Shadow Weave - The Next Warp

This warp is ready to weave. I was happy with the way the weights and over-the-castle winding on technique worked. It beamed on without difficulty and I'm hoping that it will be my tightest and most evenly tensioned warp so far. Time will tell.

One thing which I definitely want to do next time, is add more weights. I used two half gallon milk jugs because two is all I have, the reason being that we don't use much milk. But, with DS living at home this semester, we will use more milk, so I foresee plenty of jugs for weights next time.

I have to admit that the particulars of beaming on this warp were not my only challenges. I had previously decided on the undulating shadow weave pattern on page 80 of Margaret Windeknecht's Color-and-Weave II, and there was the challenge of translating this into a draft (more on that later.)

Determining the sett for my yarns was another challenge. I considered several types of yarns and was leaning toward chenille, but finally decided to use the yarns pictured on the left, from a previous sample session. I had the idea that they would make a nice jacket front to match a skirt I recently made from the background fabric in this picture.

My problem was that they were different size yarns: the green is a 16/2s cotton, and the black is 8/2s cotton. I wasn't sure how to decide what sett to use. For that first sample, I had somehow chosen a sett of 24 epi (don't ask me how I decided that. I'm sure I had a reason at the time but I didn't record it so I can't remember. On the other hand, at least I recorded something!)

I thought the fabric at 24 epi was a little stiffer than I wanted however. I mulled over the various formulae available for calculating a more appropriate sett, but wasn't too thrilled about doing any math. Then, I remembered my new Peggy Osterkamp book, Winding a Warp and Using a Paddle. It has an appendix loaded with sett charts, among other things. I took the average of the two setts and calculated 22 epi.

So that's what I have on the loom now. The header is woven and my bobbins are filled.


Hopefully all the challenges for this warp are behind me.

Next - Undulating Shadow Weave 1 - Weaving

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

 Related Posts:

Shadow Weave: Doing the Triple S - my introduction
Shadow Weave Profiles- how to interpret
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins the series of samples