Hi, its me Abelene.

The news around here is that Jen finished scarf no. 8, and not only that, but also she says she is finished the 20/2 ulltra fine cotton series, at least for a while. Time to move on. This project is unique from the others because she used direct warping method on the 8 shaft table loom — do read Jen’s note down in the Weaving Notes explaining things, and see all the photos. We, the crew of inanimate objects; a chatty mannequin, all of the looms, Señor Mirando (mirror), ladder, chairs, old wooden ironing board, little antique folding ruler, et al — we ALL respect that this double threading thing is a big deal to Jen, but she’s losing her mind a bit, attempting to avoid convention. We, the crew, are happy to be able to work together photographing beneath the rafters, with beautiful draping hand weavings, in the afternoon light, but we aren’t sure what Jen intends to do now being finished with “the series”. She has been spending time making dye concoctions with powdered extracts of indigo, madder, and pomegranate rinds, and so we think her next thing might have something to do with that, which no doubt in my mind will result in another beautiful drapey thing!

Ta ta, Abelene & The Crew

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣

Note from Jen: For this piece I tried the easy direct warping double threaded through the heddles on the table loom, so was inventing a method for myself, as so far I have only have done this on the rigid heddle loom with Scarf no.7. Take a look at the photos in the weaving notes below and you’ll see that this is not conventional, and I’m only grateful there are no weaving police around. For the weavers who are reading, I’m sharing my weaving notes and detailed warping photos below . . .

• Yarn: 20/2 mercerized perle cotton, 8400yds / 1 lb, Maurice Brassard, in colors Natural (P-100), and Flax (P-5104).
• Loom: Ashford 8shaft Table Loom, straight draw threading for plain weave, lifting pairs of odds & evens (1&3, and 2&4)
• Warping method:  Tested an easy direct warp method, back to front; double threading from back apron rod through reed and heddles, then to peg. Wound on to back beam and finally tied off on to front for weaving. Warp length is approx 130 inches from apron rod to warping peg.
• Number of warp ends: 640 max plus 4 extra at each selvedge = 644 ends
• Reed: 16 dent reed, 2 ends in each dent and 2 ends in each heddle (except for selvedges 4 ends each)
• Width in reed: forgot to measure.
• Sett on loom: forgot to measure.
• Selvedges: I did not add extra ends to the selvedges, but did use a temple.
• Sett after finishing: Warp 36 epi, and weft 26 ppi.
• Color Pattern Warp: [32 dents of Natural, 32 of Flax] rep blocks across reed until measures 20″
• Pattern Weft: Wound on to a 30″ stick shuttle for each color as follows: [30 wraps Natural, 30 wraps Flax] repeating sequence.
• Finished: 1/4 inch turned hem, then washed and dried in machine, then pressed, measuring 81″ long and 18″ wide, and weighs 150g. 
• Yardage:  Total yardage used for finished piece = 2780y, figured from weight of finished piece and not including loom waste.
• What I will do differently next time: Raise up the harnesses to warp, thread and sleigh, I found I had to crouch down unnecessarily before I realized! Also I will group in 1″ bundles, having mistakenly miscalculated 8 groups of 4 harnesses, was actually 2″. EACH GROUP OF 4 harnesses is 1/4″. A group of all 8 harnesses will be 1/2″
• Recipient: Sorcha