As of this afternoon, here are the results for the Catzee's Cloth poll:
- I love it! Leave it as is - 43 votes (57%)
- Yuk! Iron it quick! - 33 votes (43%)
One consideration is planned usage. Though it looks like a scarf, I wove it for cutting up into exchange samples. Consequently all the weft ends are hanging out of the selvedges rather than being woven in (I changed weft color with every treadling block.) I need a total of twenty samples for the exchange, but it won't take all of it. While I was weaving away, I thought about using leftovers for a vest.
I like this pattern.....
Maybe version B with a black velvet collar?With that end in mind, I decided to go ahead and press a section of the bumpy cloth to see what could be done with it. Here's how that turned out .....
It smoothed out nicely. Bettina did make a good point in the comments however, that it will likely want to bubble up again after washing. I don't figure that samples will be washed, and my vests are more likely to get dry cleaned, so that may not be a problem.
Lynette brought up another good point, that of visual competition between the shrinkage texture and the color pattern. For this sample, the focal point is the tabby-like stripes against a tortoiseshell-like background. (See Inspired By Catzee.) The bubbles and dimples from the differential shrinkage should probably be a design feature on its own.
So I've come up with a plan. I'm going to press out Catzee's Cloth, and then experiment with differential shrinkage on a scarf. I will still weave it in summer and winter, just in simpler colors.
The interesting thing about all this is that I never expected to take this direction in my weaving. But thanks to this happy accident and all your encouraging comments, it's a step I'm going to take nonetheless.
Related Posts:
Inspired By Catzee
An Unexpected Wrinkle
One Thing Leads To Another
Lynette brought up another good point, that of visual competition between the shrinkage texture and the color pattern. For this sample, the focal point is the tabby-like stripes against a tortoiseshell-like background. (See Inspired By Catzee.) The bubbles and dimples from the differential shrinkage should probably be a design feature on its own.
So I've come up with a plan. I'm going to press out Catzee's Cloth, and then experiment with differential shrinkage on a scarf. I will still weave it in summer and winter, just in simpler colors.
The interesting thing about all this is that I never expected to take this direction in my weaving. But thanks to this happy accident and all your encouraging comments, it's a step I'm going to take nonetheless.
© 29 March 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com
Related Posts:
Inspired By Catzee
An Unexpected Wrinkle
One Thing Leads To Another
7 comments:
the vest would look nice in that fabric! you could always test what happens by wetting a small part of the ironed fabric to see how it behaves?
I don't have problems like that yet - I am just glad if I manage straight selvedges on my 2nd weaving project:))
An excellent solution! Isn't it just like "cat" fabric to be so complicated. ;-)
Wow---20 samples! In our group there are usually just 8-10 to weave. I wonder if the bumps were really caused by differential shrinkage since you could press them flat. I'm glad you wove enough for a vest.
Well Peg, I could always call it "different parts of fabric shrinking at different rates due to different type yarns used" ;)
We have 17 in our exchange, plus three extra samples are needed for extra sample books. I would be curious as to the sizes of the various other CW study groups.
I also gave you the Proximity award on my blog today even though MiniKat already gave it to you. The qualities of the award made me think of your blog and so I just had to do it too.
If you should be interested in exploring collapse weaves, Anne Field's new book is very good indeed ;)
However, I know this is accidental, I think you need to work with what has happened rather than try to tame it, and it should be good for making a cosy scarf. It's one of those fabrics that I look at and say, "well it's not quite my cup of tea" but there's something about it that's very distinctive and somebody somewhere will look at it and say "wow, love it".
I love how it came out after ironing. It would look great as a vest. I can't believe you are doing 20 samples.
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