Weaving project 44 finished

From the very start this was difficult. I wanted to try and see what weaving at (almost) the full width of my loom was like. And I wanted to make a shawl. So it was going to be long and wide. Warping took ages (it was 236 ends on the 10dpi heddle), and it took a couple of attempts as the end warp threads ended up much tighter than all the others as they had fallen off the rolled threads and ended up just on the bare wood of the roller. I also had a problem of a walking warping post — it started off at one distance from the rear roller, and ended up a bit closer. I need to add weight to the table that I clamp the warping post to!

Originally this was planned to be a shawl done in entirely leno 2:2 after sampling this for bookmarks. When I started weaving though I soon changed my mind. Leno at this width is slow. And just doing leno all the way along, whilst being structurally sound on a bookmark, didn’t feel like it was going to be so for an entire shawl. I still wanted the gaps of the leno 2:2 but figured I couldn’t do an entire shawl in it. Improvisation time.

So, I did 3 lenos at 2:2 coming in at approximately 4 inches. And then 4 inches of plain weave. This should give it some structural integrity. The measurements are under tension, not relaxed so will probably turn out to be about 3.75 inches when relaxed and finished.

I planned the yarn needs for this project using this calculator which seems to be working out for me pretty well. I’m allowing 20” of loom waste still. The next project I do I plan to use a tape measure all the way through the project rather than just at the beginning and end or against the panels. I want to be able to work to a specific length so that I can contemplate doing more multipart projects. With that aim I’ve ordered an additional tape measure. We’ll see how that works out.

As I approached the end, I figured I could squeeze another set of plain and leno in, but when I got to releasing the final lengths of warps from the back of the loom I realised that it was going to be really hard work as the shed was so small and the warp threads were not evenly tensioned anymore. I didn’t want to end up with a repeat of weaving project 35 when I broke a bit of my loom, so I cut my losses and did a spot of unweaving to get to the end of the previous leno leaving 2 picks of plain weave for hemstitching. When cutting it off the loom I had no idea what length of fabric I was going to get. Definitely going to try the tape measure next time.

Wet finishing

After removing from the loom and before washing it measured 66” of weaving. After wet finishing, it measures 61” by 22.5”.

The bamboo yarn is beautifully shiny, and I love how it looks, but it is also slippy meaning that the leno lace panels are quite mobile. Maybe not the best choice of yarn for this kind of weaving. Another thing to add to the lessons learned list.

Also, despite using a lot of yarn, I hadn’t quite appreciated how heavy this would be (especially when wet!).

I’m not in love with this as yet, but I am wearing it at the moment so I can’t hate it either. It is sure to keep me warm but I’m just a bit concerned that I’m too clumsy for something so lacy - I suspect I’ll catch it on something before too long. I’ll report back!