Thursday, September 2, 2010

Double Weave Sampler

Now that I'm back from vacation in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, I need to get serious in my studio. I have several fall weaving deadlines. (And both of my looms are dressed with warps that aren't even working toward those deadlines.)

I need to be very consistent and productive over the next two months!

I need my Baby Wolf for a project that's due in mid-September. Definitely time to free up that loom!

The project on my Baby Wolf is double weave that I started last winter, but never got around to blogging (or actually weaving for that matter).

Baby Wolf with Alternating Red and White Warp

At the beginning of a project, I like to record my inspiration and motivation for the project.

Weaving a top layer of white fabric

Motivation

  • Who isn't inspired by some of the fabulous double weave projects that other weavers show us?
  • Double weave is one of my weaving resolutions for 2010
  • There's something fascinating about the way double weave can produce tubes, wide fabrics, double-sided designs, pouches, pillows and somehow still allow people to play with color and structure

Section with white weft is a double width fabric
Useful for making cloth wider than your loom

Inspiration

Goals for this Project
  • Complete the exercise on double weave in Learning to Weave by Deborah Chandler
  • Experiment with double weave pickup
  • Try to figure out a way to weave a pouch (like for a purse) that smoothly transitions into a flap for the purse

I made a tube closed on both sides, stuffed it, and will weave the end shut.
Great for pillows or anything padded.

You can see that I've chosen a thick yarn for this sampler. It's what I had on hand (leftover from the much-loved Larry the Lobster knitted toy). Plus it's super thick, so I could sett at 20 epi, making threading and pickup easier.


The red and white stripes are tubes, open at each end.
These are skinny (knitting needle size), but you could make them any size.

I need to make steady progress on this sampler because by September 15 (less than 2 weeks away), I must share lace samples with a class at the NH Weavers Guild. I need the loom for those samples!

Good thing the yarn is fat and is weaving up quickly!!

6 comments:

Susan said...

Well that seems to be weaving up quickly! Nice to see you back on the bench.

Question: I looked at the warp on the loom and noticed you didn't use either paper, sticks or cardboard to wind on. How's the tension?

Good luck with your deadlines!
Susan

Life Looms Large said...

Susan,

It's a super short warp, so it actually doesn't go fully around the warp beam. Otherwise I would have used paper!

So the tension is fine.

The warp is so short because even though my calculations included loom waste, I forgot to add it in when I added everything up. (Yet another reason to use Weavolution's warp calculator if it's back online.)

So, while tension isn't a problem, overall shortness is affecting the size of the different techniques I'm trying.

Thanks for your question!!! Must weave more!!

Sue

Theresa said...

Oh those tight deadlines, but the double weave looks great and it will weave up quick. You done yet?

Ohhh, Glacier, how did you like it and Jellystone! What a wonderful trip. I bet Bailey is happy to have you all back.

Delighted Hands said...

So great to see you weaving again! The doubleweave looks like a fun project-sorry for the deadline but maybe it is just what you needed!

LA said...

Isn't it funny how upcoming deadlines get slow moving project OFF the looms!!! I'm looking forward to seeing your lace project when it gets started.

Leigh said...

Double weave is definitely at the top of my list when I get back to weaving. The nice thing about a short warp is that it weaves up quickly and you can get on to try some of the ideas you came up with while weaving it!