Leigh's Fiber Journal: Sampler Off the Loom

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Sampler Off the Loom

I've woven my sampler to the end of the warp and taken it off the loom. I zig-zag stitched its edges and washed it.

Hand washed in cold water and Dawn dish washing detergent. Cold water rinse.

After rolling the excess moisture out in a towel, I laid it flat to take measurements. In looking it over, I can see that I improved with practice! My weft beating and selvedges became more consistent and I made fewer mistakes. There's still a lot of room for improvement, but I definitely made progress.

First 7 samples with mistakes and wonky selvedges!

Last 6 samples; much more consistent and even.

At first I was just going to line dry it. But I've been thinking about dish towels and thought, 'how many people line dry dishtowels?' I use my clothes line all the time when the weather's cooperative. But hand towels make good gifts, and how many people are able to line dry everything? I decided to dry the sampler in my clothes dryer to check for further shrinkage.

Sample particulars:

Yarns:

warp - 8/2 cotton
tabby weft - 8/2 cotton
pattern weft - 3/2 cotton

reed: 10 dents per inch
Sett: 20 EPI
Sley: 2 ends per dent
Total ends: 120
Width in reed: 6 inches
Threading: straight draw (plain twill)
Woven width on loom: 5 - 5.25" (depending on sample)
Woven length on loom (per sample): 3 - 3.25"
Wet finishing - cold water hand wash (with Dawn) and hot machine dry
Washed width (still damp): 4.75 - 5 inches
Washed length, per sample (still damp): 3 - 3.25"
Finished width after machine drying: 4.75 - 5 inches
Finished length (per sample) after machine drying: 2.75 - 3"

Observations:

I'm happy with the yarns and sett.
I like the fabric's hand after washing and drying.
I lost width with washing.
I lost length with machine drying.
The turquoise weft on the white warp was diluted both the color and the pattern.
The turquoise weft on the blue warp offered good contrast to make the pattern stand out.
The purplish pattern weft was the opposite; good contrast on the white but visually obscured on the blue.
Even though I didn't especially care for the white and dark warp stripes, they were useful to show how color differences between warp and weft interact.

Samples after washing and drying:

Here's the pebble weave I blogged about here: