Pages

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Herringbone Twill: a Classic, Elegant Weave

As soon as I finished one men's scarf warp, I had another ready to go. I had more men folk to weave for!  This time I chose a soft silk yak blend in a silvery grey beige and sett it at 36 epi and I used 30/2 black silk as my weft. Now I would have chosen 20/2 but it seems I'm all out. I found a black 20/2 in thick and thin but the lines of this twill need to be sharp and crisp. The. pattern is a classic four shaft herringbone twill, using a standard twill tie up.



The total warp was for three scarves and I'm glad I was generous with fringe allowance as it gave me room to cut off each scarf as they were woven. Reason behind this was that I had some tension issues on the right hand selvedge. It was beamed tightly so I'm not sure why this happened again. (Last 16/2 cotton runner project had the tension go weird there on me too.) I'll look the loom over before reloading! I think it may have to do with how fine the warp was for this project and the last. It seems finer threads show tension irregularities very quickly. I'm going to read up on warping fine threads. Maybe see what Lillian Whipple has to say. She's the queen of beautiful fine thread weaving.

There was a section of plaid at either end for some interest but the middle was straight herringbone twill. They were woven for a total length of fifty four inches, plus a two inch fringe. I hemmed stitched every four ends to neatly secure the edges. They were washed gently in mild sudsy water and hung to drip dry. Next day they pressed up beautifully and I trimmed the fringe up neatly with a rotary cutter.

plaid section (before washing)

fringe before wash and trim
After the 'magic in the water'....





Very fine and butter soft!    Then after the magic of  our postal system...


My Dad wearing his new scarf,  with the picture taken by my brother.  Dad was a little hesitant about appearing here, but I thank him very much for stepping out from behind the camera for this shot! I think it looks great on him...

Now, what next for the Louet spring?   COLOUR !  

one warp wound....

...and the next to go!
More treats from the downsizing sale proceeds have arrived:

I swapped old books and yarns I'll never use for cash and bought these:

30/2 silk

60/2 silk from Japan (by way of Oregon) 
I'm hoping to paint silk warps this coming summer and have them ready for next winter's weaving...
But for now I'm resting as I've not been well. I'm typing this from my laptop in bed....I won't be here long as I have too much to do!

13 comments:

  1. Very elegant for a good looking gentleman.
    Would be very interested to hear the results of your research into tension problems.
    Would you mind telling me where you get your labels printed please? I need to get an order for more off soon.
    Cheers, Dianne

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Dianne! I get my good looks from him :)

    I believe the labels came from the Sterling Tape Co. in Wisconsin (?)
    I got three basic colours (black, white and a beige) I place them on scarves and shawls but not towels or reversible runners. Black seems to be used most so far.
    They have a web page...

    Susan

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, I'll check them out.
    Get well soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your father looks very handsome and dapper in his new scarf. The silk is so beautiful I am jealous!!! Looking forward to seeing your dye/paint job on the silk warps - knowing your wonderful taste they will be smashing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful! It seems like every project you post, I start thinking of how I could do that! Now if only we could touch through the computer screen...

    ReplyDelete
  6. The scarves have that Susan stamp of perfection, - everything so well thought out, fiber, draft, finishing... and how good - and happy your dad looks.

    Oh, and I am a little (at least) envious of all that lovely yarn you show next.

    Sorry to hear your health is not so good, Susan!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sorry you're under the weather - hope you feel better quickly!

    Everything you've shown is so lovely - such beautiful "eye-candy"!

    ReplyDelete
  8. ..and it's always nice to see the finished product on the intended recipient. I'll bet your dad is quite proud to wear it too! He looks wonderful. I'm so sorry to hear you're not feeling well! Here's hoping that the lure of that gorgeous warp awaiting you on the Spring inspires a speedy return to health. It is always a treat to see what you're up to, Susan!

    ReplyDelete
  9. The scarf is very elegant and classic, and it suits your father perfectly!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Susan
    Lovely scarves for the men in your life !! Nice herringbone draft, very classy.
    The silk looks lovely and should be nice to weave with.
    I am having the same tension problems but on the left it just loosens a bit. Tony has been over the loom and tightened everything but even when the warp is wound tightly I get the loosening at about 36 " of weaving. I wind a bit of tape on the front beam as I wind on to take up the slack and that helps but can't find the reason for it. Lillian would be a good person to ask !
    D

    ReplyDelete
  11. Tell your dad he looks very debonair in his new scarf! Your tension problems could be due to the loom being out of alignment. Use a carpenter's square to check. My loom used to give me trapezoidal pieces until I moved it off the uneven part of the floor!

    Hope you feel better soon, Susan.

    ReplyDelete
  12. As always, Susan, a wonderful weave. I'm considering a herringbone for my BIL and am thinking, since I have them on hand, 10/2 silver bamboo for warp, 20/2 black silk for weft? Are they too different in weight to get a good pattern?

    Get better! Your looms await! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you everyone for the comments... so nice to hear from you!

    Padre Wayne: 20/2 silk with 10/2 tencel? I would use that combination.
    I've used 28 epi before for the tencel warp. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting... I love to hear from you! Sorry about the comment moderation but I will post them quickly. This is necessary to screen out some nasty spam. If you can't read the numbers in the little box, then click on the "circle with an arrow" and it will give you another. Keep trying until you get one you can read okay? If you wish a reply back from me then either check back here, or leave someway for me to contact you. My email address is available in my profile. Thanks for reading my blog, Susan