Sunday, August 20, 2023

Boring Rambling Notes For Planning My Dishtowel Gamp

Gamp - a woven piece divided into equal sections for the purpose of exploring interactions of structure or color. Common examples are color gamps, twill gamps, and block weave gamps.

I want to weave a set of twill gamp dishtowels to explore straight twill, point twill, rosepath, and broken twill threadings with a variety of treadling patterns. Finished size of each towel will be 16" x 24".

Random Planning Thoughts

  • A 16-inch woven width means I can have four, 4-inch squares, each with a different threading.
  • Or eight, 2-inch squares, which would repeat the threading patterns.
  • Do I want to border each square or leave them side-by-side without borders? 
  • It's a twill gamp, so I like the idea of borders to frame the weave structure samples,
  • which means I'd probably do better with the 4-inch squares. 
  • But I like the idea of smaller squares, so maybe no borders?
  • I would like repeated threading sections to be different colors.
  • I plan to repeat the warp color sequence in the weft.

I'm using information from my sampler to plan this project.

Sampler Notes
  • yarn: 8/2 cotton
  • sett: 20 ends per inch
  • actual shrinkage after hand washing and machine drying:
    • width: 5%
    • length: 8%

To make my calculations, I grabbed my copy of Learning To Weave to review how to figure out warp length and width. 

    Warp Formulas

    Length
    72" project length for 3, 24" towels
    + 9" for folded, sewn hems for 3 towels
    + 10% for take-up
    + 10% for shrinkage
    + 20" loom waste
    = 117" = 3.25 yards

    Width
    16" finished width
    + 1 inch draw-in
    + 10% for shrinkage
    = 18.7" width on loom
    × warp set (20 epi)
    = 374 warp ends needed

    Analysis (more rambling thoughts)

    • 4 sections (4" squares, each threaded differently) of 374 ends would be 93 ends each and would look something like this


    • 8 sections (2" squares) of 374 ends would be 46.7 ends each
      • if I make it 46 per color I'll end up with 368 ends
      • If I make it 47 ends per color, I'll have 376 ends
      • 46 would make it easier for sleying 2 per dent, and I'd only be 6 short of the width calculation
    • I'm using 4 threading patterns, so 8 sections with four warp colors means I'd be repeating each threading section with the same color.


    • To explore color interactions, I'd like them to be different colors.
    • 7 sections of 46 ends each would be 322
      • so I'd get the color rotation I wanted
      • but one threading pattern would only be used once.
      • I'd need 52 warp threads more to make my targeted width.
    • Maybe I can add my borders after all, to add more warp and be closer to my target width.


      • 8 border stripes of 4 ends each adds 32 more for a total of 354
      • Still short 20 warp ends
    • Maybe widen the squares to 48 warp ends each (times 7 sections = 336 ends)
    • Plus the 32 ends for the borders = 368
    • Plus 2 more for floating selvedges = 370
    • I'm still short 4 ends of 374, but my actual draw-in and shrinkage for the sampler was 5%. The formula used one inch for draw-in plus 10% for shrinkage, so if I follow this plan, I should still be on target for a 16" total finished width.

    I hope I explained that well enough so that I remember what I'm talking about the next time I read it.

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