Weaving Project 21

Having reviewed weaving projects 18, 19 and 20, and still having an untouched yarn from The Handweavers studio, my obvious next project was embroidery silk warp in contrasting thread with the 11 cut wool 08/09 (this is what is says on the roll inner, I have no idea what it means). I’d bought both matching and constrasting embroidery silks quite some months ago so I set the loom up with a burgundy warp and used the green wool as warp.

Like the blue wool in weaving project 19 it is quite brittle, but having learned that mid flow last time, I tested the strength before I even started this time and so was much more calm and controlled with my weaving - it is a thicker yarn and thus not quite as brittle as the blue. Also as with weaving project 19 it is in the rustic rather than wow camp. My edges are much straighter, and much more even (I’m still using a ruler to measure and keep it in line), and it flows quite nicely. This is the 4th time I’ve done this pattern, and so I’m able to focus on the execution a bit more. I haven’t repeated anything else more than twice so this is actually quite a good thing, enabling me to contrast the textures, thread thickness and execution across the projects side by side.

The contrasting warp and weft works really nicely. It’s looking pretty neat and tidy, so I suspect this will be a Christmas present to someone. (The only problem with giving presents to like minded technical types, though, is that actual physical books, like you’d need a bookmark for, aren’t as prevalent in their lives! If anyone has any ideas of other things that are rectangular and small that I could make I’d love to hear from you!)

It’s odd how quickly the amazement level drops though. I’ve gone from being all “Oh my word, look how amazing this is and how fine and I did this, wow!” to being a bit more “yeah, not bad, what can I do next?” about it. Humans are funny. At this point, project 19 is my favourite I think.

I already have plans for the 5th in the series having bought some beautiful silk thread the other week. That’ll probably become weaving project 22.

Disclaimer: post written in early November and held back until after Christmas. If the tenses don’t make sense, assume this is the reason :-)