Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Space Dyed Twill Afghan

By Leigh

My latest Christmas afghan is just off the loom! I haven't finished the ends or washed it yet, but here it is. This is the side I looked at while weaving .......

One side of my latest twill afghan.
It has solid colored weft faced twill zig zags. You can see the space dyed warp stripes subtly underneath.

Now here is the other side .......

The other side of my latest twill afghan.
... where the zig zags are warp faced, showing off the color changes in the space dyed yarn. Much more interesting to my eye. You can still see where I was unable to perfectly match the space dyed sections, but I am happy with it all the same.

A problem with loose selvedges.After weaving awhile, I did start to have problems with warp looseness at the selvedges, creating an upward turn to the fell. I am guessing this has something to do with the fact that I have tied on so many warps.

And my solution.

My solution was to use an S-hook and a half filled half gallon milk jug to take up the slack. This worked very well and straightened the fell out nicely.

I think this is the end of experimenting with space dyed commercial yarns for awhile. I didn't have much success measuring the warp ends individually, nor was measuring the sections in bouts from separate skeins achieve what I wanted. Using them as weft was okay, but the results weren't exciting enough to want to try this again. So, as Peg said in the comments of my last post, that only leaves dying my own warps.

So, that is on my future "to do" list, when I have more time and a better set-up for dyeing.

To finish this afghan, I'm thinking that instead of fringing it like I did the others, I would like to put a crochet edging around it. I'm thinking that a scalloped or picot-type edge would be nice as this would compliment the zig zags. However, this will have to wait until the weather cools down and I won't mind working with an afghan in my lap. In the meantime, on to the next afghan.


Related Post:
More Space Dyed Twill Weaving
Finishing the Unfinished Afghan

7 comments:

bspinner said...

Fabulous!!!!! Both sides are beautiful and I sure do like the idea of the crocheted edging instead of fringe.

Annie said...

Ah, great tip! On my latest project, the edges curved like that, didn't know I could do anything about it! I'll try weights next time. Thanks!

Jackie said...

Wonderful! I really like the back. I have to admit that it is rather daunting to try and dye that much yarn all made into a warp. I haven't done a blanket width warp yet, but I did do a shawl of about 500 ends and that was fun enough.

Marie said...

Dye your own warp. Yup, that's the ticket! It's fun too.

I love the blanket, both sides. What's your plan for the next blanket?

Dorothy said...

"S" hooks have just got added to my shopping list.

I love your blue colours, that is a pretty blanket.

Kathy said...

I will have to remember this tip for when I fire up my loom again! Thanks, Lois!

Did this have the cats' approval? After all...finishing it in your lap only means one thing...a test of the kneading-oscity as done by your R & D team!

Leigh said...

Cat approved? Oh yes! *lol*

Marie, I have 2 more ideas in mind at the moment, one with irregular zig zags and one incorportating some of my handspun with commercial wool knitting yarn. This last one still hasn't gelled in my mind though, so I'm not sure what I'll actually come up with!