carry on
May 20, 2015
it is a beautiful day in the neighborhood
HAPPY BIRTHDAY – Jillian
finally – the towels are finished
too much time wasted avoiding this warp
the linen threads caused serious problems
after finishing the first three towels
I cut them off and re-tied
(and seriously considered abandoning the rest of the warp!)
after 40 years of weaving, still learning lessons
what’s next?
do I tempt fate and use up more linen?
meanwhile the clematis blooms
14 Comments
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Could you explain the problems you had weaving with linen, please ?
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Guillaume – the problem was caused by my choice of yarn – a single ply tow linen and the fact that I mixed it with several other yarns in the warp – a 2 ply linen and several different cottons – plus 2 different weights of yarn (thick and thin). It didn’t “take up” the same as the other yarns and made loops in the warp which I had to eased out to the hem. When using a good quality linen on its own I don’t normally have any trouble.
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Ok thanks. You mean it’s mainly because you mixed too much different types of threads in the warp, and above all poor quality linen ? What puzzles me is the word ” loops “. It was so loose that it made loops in the warp ???
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Guillaume – the linen is not poor quality but it is a singles and “tow” unlike a smooth line linen. The linen has no stretch or give in individual threads and yes, the length of each thread became fractionally longer over the length of the weaving to produce loops.
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ok… interesting, thanks.
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This makes me even more nervous about trying linen! But you did end up with great-looking towels, at least! Is the little Jillian your granddaughter? Super cute!
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joys and sorrows of linen. envious of your clematis
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Love the photo of Jill!
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Ah linen, gotta love it even though it drives you nuts! The towels turned out so pretty…it almost makes you forget the suffering?
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Kristin – well, almost. I have the big cones all lined up trying to decide on the next warp.
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Happy birthday Jillian, what a lovely match the clematis is for your outfit.
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Lis – I noticed that, too and the shape of the petals is similar the the floppy hat!
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I’ve been snarling at linen lately, and it is snarling back grrrr!
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Kjerstin -I love linen but this lot was particularly nasty – and I have 2 very large cones of it, think someone gave them to me because they had problems with it. SNARL!
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