Saturday, November 29, 2008

Weaving at Last

By Leigh
Leigh's 1st ikat & painted warp weaving.At last I have conquered this warp and am finally having fun!

2 bookmarks & spacer.The particulars:

Warp & weft: 20/2 mercerized cotton
Warp length: 3 yards
Sett: 105 epi
Reed: 15 dents/inch (7 ends/dent)
Total ends: 292
Width in reed: 2.75 inches
PPI: 24
Weave: Warp-faced plain weave
Stripes: painted & ikat
Woven length: 8.5 inches per bookmark

Since this is plain weave, weaving is super fast! The bookmarks will be fringed, and you can see in the photo on the left that I'm using card stock in between each bookmark to allow for that.

For the weft, I'm using the same black that I used at the edges. This way the weft thread isn't noticeable at the selvedges.

Also, I'm using a stick shuttle, which has come in very handy. Since the warp is packed so closely together, the threads tend to stick together when I treadle. I'm finding that this shuttle is a great way to open up the shed .....

Clearing the shed with a stick shuttle....... before throwing the next shot .

I did have one "duh" however. The horizontal stripes at the edges are created by threading the heddles with black and white alternately. But notice in the photo below ....

The one thing that needed correcting.....that on the left, the white warp is on the top, while on the right, it's the black. This doesn't effect the horizontal stripes any, but it would be distracting at the fringe. This happened because I didn't pay attention to thread the odd and even shafts with the same color on both sides! I ended up unweaving this bit and rethreading the black and white warp on the left side. Once all the blacks were on odd shafts and the white on even, the two sides looked the same.

I don't anticipate that finishing up this warp will take very long. I should be on to the next project after the weekend.

[UPDATE 12/02/08: To see the finished bookmarks, click here.]


Related Posts:
Experiments In Warp Painting
Good Ol' Plain Weave
Learning Ikat Technique
Ikat/Painted Warp Bookmarks Done

16 comments:

Mim said...

The colors are coming together great!

Anonymous said...

I'm still awestruck over the 105 ends per inch!!

bspinner said...

I didn't notice your "duh" until you mentioned it and I look at the closer picture. Nice colors!!!!

MiniKat said...

I really like it. I also didn't notice the duh until you mentioned it.

Donna said...

I think it looks great!

Leigh said...

I'm glad you all like the colors!

Michelle, 105 epi really isn't so bad! Of course, I've only got a 2 & three-quarter weaving width. Now if I had a 24 inch project ...............

Sharon said...

I kinda got stuck at 105 epi. In fact, I had a very hard typing it. I didn't know that was possible - fanny self with magazine.

Gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Wow, Leigh, that looks fabulous! I still haven't progressed beyond winding the warp bouts, so I'll just sit and admire yours.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you're enjoying Ikat! Have you thought about applying Ikat to the weft at all, or are you just going to stick with the black?

Amelia of Ask The Bellwether said...

Wow! it's gorgeous. I see ikat in my future now ...

Leigh said...

Sharon, like I said, it really isn't too bad with only 292 ends. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of the number of ends needed for a dishtowel!

Cally, I have to warn you that once you start it will be hard to stop!

Rae, I hadn't thought of that. I admit though, that my mind is percolating with ideas. Yours is one I'll add to my list. Thanks for the idea. I think that a more open sett would be in order for that (which I plan to try soon anyway.)

Amelia, jump on in, the water's fine!

sheep#100 said...

Hi there. I just saw your comment on my projects page. Comments were not turned off on the main blog but there might have been some technical difficulties along the way (Blogger can be that way). Thanks for dropping by!

Sara said...

Beautiful! I like the re-thread of the borders too :).

Anonymous said...

Leigh, these are going to be just lovely! The combination of the ikat and the painted warp is just stunning.

You have such a great eye for color and design. Brava!

Jane

Anonymous said...

What an antidote to dull winter colors! This lovely warp was worth the trouble you had getting it on, I think.

Leigh said...

Thank you!