After I wove my three dishtowels plus a good ending header, I still had some warp left on the loom. Of course, a warp can never be woven completely to the end; rather, it can only be woven until the back apron rod gets too close to the heddles to make a good shed. Once I can't pass the shuttle through the opening between the warps, that's it. So, there's always loom waste. The question is, how much?
I gave myself plenty of length when I calculated how long my warp needed to be, so just maybe I have enough leftover to experiment a bit. I got this idea from Peg's blog post, "End-of-Loom Sampling" over at Talking About Weaving. It's true that questions and ideas pop up during the weaving of a project. What better place to sample than the end of the warp?
After I wove the off enough to hem the last towel, I figured it would be a good time to clear off some bobbins. Which I did, and was intrigued by the random stripes that occurred.
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| I like stripes. And plaids. |
And that made me think of random plaids. So, perhaps that's an idea to tuck away for future use.
What I was really curious about, though, was a thicker yarn for the "overshot fashion" treadled dishtowel. It seems that the common recommendation for my 8/2 warp and tabby weft is a 3/2 pattern weft. Of that, I have only pink and a brownish-gray, but I didn't think I could subject myself tor that color combination. Some weavers double the 8/2s (which is equivalent to an 8/4 yarn), but I finally decided on some cotton crochet/rug yarn, of which I inherited a lot when I bought my Schacht Mighty Wolf loom. It's a bit fatter than the recommended 3/2, but it's just an experiment. 😁
Next decision. What color?
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| What do ya'll think? Blue? I agree. Blue it is. |
So, here it is overshot fashion with the heavier weft.
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| Left side of the warp |
Nubby selvedges, I see. And of course contrast is key (maybe I should have used the orange).
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| Right side of the warp |
I don't know if I chose the best pattern, but it gives me an idea, anyway. A heavier weft will truly make the pattern more dominant.
I wove until the apron rod was advanced as far as it could go.
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| The end of the warp at the back of the loom. |
One problem I ran into was that some of the knots securing the warp bundles to the apron rod became untied once they were no longer wrapped around the back beam. I retied them, but will probably switch to
lashing on the warp in the future.
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| The end of the warp at the front of the loom. |
That was as far as I could weave, but I still had a good shed at that point and could easily throw the shuttle. That's a good thing to know about any loom.
The unwoven warp from the back apron rod to the fell edge (edge of the weaving) measured 13 inches. This is my back loom waste. In the front, I measured about 5 inches, including the header. So my total loom waste is 18 inches. This is important information, because it enables me to not be wasteful with my yarn. I need enough, but there's no sense wasting it, especially if the yarn is expensive or in limited supply. I allowed 20 inches, which turned out to be a pretty good guess.
The next step is to cut it off the loom and prepare it for wet finishing.
