Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Summer & Winter Pine Tree Table Runner

By Leigh

Here it is, off the loom, wet finished, and ready to use. The pine trees ..........

Summer & Winter Pine Tree motifAnd the snowflakes / birds nests ..............

Summer & Winter mystery motifThe project particulars:

  • Draft: adapted from Carol Strickler's A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns (#549 page 155)
  • Warp: 8/2 unmercerized cotton in navy blue
  • Weft:
    • tabby: 8/2 unmercerized cotton in navy blue (different cone)
    • pattern: 5/2 mercerized cotton in light green
  • Sett: 16 epi
  • PPI - 18 pattern ppi and 18 tabby ppi
  • Total warp ends: 220
  • Width on loom - 13.75 inches
  • Width off loom - 12 inches
  • Width after washing - 11 inches
  • Length on loom - 2.5 yards (total warp length, tied on)
  • Length off loom - 72.5 inches
  • Length after washing - 63.5 inches
  • Wet finishing - cold water wash and hot dry
Because of the finished length I really couldn't get a good photo of the entire thing. Plus it's a little too long for either my dining table or my hutch.

What I learned:

1. That it would be easier to see mistakes if I had woven with the "winter" (dark) side up. After it was off the loom, I discovered a treadling error, which wasn't nearly as noticeable on the side I looked at as I wove (summer, light side.) I don't quite understand the structure well enough to correct this with needlework, so there it remains. You can see it in the bottom photo if you look closely.

2. That to weave the profile draft in the book, I had to weave each block with four pattern shots (plus their tabby shots.) To put it another way, I had to weave each profile block with two units of the designated threading. If I wove with only one unit per block, the result was very squatty looking pine trees. I got a glimpse of this when I doodled with the draft on DB-Weave, but what was actually happening didn't sink in until I started weaving.

3. About that skeleton tie-up. I've tried it two ways on my 8 shaft countermarche Glimakra.
This way ............

revised CM  skeleton tie-up........... which puts tabby treadles on the extreme left (1 & 2) and the tie-up treadles (3 & 4) next to them. Also this ...............

Countermarche skeleton tie-up.......... which puts tie-down treadles on the left and tabby shafts on the right. I changed because I was having trouble keeping track of the treadling order the first way. However, I had the same problem with the second tie-up as well! What I've learned is that I have to find a better way of keeping track of which tie-up treadle is next, without losing the pattern treadle. I don't have it all figured out yet, but I'm learning from my experience in spite of myself.


Related Posts:
Back to the Pine Trees
Snowball, Star, or Snowflake?

18 comments:

Geodyne said...

Fascinating summary Leigh, and one I intend to refer to if I every try summer and winter.

The results are lovely. You should be proud of yourself.

vlb5757 said...

Even though I don't weave, I just love seeing all the wonderful things that you create!

Anonymous said...

A beautiful interpretation of one of the all-time great designs.

Life Looms Large said...

The table runner looks terrific! I love that pattern!!

Plus, this is an excellent post because it has lots of specifics. I need to start doing something similar to summarize projects!

Sue

Peg in South Carolina said...

Beautifully woven! So where are you going to put it?
I see you have actually done the Library Thing. I started awhile back but have never found the energy/time to continue the listing.

Gwen said...

That came out so wonderfully! I love the snowflakes AND the Christmas trees! :)

MiniKat said...

That runner is gorgeous! You did a fantastic job. :-)

Anonymous said...

Leigh, absolutely beautiful. If you hadn't mentioned the treadling error, it's doubtful if anyone would ever notice.

Your proportions are perfect, and the use of the design is just so balanced in the runner.

Brava!
Jane

Susan said...

Oh, it's lovely Leigh! I think that would fit my table here :)

What is it about weavers and their 'errors'? We hold up our show and tell and trot out all the details including all the goofs and gaffs.

It's a design element ...

bspinner said...

Wow! Your runner is beautiful!!!!
Thanks for including all the information too.
I posted a link to Harrisville showing their tension devise. I also use in place of leash stick. One of the most useful things I've ever bought for weaving.

Leigh said...

Thank you! Except for the treadling error, I'm very happy with it. Susan, you make a good point about those errors, we are so distracted by our own mistakes that we can't seem to help but to point them out. As Jane said, it isn't all that noticeable, which is probably true of most of our "errors".

Peg, the great thing about Library Thing is it's search engine. True, it does take a lot of time to input those tags, but I'm glad I spent the time doing it. Now I can click on any topic tag and find every book that has information in it.

Barb, thanks for the info and the link! I'm not sure if it would fit my loom, but it looks like a fantastic idea. I'm surprised I'd never heard of it before.

Sayward said...

You are inspiring me to try some 8 shaft patterns on my new loom!

Julie said...

Wow! It turned out great, I really like the tree pattern. Your blog is always so full of info.

neki desu said...

it's reaalyy nice,it's been a positive learning experience and the mistake is barely noticeable.
So don't be hard on yourself and enjoy.

neki desu

Anonymous said...

Beautiful. I have looked up the pattern in the Strickler book and know that i could not interpret it at the moment. I will remember this post and return in the future when my skills are better developed. Hopefully!!!!

Meg said...

Beautiful.

Marie said...

Stunning!

Leigh said...

Sayward, I love to know that I've been an encouragement.

Jewel, Neki, Meg, and Marie, thank you!

Deborahbee, it really wasn't that difficult. I just took one section of the pine tree threading and made the table runner that wide. It did help to have weaving software to figure that out; otherwise I would have had to work it out on graph paper.