Supplemental warp project: weft wise woven shibori

 On the weaving side, I wove a disaster project for my study group's supplemental warp project. Let me detail the issues.

For my study group's supplemental warp project, I decided to do a warp wise shibori without doing a sample and not from a published recipe.

I turned a simple monks belt pattern and decided to go with it instead of consulting some woven shibori books for guidance or suggestions.

Turned Monk's belt

I only measured my guide string once so I wound a 2 yard warp instead of a 3 yard warp. It's about 16 inches wide for a shawl in white 8/2 tencel and two stripes of off white 8/2 cotton for the pulling threads.

Why 8/2 cotton? I recall reading it somewhere, but I don't recall where. I had a minor twinge about it not being strong enough to be a pull thread, which I ignored.

Happily weaving

I beamed both warps together on the loom; bad choice, as I was supposed to weight the supplementals off the back. I rigged some weights on hooks and went on.  I had constant issues with tension because of this.

As I wove away, I decided not to fix a few weaving errors near the edges  (I'm okay
with this). The plain weave was pretty relaxing, so much so that I'll do some plain weave in the next few months.

Gathered and ready
for the dye pot

I pulled the warp from both ends as I was supposed to but as the thread gathered on the supplemental warp, some of them broke. Some of the areas are not well gathered because of that, or maybe because there may have been some snarls due to the  tension inconsistencies mentioned earlier.

I failed to measure the dye or mordant correctly because Oh Just Because, so the piece is a lighter green than I expected.

Woven shibori

Looking at the finished piece, I see a couple of things. 24 EPI is too close of a sett for 8/2 tencel in plain weave (yep, there is documentation on the internets that confirms this); the fabric is firm and would make a nice vest fabric, but not the drapey shawl goodness I was expecting from the tencel. Some reflection on the process is making me wonder if I needed to sett my supplemental warp as dense as the background warp; I think every other dent would have worked better.   A small amount of research into woven shibori and a quick peak at a master yarn sett chart might have given me more info. In the absence of that data, sampling might have given me the information I needed.

Closeup

 Why was this project so under-thought and full of errors that I could easily have avoided? My brain was not engaged. There's been a lot going on lately, and these things happen from time to time. Still, after all this is said, had I measured correctly and come up with a 3 yard fabric, it would have made a lovely shawl. As it is, it's a lovely sample and will go into the fabric bin for future use.

Mittens, and a lot of "I'll tell you later"

Mitten and pattern

I just finished knitting mittens for my dear friend G who has up and moved to Canada with M... her mittens are next on the needle but I'm unsure whether I can get them done before things thaw for the spring. I combined two patterns (one for the mittens and one for the cuff). I had intended on doing a some embroidery on the hand but can't find a combo I like so I may leave them as is.  The patterns are from Anna Zilboorg's Magnificent Mittens. I wonder how she's doing and if she has moved off of her mountain yet?  Anyways, I had some issues with the thumb settling in nicely, will have to figure that out on subsequent mittens.

I also cut a little glass for the poppy mosaic... It's been cold and rainy and I haven't been motivated to be down there.

I wove and dyed my woven shibori piece. I'll detail that elsewhere.

I'm also working on the pub quilt. Yes, I realize I say that a lot but honestly I am working on a design using my fancy quilt design software. So far I've come up with a  lovely design that is mostly unpieceable. Stay turned.