BGH's Trellis, Turned

This loom was set up for summer 2011 demos, beginning with the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. I turned the draft so visitors would only have to use one shutttle to weave. (More notes about the source draft can be found under "drafts" along with the .wif file.)

The original swatch was sett at 30 epi of 100% 20/2 cotton. Because I was turning the draft, the warp was now a combination of alternating thick and thin yarns. I set my first sample at 2 threads per dent in the 15 dent reed, thinking the thicker yarn would make a difference in the way it packed in. The width in the reed was 8". What was I thinking?! This was way too loose!

The next sett was 3 per dent (somewhat ignoring the fact it was thick and thin warps) for an epi of 45 in the 15 dent. That dropped the width down to 5.25" in the reed. The appearance of the pattern was a LOT better, but I was still seeing ovals, and I was shooting for circles. (Overshot should be woven square.) I ended up resleying 3,4,3,4 etc. per dent for a final sett of 52. If this had not worked, I was thinking to go ahead and try 60 epi (4 per dent), completely ignoring the thicker pattern threads altogether.

After sample #1 and #2, I decided I liked the underside better, so for sample #3 I reversed the treadling. (I treadled the opposite of what I treadled for the first two.) It was at this point I noticed a theading error on the left. Bottom line for me is the sett is always tighter than you would expect!

With loom waste, this set of samples took 17" away from the total warp length. The first sample had 12% take-up in width (the difference between the sample under tension, in the reed, and off loom, relaxed). The second sample had 9% take-up in width. I have not washed these samples yet to determine shrinkage.