A Weave Of A Few Firsts

I have been weaving for about a year but haven't done a lot of 'different' weaving.  I seem to get comfortable doing a certain type of weave and stick to it.

For this scarf I decided to try a couple of different things.  First, I chose 5 different shades of a green 8/2 Orlec with 4 designated for the warp and one for the weft.  I took a deep breath, tied the 4 warp threads together, and started winding out my warp.  I have never wound more then one thread before and any colour changes were done by breaking the yarn and tying the new colour on.  For this scarf I wanted the colour order to be random so there was not a definite colour change.  As I was winding the warp I didn't end up with a lot of tangles or twisted yarns which I had thought might happen.

After getting all the winding done I started to thread the heddles and just grabbed what ever thread felt like it was next in the bunch.  I did like the way there was the occasional stripe when 2 warp threads of the same colour ended up being threaded side by side.

So, next comes the tension sticks and winding onto the back beam - all done without a problem.  I also decided to try a different method of tying onto the front beam.  I am in the process of watching Laura Fry's video - "The Efficient Weaver" - and she dresses that loom with such speed and finesse that it makes my head spin.  Laura uses the lash on method and I had never tried it before.  I usually tie directly onto the front rod and have to untie, tighten, retie a number of times.  A little trick from the video (and what prompted me to try this method) is to tie your warp into bouts, tie the lashing cord onto the front rod and then thread it through the bouts in an over and under method using a fair amount of tension.  After you tie the end of the lashing cord into place release the back brake just slightly and then tighten the tension at the front of the loom.  The lashing cord magically adjusts itself through the bouts and you have even tension.  Love it!

The lashing cord was a bit of a problem for me this first time round.  I wasn't sure what to use and had some waste 8 ply cotton.  I was half way done threading it through the bouts and ran out.  Not knowing how much lashing cord I needed I ended up trying 3 different lengths of 8/4 cotton to get an estimate of what would be enough.  Once that was figured out I doubled the 8/4 and away I went.  Even tension was achieved, the warp was spread out using some thick yarn, the lightest colour Orlec was wound onto the stick, and I started to weave.

I got about 3 inches of the scarf done and decided that the lightest colour looked horrible.  The warp was threaded in a simple straight twill - 1, 2, 3, 4.  The tie-up also a straight twill - 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 1/4.  The weaving sequence was a broken twill so treadles 1, 3, 2 then 4.  For some reason the light colour Orlec just kind of clashed with the warp threads in this broken twill pattern.  It really dominated the weaving and blocked out any subtle colour changes in the warp so, as in the knitting world, it was frogged.  I settled on using the darkest green as the weft and love the way the colours all work together.

I now have my table stacked with a few different colour combinations in the same palette.  Blues, tans, reds - I can hardly wait to see how they turn out!