Like casting on…
…only different.
I’ve got a new yarn in my hands. High on the yummy scale. I already have two projects on the needles, which is as multi-tasking as I get. Like any knitter, I’m drawn to the newness of casting on for a new project.
But I’m not knitting this. It’s destined for the loom. Doing a sample scarf for LYS-Owner-And-Friend-Jenny. Have an idea in my head and want to try it out. But frankly, I don’t have that same carefree attitude when preparing a warp. Most likely because instead of easily picking up needles and whipping on those beginning stitches, my warp prep looks something like…
A bit mental, really. Calculations. Ends per inch. Draw in factor. Shrinkage consideration. Loom waste. Only have 3 skeins. Will there be enough for the weft? Hmmmm…
Not like casting on for knitting at all.
But after overcoming the inertia of getting started and in spite of the mathematics involved there is a thrill to envisioning what the next FWO (finished weaving object, that is) will be. And that thrill is kind of like casting on…..right?
Do you have any pics of the loom? Or details of what kind, etc., and how you like it?
01 Mar 2007 at 11:19 pm
I just wove a scarf from my first hand spun. 8oz of BFL that is thick and ,we’ll say slubby in some spots. I made the warp about 80 inches long and used the bit at the front that you tie on as one fringe and the leftover bit at the end as the other fringe. I cut off behind the heddles so that I could have a long fringe. It was sett at 8EPI but sleighed in a 6 reed because of the slubby bits. It was somewhat warp faced. And if you really want the beauty of the yarn in the warp to shine through, don’t use the same yarn in the weft. Use a finer single colour yarn that is in the range of one of the darker colours that is in that beautiful yarn. Looking at your picture, I’d try one of the muted greens. The right weft yarn sort of disappears when you stand back and look at it. I think that I tried about 6 different yarns before deciding on the blue grey silk/wool blend that I finally chose. I hope to get a picture of it soon up on my blog.
And the whole project, start to finish (except for the spinning of the yarn) took me about 4 hours.
02 Mar 2007 at 11:23 am