Dessert Mats for my Cabin in the Woods
These became dessert mats when I realized I had miscalculated (once again) the amount of shrinkage in weaving and washing. Weave and learn, weave and learn.
Log cabin napkins
I doubled the 8/2 non mercerized cotton in a 12 dent heddle on the Emilia and wove 5 luncheon sized napkins. I expected to find it difficult to beat the weft in place but it went very smoothly. It took a few shots before I developed a rhythm for changing sheds and shuttles. It also took a little experimentation to catch the selvedge thread on each pick. Once I figured it out, all went smoothly.
I may weave more squares the same size and do some pick-up then sew them all together for a lightweight afghan. My Emilia is only 13" wide so it limits the size of what I am weaving. I like the way the log cabin pattern turned out and the napkins are really soft.
Thick and Thin
This log cabin thing has not let me go.
I followed the RH-WAL, and it worked in my head. Then there was the idea with thick and thin yarn to point out the beautiful colorway of Noro wool. The Elastic yarn ( Colcolastic crincles after wet finish) was used in the hope of rip-structure ( that didn`t work as much as I expected). The colours came out nice, but in my next trial I would take a unicolour yarn for the weft.
Log Cabin Scarf
Details on how to "direct warp" for the Log Cabin weave are posted on my blog:
bontricot.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/direct-warp-a-rigid-heddle-loom-for-log-cabin-pattern-scarf/
I used small boat shuttles (Schacht) and attempted to keep the ribbon yarn flat and untwisted throughout the project from un-skeining the ribbon yarn, to winding shuttle bobbins, to the actual weaving. This was semi-successful and often required hand-placing the weft picks to remove twist. The struggle also lead to experiments and observations in the twist we introduce through various unwinding operations. See my blog for details:
bontricot.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/observations-on-unwinding-controling-twist/
Steve
Log cabin
I started this scarf as part of the Rigid heddlers WAL on Weavolution.
The first version of the scarf used a taupe yarn rather than the off-white wool in the final version. The taupe yarn was a 100% wool yarn that had a chain effect and was slightly heavier than the navy yarn. This imbalance coupled with a sett that was too large led me to rethink and redesign the project.
DONE! I love the way log cabin looks, but I found this very tedious and finished it before it was done. I usually make scarves at least 60" on the loom so it's at least 55" after finishing. I have done several different shadow weave projects on my Baby Wolf and really enjoyed them. This, for some reason, I did not enjoy. Halfway through I changed from doubling the dark pick between blocks to doubling the light pick. I tried to show the changes in my photos.
I found a few mistakes and I'm fairly certain it's because I had to rethread the loom 3 times and ended up with a threading where some of the warp threads were crossed behind the heddle. This caused some of the slot threads to be held down and when weaving I miseed these warp threads. If you look closely you can see them. I plan to fix these mistakes with thread and sew them into place using either navy or off-white.
Log Cabin Runner/Scarf
Based on pattern in Schacht newsletter, Spring 2005, http://www.schachtspindle.com/Newsletter.... Finished length does not include twisted fringe.
Twins' baby blankets
The measurements given are for one blanket. There is a half inch hem on each end.
The heavier cream of the cotton novelty yarn "pastel-ized" the bright 10/2 yarns more than I expected, but I still like the blankets.
Recyled Sari Silk Runner
I made this runner as a gift for the woman who gave me the loom. The recycled sari silk was purchased on e-bay. My memory is that I used about 5 skeins for the weft, but that is purely a vague memory! Yes, I know I need to keep notes. :-)
It ended up with a great drape, and I'm looking forward to making another project with the other sari silk I now have in my stash.
Note that the sari silk is very uneven in the spinning...you can't really predict what you're going to get, but that was much of the fun of it. Also note that the colors are MUCH more vivid than my camera could convey.
Log cabin
The draft was provided by Su Butler because I was struggling to understand the color-and-weave effect formed when using a log cabin draft. This draft uses a one block, 7 thread pattern that repeats across the entire project.
