Fiber Monday - not everything is a success
Sometimes when you are learning something (or even after you have learned something) not everything you try actually works out. That was certainly the story of me and my loom this week.
I had mentioned that I wanted to weave some napkins. I was first going to use cotton, but remembered that I had picked up some linen that was super discounted and decided to use that instead. I didn't bother to test the fiber to see if it would make a decent warp. I was so enamored of my plan that I was sure it would work out. In my head the napkins were going to be so pretty.
One thing I did do correctly was to opt to do a sample before committing to a full warp which was yards long. My sample warp was just a couple yards long and give inches wide. While it took a few hours to get it measured, threaded, and wound on, that was nothing compared to how long it would have taken for the full warp.
This afternoon I sat down at the loom to begin weaving my sample. I was excited because I was going to be able to try things that my smaller loom just cannot do. It was then that I realized things were not going to work out as I had imagined.
The linen fiber was just not spun tightly enough to be warp and stand up to the stress and abrasion of the reed and beater. Warp threads kept breaking and the fibers rubbed off and became clumped. Plus, it just didn't look as it did in my imagination. Want to see?
See? Not attractive.
All those threads sticking out? Those are broken warp threads. Broken warp threads are not good especially after just an inch of weaving.
I will cut it off and start again, probably with cotton. The linen will be fine for weft. I did get more practice measuring a warp and dressing the loom. Every time I don this I get a little faster. I also figured out what pattern I want to try and have done all the figuring for it. (Weaving involves a surprising amount of math.) All I need to do is start over again with a stronger warp.
There were some successes, though. I washed and hem the table runner which was my first project on the loom.
I also started to spin some of that dyed blue wool I have been combing. I'm happy with how it is turning out.
Y. and G. also spent some time working on spinning. They needed to get their yarn plied and washed so they were ready for class at co-op on Thursdays. Their yarn turned out extremely well.
G.'s;
Y.'s:
Finally, I was at our big box craft store earlier this week picking up a few things. On the really marked down shelf I found some very discounted "yarn". The quotation marks are because it is not exactly yarn, it is more spun fiber with a label on it. Anyone trying to knit with it would be disappointed when all their hard work either fell apart or became so fuzzy it would be unrecognizable. It's probably why it was so on sale. But not one to pass up spinnable fiber, especially fiber that is nearly a pound for three dollars, I grabbed some. One skein for me and one each for G. and Y.
Here's mine.
You can see that there are two plies to this. I'm going to separate them. In the picture below I've separated out one of them and shown how I can pull out a little bit and spin it. It will be interesting to experiment with.
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