like messing with twisted fringes, so these scarves will be hemmed.