Step by Step

 

Yesterday I finished weaving the 3rd shawl and cut those off the loom.  

They are woven from rayon (bamboo), and as such the threads are fairly slippery, so the cloth is, shall we say, fragile?  I didn't want to mess around with the web very much so carefully pulled the web off the loom by folding it (Z folds) into my lap.  My plastic bins are not long enough to hold the shawls in their full width, so when I had the bundle on my lap I carefully folded it in half, then carried it over to my work table and put the bundle into the bin.

I need to clear off the dining room table before I can begin fringe twisting.  

The warp was 30" in the reed, but the draw in brought that down to around 27".  After wet finishing I expect the shawls to be around 24" finished.  I'm weaving them approx. 88=90" in length, which should come down to around 78-80?  Plus fringes.

The woven design is the same for all of the shawls, but I'm using 6 different colours.  So far I've emptied two small cones and will possibly empty at least one more.  It looks like each shawl is taking around 6-7 ounces of the bamboo rayon weft.  (Silk City bambu 12)  The warp is the Brassard 2/16 bamboo.  I've used this combination previously and was pleased with the results, so I'm looking forward to getting these finished and move on to the next warp.

However, fringe twisting takes about as long as throwing the shuttle.  In this case, about 2 hours of shuttle throwing.  If I remember correctly, it takes about an hour per end to do the fringe twisting. I calculate that it takes me about 10 hours to finish, finish the shawls, maybe 11.  If I were to bill my labour out at $15/hr, that would make the sale price on these at $150-165 just for my labour, plus the yarns.  But I'm fast and most weavers would take a lot longer to weave shawls of this type of cloth, and there is still the yarn to be added in, plus the overhead (the expenses of running the studio regardless of what I'm doing.)  So my *wholesale* price for these shawls would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $200.

Retail traditionally marks up from the wholesale by doubling, so a 'fair' market price for these shawls would be $395.

But I'm no longer in 'business' so I don't have to watch the price points as carefully.  Plus I live in a smallish town, where higher prices don't usually garner much interest.  So I expect that when I offer these for sale, the retail price will be around $275.00.  Although I think I sold my last shawls at that price so I might go up to $295.  Will see.

I sell through the local guild which takes 20% commission, takes the GST and remits it to Revenue Canada and deals with the booth set up and manning it.  

I'm happy to pay the guild their commission for this service, especially given covid and my compromised immune system.  Plus we are in our 70s now and doing a show like the big craft fair locally is getting to be beyond our ability to participate in person.

I'm hoping to get this warp off the loom by this weekend, then put the next one into the loom.  I need to do some thinking about what, exactly, I need for the samples for the two articles I'm working on, then the rest of the warp will get woven in towels.  These will be heavier, woven from 2/8 cotton warp and that thicker mystery yarn I posted about a few days ago.  I might use 2/16 cotton to weave hems in plain weave, with the towel body in a simple twill.

I find it interesting that just as I was feeling restless and wanting to write, but only stuff that I want to write about, I'm being offered chances to do just that.  And since the people who want the articles are asking me to do specific topics that are narrow, but deep, I find I'm quite excited about digging deeper and pursuing thought squirrels I never nailed down before.

So, last night I dug out my linen tester, and I will be using the shawls to see if I can see if the draw in is greater at the selvedges than the interior of the cloth, as the industrial website stated.  It is something I have suspected for a while, but never took the time to actually sit down and count the threads after weaving and wet finishing.

Rabbit warrens.  You never know where they will take you.