Warp chains for the Finnish mantle
In my last post, I introduced you to my latest project, weaving a shawl inspired by an iron age Finnish mantle. Now that you have the background, its time to get down to some specifics. I am making changes to size, color, and fiber content, as well as making guesses to some of the construction details where they are not known. If I was hard core, I would be doing this on a warp weighted loom. I don’t have a vertical loom, so floor loom it is! That’s why this is “inspired by” rather than a reproduction.
The dimensions on the original find are 147cm by 94cm. The individual for whom this is being made is quite tall, so we are scaling the shawl up a bit to 178cm by 111cm (70 inches by 44 inches).
The recipient selected the fiber for the project, which is lovely plied sport weight, naturally colored 100% alpaca yarn called “Alpaca Prime” from Henry’s Attic in the Mist Gray colorway. Recommended twill sett for this yarn is 15-18 ends per inch. Since I have a 16 dent reed purchased for the magyar kaftan project, that is what my sett will be.
To begin the yarn calculations, my favorite online weaving project calculator is from Haley’s Studio.
Finnish mantle weft calculation screen shot.
Let me explain some of these numbers. No shrinkage? Er, no. I have to do a lot of manipulation of the fringe, so it won’t be wet-finished when I get it off the loom. Manipulation of the fringe includes adding the wire coils. I don’t think its a good idea to wash it after that. No draw in? Of course there will be, but it not all that important.
Here are the warp calculations.
Finnish mantle warp calculation screen shot
One of the really cool things about this project is that most of the loom waste is incorporated into the piece as the fringe. This may seem strange to some, but I’ve never woven anything with fringe. Loom waste for my loom, is right around 24 inches.
The warp calculations works like this: 20 inch fringe/loom waste + 70 inch woven body + 20 inch fringe + 10% for take up + 6 inches for “insurance” rounded up to 130 inches per warp thread.
44 inches at 16 sett = 704 warp threads that are 130 inches long.
