Saturday, August 25, 2012

Washed sample

I've washed my first sample and I love the result!
The bamboo is a lovely yarn and after washing it feels nice and soft. It has shrunk about 10% in width and length.
I've now rethreading the reed and looking forward to weaving more. Still the bamboo yarn so will probably have more warp breakages. I will go not so far up and down this time and stay away from the finest part of the reed. Next warp for this reed will be a stronger yarn though, so that I will be able to weave right to the finest part of the reed.
Might also try weaving longer in each position (this sample I moved up/down every 0,5cm), getting longer curves and see how that looks.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your work. Your first fan reed sample shows the undulation really well.

    I just bought a fan reed and have started on my first warp, so we are almost in sync! I'm using a method of suspending the reed from texsolv cord discussed by Sara Von Tresckow. It looks like it may have a couple of benefits over a wooden/metal beater system. With a suspended system, the reed can be raised into neutral position to move the reed forward, dropping it into position just at the fell line. This reduces abrasion on the threads. The beater can also be lifted briefly to neutral to make a nice clean shed, even when the threads are at the top end of the reed.

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  2. Daryl, thank you for your comment.
    I can see the advantage you mention of the texsolv cord. My tutor has her ondulé reed set up like that too. The advantage of this system is that it is stable and I can move up and down very easy and keep track where I am. I've now started weaving again and this time will not go so high/low and see how that goes. I can lift the beater up a little when I'm weaving in the upper end of the reed. I change holding the beater to the woven cloth. It's fun. Let me know how you are getting on with your reed.

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  3. Hi Margreet. I'm not Daryl. My name is Debbie.

    I've posted a couple of pictures in Dropbox for you to see my first little sample. There's also one showing the texsolv. I have the positions labeled with colored yarn.

    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/79342979/Photo%20Aug%2025%2C%201%2037%2036%20PM.jpg

    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/79342979/Photo%20Aug%2026%2C%209%2022%2038%20AM.jpg

    Sorry the links are so broken up. Blogger doesn't seem to recognize links. Or is there something I'm missing?

    I'm playing with the same things you are right now - how high or low, how often to change. My wool/silk warp seems to be more forgiving than the bamboo. The only broken thread was when I tried to move a knot through the reed.

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  4. Hi Debbie,
    Sorry about name mixup.
    I like your sample with the colours very much.
    That will be something I want to try later too.
    For the moment I'm just happy to see how the reed works. Hence starting with plain weave and just one colour yarn. The bamboo is behaving better now that I'm weaving not to the edges.

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