Friday, February 18, 2011
Double weave
I finally finished warping the double weave shawl today, getting the loom "tied up" and was able to begin the weaving of the two separate layers that will become the front sides of this shawl. The colors look great! Double weave takes a bit longer to do and I have to be careful, lest I inadvertently somehow lock the layers together at some point. But I am being careful, and with about 6 to 8 inches woven so far, I'm off to a good start.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Warping Direction
Which direction should one warp their loom?
Front to Back or Back to Front!
Before I had my Louet loom, I always warped front to back. I know most people tend to go the other way, but I learned to warp a loom from Deborah Chandler's book, "Learning to Weave", and while she explains both methods, she covers FtB first and then does BtF. I just never learned the other way. And since it was about 6 or 7 years after I read that before I took my first weaving class, that didn't do anything to change my mind. Besides, the weaving instructor at Siever's, where I took that one class, did nothing to disabuse me from warping FtB. She was teaching Double weave, not basic setup.
Why am I even discussing this today? The Louet loom came with a DVD that I have studied carefully, it teaches BtF warping. I have now tried warping BtF a couple times and I have learned a few things about that method that I want to comment on.
The loom is designed to be warpped BtF. Once one follows the clear directions in the video then BtF is not the tangled mess that I had always previously thought it was. So I will use that method more often in the future.
But right now I am in the middle of warping up the loom to make a double weave L shaped shawl for my mohter-in-law. This will be made with Harrisville Design's Shetland weight wool. Which is a lovely looking, but very "sticky" yarn to work with. I have the sneaky suspicion, confirmed in the Louet video, that there are occasions when FtB wraping makes sence, and when I need double the threads per inch in the warp, and very sticky yarn, that FtB is the way to go with this.
In the past I sometimes skipped having a "cross" in my warp as I wound it onto the warping board, and often I ended up with tangles in the warp as I pulled it through the reed. So now I am being more careful about using a cross to keep the threads in sequence as I warp. This should keep the threads straighter and easier to work through the loom.
So here is the partly sleyed reed for this project. I have about 2 more inches to sley and then the rest of the set up process before I can weave. But I am really enjoying looking at the colors in this warp. And I wanted to just make a few comments about this.
Front to Back or Back to Front!
Before I had my Louet loom, I always warped front to back. I know most people tend to go the other way, but I learned to warp a loom from Deborah Chandler's book, "Learning to Weave", and while she explains both methods, she covers FtB first and then does BtF. I just never learned the other way. And since it was about 6 or 7 years after I read that before I took my first weaving class, that didn't do anything to change my mind. Besides, the weaving instructor at Siever's, where I took that one class, did nothing to disabuse me from warping FtB. She was teaching Double weave, not basic setup.
Why am I even discussing this today? The Louet loom came with a DVD that I have studied carefully, it teaches BtF warping. I have now tried warping BtF a couple times and I have learned a few things about that method that I want to comment on.
The loom is designed to be warpped BtF. Once one follows the clear directions in the video then BtF is not the tangled mess that I had always previously thought it was. So I will use that method more often in the future.
But right now I am in the middle of warping up the loom to make a double weave L shaped shawl for my mohter-in-law. This will be made with Harrisville Design's Shetland weight wool. Which is a lovely looking, but very "sticky" yarn to work with. I have the sneaky suspicion, confirmed in the Louet video, that there are occasions when FtB wraping makes sence, and when I need double the threads per inch in the warp, and very sticky yarn, that FtB is the way to go with this.
In the past I sometimes skipped having a "cross" in my warp as I wound it onto the warping board, and often I ended up with tangles in the warp as I pulled it through the reed. So now I am being more careful about using a cross to keep the threads in sequence as I warp. This should keep the threads straighter and easier to work through the loom.
So here is the partly sleyed reed for this project. I have about 2 more inches to sley and then the rest of the set up process before I can weave. But I am really enjoying looking at the colors in this warp. And I wanted to just make a few comments about this.
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