New weaving project! The warp is a merino/silk blend in a beautiful varigated green and gold. The weft is a peacock blue tencel. I'm hoping this 8-shaft draft (#26924 from Handweaving.net) will give a lovely peacock feathers look with these two yarns. We'll see - I haven't sampled yet. If this turns out well, it'll be a lovely scarf for a friend. #weaving #eightshafts #8shaftloom #warp #warpingboard #handweaver #handweaving #weavingdraft #weavingyarn @weaving @fiberarts
So. I’m not entirely happy with how the sample came out. Entirely too much weft - this lovely warp yarn just disappears under all that and I’m not really seeing the pattern either. It’s pooooooosible I didn’t do the lift plan (table loom, no treadles) properly but I doubt it, I’m not sure whether I should try a finer weft or a different draft (but hopefully same threading?) altogether.
Thoughts?
@faziarizvi @weaving @fiberarts This could be a mismatch between the thickness of warp and weft, and the sett you have chosen. Just judging by pictures the sett of both warp and weft seem very dense for the yarn thickness. How many wraps per inch for both the warp and weft yarns? Are you doing a twill?
@kyle Looks like it definitely was sett, though once I get that done I suspect sampling will reveal I need a different weight weft yarn as well. I might switch to some 20/2 silk and see how that goes. I'll do a wraps per inch test this evening. As for the draft structure, it does have a fair amount of floats, but no, it's not strictly a twill.
@faziarizvi Is the pattern originally meant to be more like an overshot? I know you don't have the thin tabby picks in between pattern picks like an overshot but that along with spacing warp out appropriate to its thickness might resolve it.
@kyle That would be my understanding of this draft. I didn't *think* it was an overshot but its an intriguing solution too. I'll keep that in mind in case the next sample still doesn't work out quite right.
@kyle @faziarizvi I’ve never woven this draft, but looking at it closely on handweaving.net, it doesn’t look like tabby is called for (it’s not indicated in the tie-up). But it looks to me like a draft that might look very different than the drawdown (more 3-dimensional) when it’s off the loom. See the pairs of warp threads on the same shaft at the points of the threading? They’ll always squish together and act as if you’d used one thicker thread there. (Continued next comment).
@kyle @faziarizvi The longer weft floats (over 4) are right next to under-over-over-under and over-under-under-over patterns on the same 4 warp threads, which means there’s an opportunity for the adjacent weft threads to slide/pack in under the 4-floats, especially with slick threads. I see that in your cloth. So overall, it’s coming out much more weft-faced than you anticipated. The fix for that is to tighten up the warp sett.
@faziarizvi Actually after more thought, since you have a thicker warp you probably don't want to do a thin overshot-style tabby pick in between without also adjusting the weft to be thinner in proportion. Hopefully adjusting the sett will be enough.