Two Faced

 

Latest on the loom

Continuing my quest to use up stash, some of it much older than I even know because 'stash', but I'm quite pleased with how this is looking on the loom so far.

The 'back' is likely going to be the 'face' as this cloth is 'unbalanced' - in other words, more of the warp shows on one side, more of the weft on the other.

Does this means that the cloth is somehow 'wrong'?  No, not at all.  It just means that more warp than weft shows on one side and vice versa.

There are times when I do weave 'balanced' fabric, when the warp to weft ratio is 50/50.  But when I have a choice, I will lift fewer shafts.  When weaving on a loom with lots of shafts, and you have to lift the shafts to make the shed, making the lift 'lighter' means less stress and strain on the body.  When I was production weaving (10,000+ picks a day) having a lighter work load was better for my body.  Now that my body is wearing out, continuing with that approach seems like a really good idea.

For this particular cloth I am lifting 7 shafts.  It may not seem like much, to reduce the lift by just one shaft on a loom that already has a 'light' lift, but I'm in my mid-70s now.  Doing less is always preferable.

Instead of designing a 'fancy' twill over 8 shafts, like I've been doing to illustrate articles for WEFT, this is a 'palate' cleanser.  The next issue I will write for I'll do two articles, and before I begin sorting out the information going into the articles, it's good to give my brain something to work on, in between the article I just finished writing, and the ones I do 'next'.  

I've been emailing with a couple of new weavers, and I'm hoping they get past the frustrations of learning, because they seem eager to really dig into the craft.  But they are asking really good questions, wanting serious answers, and it's hard to not put them off by the shear barrage of information that goes into every cloth that gets designed.  

One of them said it was like peeling layers off an onion, and, since it is an analogy I've frequently used, I had to agree with them.

Anyway, I'm nearly finished that huge cone of 20/2 white cotton.  Once that is gone, I will switch to 2/20 mercerized cotton in natural and see how much of that I can use up.  In the meantime, I need to think about where I want to go with the next two articles and planning whatever weaving I feel needs to be shown.  Re-tooling my approach to designing back to 4 or 8 shafts has been a little bit of a challenge for me, but it has been a good exercise.  But I feel like I need to take a 'break'.  This warp is working out well, and I haven't yet spotted a threading error.  We'll see if I find one after wet finishing...