Hearts, Hearts, and More Hearts

After I finished making those 4 lovely heart patterned handwoven baby blankets, there was a still a bunch of warp left on the loom. I thought I had enough length to make two table runners, side by side. I didn’t want just plain hearts, so I varied the treadling a little and made hearts that were right side up and upside down.

As it turns out, three assumptions I made about these runners were wrong.

• I don’t like the modified hearts as well as I liked the original pattern.
• I didn’t have as much length on that warp as I thought.  I wove right to the end, and, once hemmed, these ‘runners’ will only be 22″ long.  Hardly runners at all.
• I thought it would be efficient to weave two runners side by side.  WRONG!!!  There’s no doubt in my mind that I could have woven two runners one after the other much more quickly than I could weave the two next to each other.  Part of that was because I was constantly picking up and putting down a shuttle, but part of it was also because I had difficulty paying attention to 4 selvedges at once, forcing me to go more slowly.  And they’re still not up to my usual quality.

C’est la vie.  Live and learn.

Anyway, I did like those little hearts, and thought they’d make sweet bookmarks.  So I measured more threads & warped the loom up to do a dozen or so bookmarks while I still had the treadles tied up as I needed them and was in the treadling pattern with my feet.   Simple, right?

NOT!

I’d just woven over 200″ of these hearts, and knew just how I’d moved my feet and my hands, just how tight I’d made the warp, just how hard I’d packed in the weft.  But nothing was right on the bookmarks.  Now matter how lightly I beat, the threads packed in too much.  The pattern was very foreshortened, and not at all what I wanted.

I went to the ever-helpful and skilled folks who log onto Weavolution regularly, and got some helpful information & suggestions.  For these bookmarks I ended up simply using a bit heavier weft yarn, including some of the leftover carpet warp from last weekend’s doubleweave workshop.

I got them all woven up and off the loom this morning.  14 bookmarks in all, in a variety of colors.  I think people will like them at my shows this season.  Plus, now I know how to plan better for next time I’m doing a warp this narrow.   Setting the warp threads much closer together should solve the problem.

On to my next project – some of those luscious variegated cotton flannel baby blankets, using the doublewidth technique.

Hope you’re enjoying the spring holiday!