Tag Archives: rug

Tartans and more tartans

Looms, Project, Tartan, Weaving, , , , ,

The weaving of the Brown tartan finished a little while back, but I kept the finished throw on the loom as we were visited by my sister-in-law and her husband (the new owners of the throw) and I thought it might be nice for them to actually see it on the loom. They were very pleased with how it came out. We’ll now take it off the loom and finish tying up the fringes on either end then wet finish it. Delivery will be next time we visit their Lookout Mountain home some time soon.

Brown tartan on the loom with yarn for the next tartan.

To save just a little time I will cut of the current tartan and leave the remaining warp threaded through the heddles and reed. I am currently winding the warp for the next tartan – a custom design for Anne’s niece and her fiance as a wedding present in April. By tying on to the threaded warp I can slight speed up the process of threading through both the heddles and reed. I have done this before and while it seems like it would be a real time saver – by the time you tie on every warp thread (or almost all – this throw is slightly smaller) it is quicker but not hugely. I think it might be one or two less steps that could introduce threading errors, which is a good thing.

A fairly simple tartan design but it does look good (on the software)

In between tartans I was working on the 2023 Scenic Valley Handweavers guild challenge which is to take analogous colors from a color wheel and also using black; highlight those colors. I was able to find three colors amongst my stash and decided not only to weave them somehow but also to, on the same warp, repeat the pattern three times using three different weaving techniques. A challenge on top of a challenge as it were!

The colors are from a very simple primary and secondary color wheel and are red, orange and yellow. The first technique was completely new to me and is called ‘skip plain weave’. Often seen in rugs (Central Asian), but also European and Southern American woven pieces. It is one sided as the ‘alternate’ colors float across the back behind the weft faced ‘front’. I have begun the second technique which is Turkish knot pile weaving. When I finish, the blocks will have the pile trimmed quite short. The final technique will be tapestry weaving. The warp is 8/2 cotton, the skip plain weave is 3/2 pearl cotton (left over from tartans) and the pile and tapestry are an acrylic knitting yarn left over from the ‘Four Horsemen’ blanket project. I will then mount and frame the whole thing, tentatively called ‘Blocks of Sunrise & Sunset’, before the deadline in June.

Dressing ‘Gypsey’
Skip plain weave
Starting the pile weaving

This project will take a pause while I push through the ‘Wedding Tartan’, but should be ready by the reveal date.

Oak & Fern Bathroom Mat

Looms, Project, Weaving, , ,

The first project to be started in the studio is a bathroom mat/rug for the yet to be completed studio bathroom (currently used as storage for all the bathroom fittings plus a few light fittings that Anne has managed to find at heavy discount). I wove a rug for a customer in Townsend and wound extra warp as I had always intended to weave another rug using the same style of weft yarn. The warp is heavy linen and the weft was a trial of a method to produce ‘random’ coloring through the whole rug. To achieve this I had to ply three cotton warp yarns together first. Two in solid colors and the third in a variegated yarn that contained the two solid colors as well. When woven the colors come and go and form clumps and stripes as colors match from weft shot to weft shot.

‘Pete’ in place on the studio floor. Warp ready to be threaded.

The threading and tie up was straight forward and I was all ready to throw the first shuttle in the Oak & Fern studio. Worthy of a photo (and glass of wine to celebrate).

I wove a few inches using the warp yarn that will eventually be rolled to make a fully reversible binding on the ends. Then on to the actual weaving.

The ply of the yarn makes sloping/diagonal lines appear and disappear – obvious here with the white highlights. The colors in this stripe are the ‘oak’ part of the rug. The new yarn arrived yesterday so I was able to move on to the ‘fern’ stripe. The oak yarn has an ‘S’ twist so the diagonal runs right to left. With the fern yarn it is ‘Z’ twist which runs left to right. This will give a zigzag look as the stripes change.

Each ski shuttle holds enough for two stripes and is a full bobbin worth of yarn. I need to adjust the tension on my Ashford Traditional wheel as this needs a fairly high tension to wind on. The twist goes in fast so the set up has to be fairly free flowing or too much spin ends up in the yarn. I’ll get some pictures as I get into ‘production mode’

In the meantime with another fine day before rain I’m working up on the roof putting on shingles so won’t get to the weaving until tonight.