Still life of puppy posed with pattern draft.
How would you like to know what’s on my loom right now?
August was an insanely busy month for me both professionally and personally. My focus was simply surviving and trying not to drop too many balls. Sadly, the big floor loom was naked for all of that month. An air of reproachfulness emanated from the loom room as she doesn’t like being undressed. Good thing that room has a door that can be closed.
But, YAY, I survived the month. By way of celebration, I immediately started measuring the warp for a new weaving project; coat-weight worsted wool cloth in, you guessed it, broken diamond twill.
Sidenote: I can weave other drafts. No, really. Its just that this pattern is impossible to find commercially, so when friends ask me to weave for them, this is the pattern for which they usually ask. I am happy to oblige.
Fiber for this project is my new favorite yarn from Jaggerspun; Maine Line 2/8 worsted wool. The warp is slate; weft is Williamsburg blue. Sett is twenty ends per inch which is the same sett used in the previous two pairs of leg wraps I wove earlier in the year. The length of the warp is eleven yards and a total of eight hundred ends on a forty inch wide warp.
Warp sleyed on the reed.
Measuring, sleying and threading took place early in September. At one point, as I was sitting inside my loom, threading, one of my pups came over to let me know I was paying an insufficient amount of attention to him. After a love fest, I can tell that he approves of my work. 😉 Clearly, he is a textile affionado.
As I prepared the warp for beaming, I was mildly surprised to find that it had a great deal of “stickiness”. Stickiness, to me, is where fluff from the fibers bunches up and binds the yarn together. I was prepared for a hard, messy slog while beaming, however, it wound on like a dream, having only one significant issue that I didn’t catch in time. Luckily, the thread didn’t break. It was a near thing.
Early morning light through the warp threads.
A short time later, I was tied on to the front apron and ready to sample. I sampled about 10 colors (so exciting!), working through an issue where my the picks per inch were to few. I fixed that by adjusting the tension under which was was beating to be greater. Once that was done, I settled in to weave the cloth.
Blue and gray broken diamond twill cloth
And here we are. It’s weaving up very quickly. I have woven four yards so far with another two yards to go before shifting to a different color weft. My plan is to have the entire thing woven and finished before I go to California to an SCA event next month.
Very nice. I love Jaggerspun Williamsburg Blue.
What are you going to make from it?
Hi Cate! Thanks for asking. Its being woven for a friend who is planning to make a kaftan, I think.
That will be wonderful. Warm and lovely!
hello,
Wonderfull work
We are an ancient german reenactment group and are lookig for that specific diamond twill weaving
Would you be willing to sell fabric by the yard.