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Thursday, June 19, 2008

A giant leap forward


I thought you would all be pleased to know that I have made a giant leap forward.

The leap was made in the field of weaving, and was achieved by my drafting my own little design, which is for some curtain material.

It did not weave up exactly as I had imagined. I had not anticipated the longer warp ends showing as much as they do. This is really because I have beaten down the weft thread more than a balanced weave demands, so that the weft twill line shows more. What will happen when it is washed I do not know.

It is an "undulating twill", which in this case is made by increasing and decreasing the length of the weft floats, rather than spacing it unequally in the reed. The photo is not very clear and not very representative of the actual colour either, as the overall impression in reality is mainly blue with narrow white stripes and the blue and green are much closer in tone than they seem to be here.

The yarn has a shine to it and is also quite hairy, which makes me think it is a linen and silk mix.

The warp is sett in the reed at 16 ends per inch, but the weft is probably beaten at maybe 24 picks per inch. It doesn't undulate quite as much as I had expected, but I'm pretty pleased and proud anyhow.

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2 Comments:

  • At 21 June, 2008 18:20, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Gosh, I had no idea one could weave like that. Which room are the curtains for? I think they'll look stunning.

     
  • At 24 June, 2008 22:27, Blogger Irene Adler said…

    They're for my daughter's bedroom. She did have wooden slatted blinds but they've broken, and I discovered that the fixing will work for curtains so no drilling into the wall will be necessary.

    Some friends came to stay and said they thought that because the curtains are lacy, they will need lining. Sewing is definitely not my forte, so I hope they are wrong. The curtains are each twice as wide as the window so I think they should be opaque enough.

    Anyhow, thank you.

     

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