Tuesday night was warping night. The looms were empty, and I decided I was going to get a project on both of them. First I considered the small loom. Since weaving the Charcoal Scarf, I was keen to see how I could use colour to enhance the leno twists. So I dug out the Lisa Souza ‘Sock!’ yarn that I’d bought in a spread of colours from green to purple. (Known as an analagous colour scheme – sorry, the nerdy artist in me can’t help it).

I’ve found warping up the rigid heddle loom with several colours using the peg system is too fiddly, so I wound a warp the ‘old fashioned’ way instead.

Here’s an arty shot:

Then I warped up the loom in reverse – pulling the warp ends through to the back from the front rather than the way suggested in the loom instructions. I’ve only warped the floor loom up three times and already it’s shown me that there are many, many options when it comes to warping. Doing it this way also meant I could thread both slots and holes in the reed at the same time in the colour sequence I wanted… which will make more sense if you have one of these looms.

Each ‘cluster’ of purple-through-to-green-back-to-purple will be a leno twist. There are five clusters. But there are more decisions to be made. Will I do stripes of leno twists across the scarf, or do one or a few at a time, changing the position – and form either a diagonal or random pattern? How much plain weave will I put between leno rows? And what colour or colours should the weft be?

While I decide, there’s the table loom to warp up. But that’ll have to be tomorrow’s post.

Last week I warped up the loom with more of the test cotton warp and finally remembered to stop and measure up the overall loom wastage while something was on the loom. Turns out it’s the same as the Ashford Knitters Loom – about 50cm. So from now on I’ll try to sample on the table loom if that’s where the intended project is going to be woven.

I wove three mini rugs with denim rags, testing a couple of things:

1) if the cotton stood up to wear against a metal reed (yes)
2) if I could beat harder on the table loom (a bit)
3) what the denim rag was like to weave with (not much different to the trouser rag, but it was rather light denim)
4) if cutting the jeans up by removing the seams so I had four pieces – front and back of both legs – and then either cutting in a spiral or up and down in strips would make much difference (removing seams is good, but spiral is better as 90 degrees turns show less than 180 degree ones)
5) if I liked the method of joining rag by cutting two holes and threading the rags through each other (nope – its as bulky as the seams)

Reading through Handwoven and websites with instruction on rag rug weaving, I realised something: there were no instructions to put a shot of warp cotton between the rag shots. I suspect this was a method I picked up from the roving weaving and it got stuck in my head as one for rag rug weaving as well. So for the second and third sample I left out the cotton and found the fabric was just as even and stable, and I liked the look of it better.

So I’ve ordered more cotton warp from Glenora. At this thickness (12/12) it only comes in natural. I could dye it, but I also noticed while rereading tutorials that the warp they specify is often used double. The 12/6 cotton comes in a good range of colours, so I ordered some in blue. I’ll test this out in combination with some old sheets and table cloths I’ve collected together for another rag rug.

Yesterday I had an afternoon to fill in, but I was very tired from our weekend away. I put on some podcasts, starting with an episode of Weavecast (which I’m slowly catching up on), and wove up the rest of the purple varigated yarn.

I grew more and more certain I was going to use it as fabric, possibly to make a few of these.

In the meantime I need to get something else onto the small loom, to weave while I’m at the guild on Sunday. I have an idea for using colour with the leno method (used for the charcoal scarf), but I’m also tempted to try some basic shibori weaving.

My second order of weaving yarn arrived last night, and something about it seemed a little odd. Oh, the cotton warp for rag rugs was what I expected, and the colour of the cotton for tea towels was perfect. But something wasn’t right.

This morning I carted my haul upstairs, dug out the first order of cotton for tea towels and discovered the cones are completely different sizes. What’s more, the yarn in the original batch was thicker than the new stuff.

So I typed “Lingarn” and “Bomullsgarn” into Google Translator and it came up with “Linen yarn” and “Cotton yarn”.

I’d received linen yarn not cotton in the first order. And it’s about double the thickness of the cotton. No wonder my calculations weren’t making sense! I’ve contacted the shop to see about exchanging the linen for the cotton it was meant to be, and it’s all being sorted.

Mind you, the thinness of the cotton is even more intimidating. Is it really possible to make tea towels with thread this thin without the warping and weaving taking a year?

And spring ones. Hours and hours of slippery 4ply bamboo. But totally worth it:

It fits perfectly. Though I did get gauge eventually by going down to a 2.75mm needle, I know my tension tends to loosen up a bit once I’m knitting a garment, so I chose the smallest size.

I’m not sure yet if I’ll sew on a tie or button at the front. Not that I think it’ll make it any warmer to wear – it’s a bolero top after all. But tops that flap open in the wind bug me. I end up holding them closed. I’ll have to see if this one has the same problem, and if I have anything in my buttons box that would suit.

I was going to wait until the Lime & Violet fair isle raglan was done before starting Sylvi, but I decided to make a start on Friday night because I was going to have some travel knitting time on the weekend. L&V is too complicated for car knitting and the sleeves of Sylvi are simple moss stitch once you get past the cuffs.

But as it turned out, I took my scrappy sock along instead. I decided that Sylvi was such quick knitting I might run out of simple moss stitch too soon.

I’m loving the combination of moss stitch and Inca. And the size and thickness of this bit of sleeve are just so coaty. It’s going to be very warm, and I should be able to wear a jumper underneath. Just as well I’m the sort of person who feels the cold in winter.