The Long Echo

Some of you may recall this image from some time ago?  I started this warp back in the spring and it was supposed to push my colour boundaries. It did just that and nudged me (obviously) a bit too far and sat waiting for me to pluck up my courage!  I played with the Louet Spring in the interim and did a fine job of not seeing a large gorilla frame loom with a big foot print in the room.

The project is to try my hand at echo weave and you may find more on the original project by Lynnette here.
I didn't want to copy her warp colours and after consulting with the Itten Colour Star and checking  many cones, I chose to use alternating ends of 8/2 tencel in iris and coral. This means the third colour for weft would lay in the greens if you view the triadic colour wheel.



So for my first choice  I chose aquamarine which is a turquoise. I got it under way and after much scrutiny I detected no threading errors, which was good as its a difficult draft to follow along. It jumps all over the place as the computer program has expanded and elongated a normal draft, so  the threading sequence is hard to follow.  The sett is quite dense at 40 epi and the pattern uses a full 12 shafts and 12 treadles. Out of the three various drafts, I chose the one with the easiest treadling for my first time and its a series of twill runs.
I'm not 'feeling the love' for the colour mix but after sending Lynnette a picture and a phone chat, it was agreed that I should carry on and that it gets better once washed and off the loom.  Okay.... so 42 inches later something weird happened!

See the left hand side in this picture above? There appears to be nothing wrong... no lines, no obvious problem? Just let your eye flow over the general pattern and then somehow errors can pop out.

Like here.... after 42 inches woven and approx 1 inch in from the left hand side, I suddenly got a line. A very obvious line.  I checked the threading and it was correct. I thought perhaps the four ends per dent in my 10 dent reed was the issue?  Nope. I unwove, and rewove... there it is again.  So I  cut the entire 42 inch long section off the loom.  Snip, snip!

After it was laying flat on a table waiting for me to do something with it, I played on Lilibet and mulled the problem over. Then one day I walked by the table with the sample and saw it clearly!  Can you see it in the picture above? I had picked up the wrong colour in the sequence when threading!  That's why the threading was okay and still had made a line.  So perhaps this occurred to some of you earlier but please remember that I had a kitchen reno under way and a Dad who had just taken horribly sick so perhaps a bit distracted? We won't even mention the 'mental pause factor'.   
So now I have generous samples and reworked the last inch or so of the warp. Tied on and got busy with weaving again.  Turquoise didn't appeal to me once more, so I went  a bit darker and tried a dark teal weft. 

I called this the seismic look as it reminded me of the charts created when an earthquake hits and the needle goes flying!

The second scarf I wove with lemongrass and while very bright, it somehow seemed a better fit. Due to the thickness of the sett, I inserted matching coloured sewing thread and used that to hemstitch with to reduce bulk. The overall look and appearance is much like a heavily stitched double weave, with one side predominantly weft and the other warp faced.

Here's the lemongrass weft scarf on the fringing board and the pattern effect (with a slight change in treadling) making it look like feathers.

Here's seismic on the board . Coming off tension the pattern somehow tightens up. The fringes were twisted and some beads added for flare.

Then into the laundry tub for a good soak in warm soapy water then air dried on a rack outdoors. Put our then heat wave to good use!  A hard pressing with a steam iron, then comb and then rotary wheel cut the tassel fringes and now they are ready for their close up's.

As you can see from these three pictures, above and below, the pattern tightened up nicely and on the warp faced side, an iridescence appeared. (The one below is on the header of the blog.)

I would have to say that my favourite is the lemongrass scarf with its feathery patterning...

I would like to add here that despite the dense sett, the scarves are quite drapeable. I put that down to the tencel and having made them in a narrow width.  Tencel is a weighty yarn, so they have 'substance'.  :) Now that I have seen the final outcome, would I weave these again?  Yes, but be much more selective on the colour selection!

It will be interesting to see what sort of personality type will buy these at the coming sales this fall!