assorted fibres
a full gale is blowing as we spring forward into daylight saving time
cherry blossoms are falling like snow flakes
meanwhile the shibori stitching is progressing
reached the half way mark and starting to gathering up the threads
making it much easier to handle such a large piece of fabric
I’m on the second 200m spool of thread
after gathering and before tying off the thread
I’ve bundled them into chains, like a warp, to reduce the tangled mess
before committing the loom and the weaver to the unknown linen
I wisely decided to sample
must be the wisdom of experience and advancing age!
oh, beautiful Irish linen
first sample – linen on linen
not a single broken warp thread
no sizing and I didn’t even have to treat it with spray starch
(my solution to control fuzzy warp yarns)
epi 36 – sleyed in a 12 dent reed, 3 to a dent
next
hand cut and spun paper yarn, kami-ito
after washing and pressing
the final three samples
woven with ( right to left)
you can click on the picture to enlarge
handspun natural brown cotton
handspun silk, natural dyed a pale cream
merino (wool) dyed with rhubarb root
now I can happily wind and weave a 6 yd. linen warp
Jean: Love the linen samples! What pattern did you use? Is that a Bronson Lace? Whatever it is, I have a use for it, if you can share. Elaine
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Elaine – as I wrote in the blog the pattern is out of an old Finnish book – it is 6 harness and I added plain weave selvedges on an extra 2 harnesses. How many harnesses do you have?
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Enjoy your trip! Should be pleasantly warm by then. I’ve heard it’s been swinging between warm and chilly the last couple of weeks.
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Jean-Pierre – I’ll be indigo dyeing outside for 2 weeks so hope the snow has gone.
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Hi. The linen originated from Mrs. Mandu’s (Ihara-san) treasure trove in Suzuka, Mie. I am so glad to see that it has finally found its purpose. Mrs. Mandu probably had it for a few decades, inherited from her mother, who ran a dressmaking shop in the post-war years, the 50s and 60s. I’ll show Mrs. Mandu these photos when I go back to Japan at the end of this month.
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Jean-Pierre – thanks for the history. Linen can be difficult thus the reason for sampling but this wove beautifully without a single problem. Now winding the warp for yardage, maybe there will be more pictures in a couple weeks. Thank you and Mrs. Mandu, it is difficult to get such high quality yarn these days. I’m leaving for 3 weeks to Fujino, Kanagawa-ken and then Osaka on April 22 so will see how quickly the weaving proceeds.
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So, you sampled all those wefts, all on the linen warp? It’s so neat to see the comparison. Which will you use for the actual weaving?
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Kerry – that’s what a sample warp is for, to play and learn. I’ll use the linen for weft, don’t have enough of any of the others to weave 6 yards. I love the paper (shifu) and the silk is very nice.
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jean, these are super wonderful.
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Velma – maybe I’ll just become a sample weaver, always learn something new.
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Wow! So beautiful. You are the only person I know who could handle such fine thread.
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Heather – the silk and cotton setts we wove with at Kawashima were often 80 epi, now that is fine! The linen is beautiful and wonderful to work with, thank you.
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