Category Archives: Weaving Cloth

Cloth No.3

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This textured cloth was mostly improvised, and I got swept up in the weaving of it, so if I hadn’t made the notes when I was planning it, I wouldn’t have had any at all. The weft window pane motif did not look as I planned so I experimented different ways throughout the weaving (see weaving notes below). Above all, I’m so glad I tried this cotton; it is organic, but an off-white cream color, with those little dark flecks raw muslin typically has, unnoticeable in its yarn form, and happens to be the only 20/2 weight I could find that is not mercerized, it has a very soft buttery feel, and is a good value as it is available in 1 or 5 lb cones. In future weaving with this cotton, I will warp the yarn at 24 epi, which would be sheer, and also at 40 epi would be crisp and dense. The cloth series is for me to understand the spectrum between sheer and dense weave, and finding the ultimate balance to my personal liking.

I’m very much enjoying this simple basic Ashford Brooklyn 4 shaft table loom for weaving fine cloth, even more than the Ashford 8 shaft table loom, because it is easier to thread and sley, being the castle (the part housing the 4 shafts) is smaller, it is just easier to set up. It is Ashford’s “transition” loom, for those rigid heddle weavers to learn multi shaft weaving, but I think it is a lovely small tabletop loom that can do anything.

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣

About sleying 2 ends per dent — the only way I am willing to weave multiple ends per dent in such fine cloth is to keep it easy and have the consistency of 2-in-1, always, and just have the right reed so that I can do that. Patterning is a lot to keep track of all on its own, without the added complication of spacing variable numbers in the reed, so an even number is essential for me to help me keep track of the threading straight draw. Probably cramming 4 ends per dent is really too many if the warp is a close sett, leaving reed marks like in Cloth #2 did, and even though it likely will even out in the wash, I don’t care to have reed marks at all.

  • Yarn: 20/2 cotton, 8400yds / 1 lb, non-mercerized  Organic Cotton Plus.
  • Loom: Ashford Brooklyn 4-shaft Table Loom, straight draw threading for plain weave, lifting pairs of odds & evens (1&3, and 2&4)
  • Warping method:  115 ” from from back apron rod to far peg. 
    • Direct warp method, from back through front to peg, while double threading from back apron rod through heddles and reed, then to peg — which creates 2 ends in a pull, at the same time sleying 2 per dent, threading 2 ends through each 1&3 shaft heddles, leaving 2&4 empty.
    • Then I wound on to back beam and finally tied off on to front for weaving, then rethreaded 1 end in every heddle 1-2-3-4, in small sections, tying off as I finished with tension, so the warp was always under tension.
  • Number of warp ends:  552 (544 + 4 extra ends per selvedge)
  • Reed: 16-dent, 256 dents total in Ashford 16″ reed.
  • Width in reed: 15.5″
  • Sett on loom: 32epi, with doubled ends for windowpane “ridges”.
  • Selvedges: 4 extra ends at each selvedge and used a temple to keep width in reed.
  • Sett after finishing: Warp 35 epi, and weft 35 ppi.
  • Pattern in Warp & Weft: For texture in warp, I threaded 2 ends per heddle, for 2 heddles next to each other, and spaced approx 2″ apart, which created a dense texture probably too wide, so in weft I did not pay too close attention but made a “crammed” weft with 2 to 6 ends, over 1 to 3 picks, basically I experimented;
    • 1. Weft passes in the same shed 4 or more times, catching the outside selvedge thread.
    • 2. Weft passes in the same shed 2 or 3 times, changing shed for a single, then repeating the shed with 2 or 3 passes. This probably most mimics the warp.
    • 3. Winding the shuttle bobbin with 4 threads, passing once , then the regular weft single once, then another pass of 4 threads, this probably looked the best but the ends had to be overlapped and ended up standing out a bit and creating difficult selvedges.
  • Finished: Raw edge not hemmed, not fringed, just cut and frayed in the wash. Washed by hand in very warm water, partially dried in machine, then steam pressed, measuring 80″ long and 14.5” wide, and weighs 117g. 
  • Yardage:  Total yardage used for finished piece = 2,167y, figured from weight of finished piece and not including loom waste.
  • Note: From my experience of sheer to heavy cottons, this feels medium weight, which is still draping quality, and soft. It was woven at 32epi, so I think weaving 24epi would give it the sheer light weight feel, but probably shrink a little more because of all the air space in the mesh. Woven at 40 would be the maximum I think.

Cloth No.2

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Linen is my absolute favorite fabric, more than any other, so I decided to focus on it , as well as cotton, for my cloth series where I learn to weave finer thread counts into utilitarian cloth. Being from California it just seems that linen makes the most sense, and I’ll confess, most of my clothes are made of linen, and so the very reason I am ambitious to learn how to weave it. I’m not considering the traditional floor loom for weaving it, where tensions can get crazy, but on a modest little table loom, where tension seems more manageable, and the whole narrower warp within arms’ reach from the front of the loom. I think I’ll be able to make it work fine on a smaller scale, downsized.

I had just set up yet another small table loom, an Ashford 16″ 8-shaft, and it came with 320 heddles over 8 shafts, pretty sparsely distributed but nonetheless I wanted to get started and not have to wait for more expensive heddles to be ordered. It came with a 10-dent reed so 20epi was to be the bottom line for me, as I prefer to work 2 ends per dent evenly, and although I know that this linen should be woven at least at 24epi, I wanted to discover the limit for loose sett. From this starting point, on this loom, in the future I’ll weave with finer epi with 8 shafts easily, as I acquire finer reeds and more texsolve heddles, I am looking forward to weaving 40/2 linen (7000 ypp) at 32epi, or even up to a crisp 40 epi linen cloth, just something I dream of doing.

There were problems in the warp, as there always are, but I have come to love the mistakes, as they all give the feel that the cloth is handmade and definitely not commercial. Oh, the usual, I missed some heddles, some of the stripes and intervals are narrower, and also, as I was advancing the warp for the last 10″ of weaving, the back warp apron ties came undone and put an end to the weaving (my knots were not done right) so I had to cut it off the loom and forfeit the last bit of length, making the piece 62″ instead of 72″. It was both narrower and shorter than I planned, but that is fine as it is only a sample piece.

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣

I had experimented with threading the heddles first while pulling the threads to the peg for direct warping, and was going to sley the reed last — I can’t remember why I decided to do this, and struggled getting the wound warp to widen enough to feed through the reed, and learned that valuable lesson to sley the reed and heddles both at the same time — even if I have to re-sley the reed to get set up, which is how I have been doing it in my own direct warp method. I didn’t fill the width reed, and I forgot the floating selvedges I planned on doing, so only 15″ in the reed, and shrank quite a bit to 13.5″ after finishing with a hot machine wash & dry to shrink. I have a hunch that since it was an open weave, that the shrinkage was more than it would be with a denser warp. Next time when I weave 7000ypp 40/2 linen will be denser and will fill the entire reed, plus floating selvedges , that shrinkage will be less.

  • Yarn: 40/2 linen from Valley Yarns (249 g cone/ 3300yds) in Half Bleached (HB) (or possibly it was 20/2, I couldn’t be sure and the cone was unmarked)–and– 40/2 linen from Jane Stafford Textiles (100 g cones /1,540yds= 7000ypp) in Ginger (G), Topaz (T), Denim (D), and Indigo (I).
  • Loom: Ashford 16″ 8-shaft Table Loom, straight draw threading for plain weave, lifting pairs of odds & evens (1, 3, 5 &7, and 2, 4, 6 & 8)
  • Warping method:  Direct warp method, back to front; double threading from back apron rod through heddles to peg. Wound on to back beam and finally sleyed through reed and tied off on to front for weaving.
  • Number of warp ends: I didn’t count, and made mistakes, although there were supposed to be 320, there ended up fewer.
  • Reed: 10 dent
  • Width in reed: approx. 15″, I forgot to measure.
  • Sett on loom: 20epi
  • Selvedges: No reinforcement in the selvedges. Used a temple to keep width in reed.
  • Sett after finishing: Warp 22 epi, and weft 22 ppi.
  • Color Pattern Warp:  [16 (ends) HB, 4 G, 4 T, 16 HB, 4 D, 4 I ] repeat across, end with 16 HB.
  • Pattern Weft: Twice repeated the warp stripes in the ginger, topaz and denim, otherwise no pattern, just one color, HB, used shuttle.
  • Finished: 1/4 inch turned hem, then washed and dried in machine, then steam pressed, measuring 62″ long and 13.5” wide, and weighs 115g. 
  • Yardage:  Total yardage used for finished piece = approx 2310y, figured from weight of finished piece and not including loom waste.

Cloth No.1

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This morning early, I was impatient for the light to come, giving the muse a rest, and the loom too. Nothing is distorted or broken in the weave, after-all. It went through wash and dry, and a ritual of steam pressing — it is more than fine, it survived my incessant nervous worry as I wove through the last many days, and my misunderstanding of the warp is now an embarrassment, but essential part of the lesson, because really, in the end there is no sacrifice, it is a perfect piece of cloth.

Warp and weft together leave their home, are cut off the loom as if saying goodbye to their birthplace, for a marriage in a journey together for the life of the cloth. Purifying their bond in the water, for wet finishing is when the fibers bloom, the tension evens out, the blatant flaws heal and become only subtle scars. The loom is silent for a short while, and the cloth is folded and stashed away, along with its own potential, as it was meant to be.

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣

  • Yarn: 20/2 mercerized perle cotton, 8400yds / 1 lb, Maurice Brassard, in colors Beige (P-2), Natural (P-100), Turquoise (P-401), Rose (P-145), and Flax (P-5104).
  • Loom: Ashford Brooklyn 4-shaft 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 heddles and reed, then to peg. Wound on to back beam and finally tied off on to front for weaving.
  • Number of warp ends: Warped in couplets of 20/2, each couplet counts as 1 end. 380 plus 2 extra at each selvedge = 384 ends
  • Reed: 16 dent reed, 2 ends in each dent and 2 ends in each heddle.
  • Width in reed: forgot to measure.
  • Sett on loom: 20epi
  • Selvedges: 4 extra ends at each selvedge and used a temple to keep width in reed.
  • Sett after finishing: Warp 24 epi, and weft 12 ppi.
  • Color Pattern Warp: { 8 ends beige, [4 ends turquoise, 16 ends beige]x8, 4 ends turquoise, 16 ends rose}, 4 ends Flax, mirror reverse { … }.
  • Pattern Weft: No pattern, just one color, Natural (P-100), used shuttle.
  • Finished: 1/4 inch turned hem, then washed and dried in machine, then steam pressed, measuring 80″ long and 14″ wide, and weighs 128g. 
  • Yardage:  Total yardage used for finished piece = 2370y, figured from weight of finished piece and not including loom waste.