Weaving with Silk…and Cotton

After warping up the Varpa and getting everything all tied up correctly, I decided I’d change the treadling for each of the three handwoven silk scarves, as well as the weft color.

For the burgundy scarf I used ‘tromp as writ’ — meaning I danced across the treadles in exact same pattern as I’d threaded the harnesses.

For the next one I decided to treadle basically a straight and point twill, eliminating the advancing twill sections.

Here’s what it looked on the loom like with a Pacific Blue weft.

That one was a bit harsh for me, I think because of the combination of the sharp angles in the weaving pattern and the dramatic difference in the warp and weft colors. So for the third I softened everything up. I treadled only the advancing twill with just a small point between each pattern.

Then I used a light coffee weft, which also softened the look. Again, here it is on the loom.

These scarves were not quick to weave. I had to get used to treadling the Varpa, and had to pay attention to 360 threads to make sure I wasn’t making weaving errors. After that, I really needed to get a quick, easy warp onto the counterbalance loom so I could feel reasonably productive in preparation for the upcoming show. So I decided on bookmarks. I threaded in a rosepath pattern, treadled in a variety of patterns, and got 32 booksmarks woven.

That made me feel good.

So now I’ve wound a warp of 170 ends of natural 8/2 tencel and have beamed it on the counterbalance. (By the way, I’m a complete warping valet convert.) I’m going to thread in a modified Ms & Ws pattern treadle in a variety of ways, and use a different weft color for each of the four scarves. Gotta keep moving!