Helping Hands 3: Conclusion

So... to refresh our collective minds: This is the project where I was using my new Helping Hands to beam a warp and then thread on my Louet Spring loom. (Please read part 1 and part 2 if you haven't already.)  I must say that in spite of my newbie mistake of clipping the lease sticks in the wrong spots with the pegs, it all went smoothly after that. I'm sure it will get easier with each new warp and become a valued addition to the 'tool kit'.

I bought a set of the Helping Hands for the Megado loom too and will report on that experience at a later post.

So this third post is to conclude what happened with the warp that I beamed onto the Spring using the Helping Hands.    

I had an interesting 10 shaft crackle diamond draft # 13414 from Handweaving.net and when I started to weave, I decided very quickly that I did not like it at all. The weft floats were all raised up like an old chenille bedspread and it was very "not me" at all.    It also had a threading error mid way to condemn it further. I had been so slow and careful threading too, and so I took it personal.   🥺

So UN wove and removed it, reinstalled my lease sticks (for which the Helping Hands holder was  quite perfect really)  and pulled back the warp and was ready to start all over again.    EXCEPT the tie up.  That's the big part I really didn't want to do all over again.

So I went in search of a 10 shaft draft that looked good with the old tie up left in place.   I found this:

The new threading is draft # 13889, and actually the tie up for this draft and the old one were very similar. I also went stash diving and found a pretty lace weight / 20/2  silk alpaca yarn that is soft and has soft muted mix of colours and it seems to go very nicely with the navy 8/2 tencel. The yarn has a bit of loft to it.    It's a large over all pattern that up close is actually hard to see, but pops out when you step back. It's also a very long repeat of 238 or 7 1/2 inches of weaving. So no phone calls please, and don't talk to me unless you are on fire! 🔥

As I have mentioned before, I use the automatic settings on my DSLR camera and so not that smart when it comes to adjusting settings to compensate for shade or strong sunlight.   So I took pictures in sun and shade and hope that the overall scarf comes through.    Shade shows the truer colours and the bigger pattern is revealed above but the close up below shows a more diffuse patterning.    The 70% silk / 30% alpaca makes for a lovely soft hand.

Then in the sunshine, you can see the sheen of the yarns, although it doesn't do the colours justice.

Now, I had wound pirns of magenta tencel to do the other draft that I disliked and so decided to use them for the second scarf. I've used magenta and navy before with great results so I hoped to do so again.   So these two shots are the sunshine version:

Then the shade:  The colours are richer, the sheen more evident.

The Spring has been reloaded and then next four warps (two  on the Spring, and two on the Megado) are all about kitchen towels.  Lots of them.    I'm busy setting things up and winding warps.   I'm also enjoying our summer and spinning outside.

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Happy Canada Day!  

    

and.....

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Happy 4th of July!