Category: Weaving Cloth

Cloth No.4

Published on by Jen4 Comments

I have finally cut the linen off the loom and it is free, warp and weft married for the rest of time, and never to be unraveled. There is something sure and permanent about a well and densely woven piece of linen cloth, that it would tear before it would unravel, it would compost into soil before the weft and warp let go of each other.

My goofy mistakes presented themselves as I thought I was focused and yet I ended up at the beginning having to improvise through a lot of chaos in spite of my focus. There were a lot of things I should have done differently in this weaving; the most important being that I set up the warp very dense at 32 epi (warp threads per inch) and since the warp ends were so close together, the weft didn’t weave in a balanced way, the sure sign is that it is nearly half that. Next time when weaving this linen with 32 epi should weave twill structure I think, or if I continue to do plain weave, beat harder with the weft… looking for that sweet spot.

I learned also that it would have been great had I made a piece half this length, surely I could have a nice linen scarf, or something nice to wrap bread in out of the oven, and not invested so much time and expensive linen on a less-than-optimal sett. My new rule: Weave a small piece until I’ve got it perfect, THEN weave the yards-long cloth.

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣

I had already threaded the heddles starting at one end of the reed, planning to fill every dent, so the fact that I forgot to leave a couple of dents for the floating selvedge made it a challenge. One end had an intentional floating selvedge, threaded second, which is not wound on to the warp beam and the length of the thread winds around a bobbin and hangs off the back of the table through the weaving. The other side, as I forgot to make the floating selvedge first, I had to improvise an after-thought method, and I can’t remember what I did exactly, but may have cut off two texsolve heddles to free up two threads wound on to the warp beam with the rest of the threads, and to tension the after-thought floating selvedge threads — as they were not making the trip up and down with the rest of the threads in the harnesses — the slack would increase without the take-up, so I weighted it also with a bobbin and tied to the thread so it could move as the warp progressed forward. I also figured this was a happy mistake, for as a couple of other threads loosened along the way, well they got the bobbin trick hanging off the back too.

  • Yarn: Linen 14 from Silk City Fibers (7000 yards per pound) in Cream.
  • Loom: Ashford 16″ Brooklyn 4 shaft Table Loom, straight draw threading for plain weave, lifting pairs of odds & evens (1 & 3 , and 2 & 4)
  • Warping method:  Direct warp method, double threading from back apron rod, through front to peg. Wound on to back beam and finally sleyed through reed, threaded the heddles, and tied off on to front apron rod for weaving.
  • Number of warp ends: Again, I forgot to take these critical notes, so distracted by improvising through warp patterning.
  • Reed: 16 dent
  • Sley pattern: 2 ends in each dent
  • Threading pattern: 1 end in each heddle, but for the windowpane texture threaded 2 ends in a heddle.
  • Width in reed: approx. 15.5″
  • Sett on loom: 32epi
  • Selvedges: Floating selvedges , 2 ends each side. Used a temple to keep width in reed.
  • Sett after finishing: Warp 34 epi, and weft 18 ppi
  • Texture Pattern for Warp:  This was an exercise in making mistakes, so no need to put the pattern down as it ended up being crazy different. I had intended to have very subtle window panes, with only 2 ends in a dent. That was at least a good technique, but next time I will do four ( if I am to continue with direct warping, it must be even numbers per dent.)
  • Texture Pattern for Weft: I repeated the same measured distance between window panes as was in the warp, and because the window pane spacing in the warp was messed up badly, I repeated the sequence. In becoming a repeated mistake, in a way , makes it intentional and random at the same time! I ponder this method as something I may want to repeat, for it was at least not too repetitive.
  • Finished:  Ends woven in bamboo 8/2, makes a nice tight hold, so I could leave raw edge, with no hem. Washed and half dried in machine, then steam pressed, measuring 156″, or 4.33 yards long and 15” wide, and weighs 247g. 
  • Yardage:  Total yardage used for finished piece = approx 3812y, figured from weight of finished piece and not including loom waste. Note: it appears this project used half the 1.1 lb cone, so a single cone could in theory, weave double this yardage, probably 8 yards, or double the width, 31″ in the reed, with the same 32epi.

Cloth No.3

Published on by Jen7 Comments

This textured plain weave 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 windowpane 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, and an off-white cream color, with those little dark flecks raw muslin typically has, unnoticeable in its yarn form. It 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 — in managing such a high epi, 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

Published on by Jen3 Comments

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

Published on by Jen6 Comments

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.