Subtle

   This warp is weaving very well. I am only working with two colors of the Bockens cotton, an unbleached natural and a bleached white. You can barely see any stripes or my attempt at a gradient. I had to carefully calculate the amount of each of these colors that I have. I needed to use up all of the bleached white because my weft is all the unbleached. Math is not my strong point and I have made some amazing errors. I was left,  after measuring the warp, with only a few yards of the bleached white. This is good. I need something if I have to do a warp repair.
   I still can't get close to the ppi desisired by my boss. This is a very different yarn. I need to look at it closely with my magnifying glasses and compare it to other 8/2s cottons. Maybe if the sett was lower I could pack in more weft? Really?  ... I should put on a more narrow sample and switch up the reeds, change the weave structure, wet finish it myself. We shall see. Meanwhile at my "guild" I bought two large cones of 8/2s unmercerized cotton of dubious origin that will make splendid babywraps for myself.

Getting There

      I am threading the next batch of the Bockens cotton. I have my 13 dent reed and have moved the warp onto the 2" sectional beam and I have a selvedge running on the 2nd beam. The warp looks nice on the beam. There are still some mysterious technical issues like the finished weight of the last warp.
        Apparently it weighed almost half of the usual tabby warp but those warps were woven with a different cotton according to my client. I still think the Bockens is quite lively and it seems to throw more lint than the WEBs 8/2s unmercerized which is the only cotton I can compare it to. I cannot seem to beat down the weft as much as I should for the specification I given. I feel a lot of resistence in the warp. The 2nd half of my last warp was perfectly woven but it did seem kind of airy. I didn't do the wet finishing so I am  relying on the person I am working for to take the weight measurement. It is difficult when you don't control the whole process but in previous contracts I just burl the cloth and returned the "grey goods" to my client.

What are we learning?

So I have been weaving for 30 years, not all the time, but enough time to know a few things. It is always humbling to realize we don't know all that much. So after horrible struggles with this warp, awful selvedges, looping weft, my problems have vanished! What was the problem? ¡The reed! Looms hate uneven numbers and the wonky reed arrangement for 26 epi in an 8 dent reed, 3-3-3-4, was fatal. The yarn stuck together, funky shed, impossible selvedges. I now have a 13 dent reed, 2X in a dent, no problema! I didn't need the rotary temples, all is calm, weaving fast, misspicks gone.
Right side selvedge,

Previous nastiness,

Between Looms

I finished up my tunic yardage on the big loom. I really need to take better notes and make myself do it. I think I put on 15 yards but I have no idea. I got a lot of cloth out of this warp! So far it is washed and dried but not cut apart and then I will know how many tunics I can really make. Next is to measure warp for the belts. My plan is to weave two belt lengths and then sew then together top stitched so I avoid the turning them inside out. The chenille is just too thick and the turning and snaking the belt inside out is very tricky with the seam. I can wind a two inch section, make two lengths and then I will only have the tabs to sew shut. That is the plan for now.

Meanwhile the new reed has arrived so I am reeding the babywrap warp,

Back in the Saddle

My new reed is supposed to be here today and I will forge ahead with what is left on the small loom. I put the selvedges on my 2nd beam so the selvedges can roll off independently tensioned. Hopefully that will fix a few problems with how the selvedges look.

Meanwhile I am back at the big loom and don't have that much to go on the warp. Always the choice of weft color, the weave structure and how the chenille (with the pile it has) changes the look of the cloth,

This has Not been Fun

Hmm ... 30 years of weaving experience and still surprises. I cannot say this babywrap warp is the best I have ever experienced. I am having problems with it. It is turning into a 12 yard sample but I think I know what is wrong. I am using Bockens unmercerized cotton. It is a beautiful yarn and I think it will make a sumptuously comfortable wrap. However the "liveliness" is a lot of the problem. It is not as smooth as other unmercerized cottons I have used. Very few knots which is good. I followed the specifications for the person I am working for. She wants a sett of 26 epi. That means I really need a 13 dent reed, two warp threads in a dent. So it is now sett in an 8 dent reed, 3-3-3-4. The yarn is too close and the shed sticks. So that means increasing the warp tension. Not good! Then the yarn catches on a thread and makes tiny tiny loops that are really hard to see until I have woven another few inches. The yarn sticks on the selvedges. One in particular is nasty even with the rotary temples. The weaving is SLOW! So now I have a lot of burling or repair work to do. I took 5 meters of the woven cloth off of the loom. The 13 dent reed should be here soon. I will use my 2nd beam to tension the selvedge threads.

Double Action: Let the Games Begin!

  I now have "DA", "Double Action", two projects going at the same time. For a summer I worked at Harrah's in South Lake Tahoe as a keno writer. Stupid game, worst odds in the house. I could write fast and set up a lot of customers before each game began so I got a "promotion" to "Double Action" games, two games going off at the same time. I can't be weaving at both looms at the same time but now both have warps.
 I have 12+ yards on my 40" AVL FDL and because of the unusual specifications for this commission I decided to put the warp on the plain beam with heads. The heads support the edges of the warp. Before I had sectional beams this was the only warping method I used. The warp is 8/2's Bockens unmercerized cotton. It is a beautiful yarn. It looks all white but it is not. Every other thread is off-white and the effect makes the warp shimmer. I will weave it with one yarn color as tabby.