Many Projects - One Warp

Warping the loom is the part of weaving that I like the least. One of the things I love best about weaving is planning projects and identifying as many projects as possible from a single warp using different weft or different treadlings. Because of this, my recent projects involve putting a 6-7 yard warp on the loom and working on a number of projects.  I recently put on a 7 yard warp of two colors of 8/4 cotton rug yarn, planning to make fabric for a couple of rag rug bags and maybe some placemats.

I ended up making fabric for two bags and not making any placemats.  The bags are lined with fabric and one has cotton webbing straps and the other uses leather belts for handles. The finished size of the bags are 15" X 17" tall.







Fabric to cover the pillow on my weaving bench.

A small rag rug

3 small bags.  More on these bags in a separate post.

Date Finished  October 2013

Loom  Newcomb

Weave Structure  Plain Weave, log cabin thick and thin

Reed  12 epi

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/4

              Color Dusty Rose and Eggplant

              Mfr  Maysville

              Source  Earthguild

Warp     Width in Reed  20"

              Ends  240

              Length  7 yds

Weft      Fiber  blue flowered cotton rags cut in 1 1/2 inch strips and carpet warp alternating

              Count 6 ppi - 3 rags, 3 carpet warp

              Color

              Mfr

              Source  Old Curtains

Beat                       50/50                     

Size

Notes

Reversible Rug

This is another project from Interweave Publications Design Collection 19- all about rags.  Rugs seems to be the project that I gravitate to most frequently, utilitarian, sturdy, forgiving of mistakes.  This project is woven in a double weave, weaving two layers of fabric at the same time.  The fabric on the top layer can be a completely different color from what is being woven on the bottom layer and if you get tired of the colors on the top, just flip it over.  It should also result in a very thick rug, since it is made up of two layers.

The first step in this project was accumulating wool clothing to cut up for the weft.  I decided one layer would be red wool and all shades of black and white tweed.  The second layer would be plain black and the same black and white tweeds and plaids.  I accumulated probably 20 items of clothing before beginning to cut.  I used a rotary cutter on a quilting mat and the cutting went fairly quickly.  Cutting up the slacks, jackets, skirts seemed to be such a waste, but it came from the thrift store and already had a good life.  I am just repurposing it for it's second life.

The project was sleyed 1-3-2-3 and the 4th harness was not used at all.  I think there is probably an easier way to sley this on all 4 harnesses, but I couldn't figure it out, even after reading Black (New Key to Weaving) and Collingwood's rug book.  Next time I will probably use cotton carpet warp, since this wool was fairly expensive and is fairly small part of what is seen.



I used the standard tie-up and the following treadling:

From the right
Red tones - 1(lifts 1 and 3)
Black tones - 3 (lifts 3)

From the left
Red tones - 5  (lifts 2 and 3)
Black tones - 2 (lifts 2)


Date Finished  March, 2012

Loom  Newcomb

Weave Structure  double weave

Reed  8 epi, 4 epi  per layer

Warp     Fiber  Navajo wool warp, single ply

              Count  190 yds per tube

              Color  natural

              Mfr  Davidson

              Source  Earthguild

Warp     Width in Reed  31"

              Ends  252

              Length  3 yds, used 5 tubes

Weft      Fiber  wool rags, cut in 1" to 2" strips

              Count

              Color  black, black and white tweeds and  plaids on one side and red and black and white tweeds and  plaids on the other side

              Mfr

              Source  Thrift Store

Beat                       Weft Faced
Size

Notes