I am loathe to warp the loom for just one little project, for example, the overshot sampler. Usually when I warp the loom, I do 25-30 yards and experiment around with every permutation I can think of. Does anyone else do this? This may be a recipe for NEVER getting the CoE samples done, though. 

Comments

Fri, 02/20/2015 - 19:12

ingamarie

 

I do the opposite. I tend toward 3-5 yards and then something new. I’d rather have variety in my warps and kind of like warping

Fri, 02/20/2015 - 19:47

Weavolutionary6

Yes, ok well not quite. I haven't put on more than 20 yards yet. But I do prefer to put on a longer warp and sample lots of permutations! Melane V. pointed out to me the value of this the first time I worked with her. I am very grateful to her for setting me down that path. I don't always do it, but I do love the excercise and what I learn each time I do it!

FYI, I got some great cottons in today. I'll share them with the group. I'm very excited to use these in my samples!

Fri, 02/20/2015 - 20:00

Kate in Scotland

I'm looking forward to seeing the cotton. I bought the rainbow set from Lunatic Fringe for the colour blanket. Are any of you in the UK? I'm happy to share these with the next person and will ship them to you if you're in the UK. You can use what you need and ship them back. (But shipping further afield would be prohibitively costly.)

Tomorrow I'm going to India to study textiles and maybe buy some silk yarn. Off to pack.

Fri, 02/20/2015 - 23:39

ingamarie

I do lots of permutations too, experimenting quite a bit before settling into what I will put in the COE folder, and also usually a 'sample sample' before the final sample.. but they're less than a foot long, so a 3 or 4 yard warp goes a long way.  I don't remember off hand how many overshot versions I did, but there were lots, also lots of different pattern wefts. I've also usually worked out a few options in PixeLoom before. The whole point of this is to learn and experiment after all. 

You can probably use one warp for lots of samples, the sett samples I'm working on now could be done on the overshot warp, for instance.. I'm not sure if that degree of uniformity in your samples matters to the judges or if they like to see that you used a range of materials.  I know Robyn Spady mentioned in her article about her 'COE Journey' that she had some creative reuse of warps.

About the color blanket - is this for the US COE? I'm told not to use a kit for that one, since part of the point is for you to figure out the colors yourself. Truth be told I used a combination of UKI and Lunatic Fringe... some colors I could only get from LF.  You may want to check with Judie about that, I did the color blanket fairly early on in my samples and I've since discovered there are a lot of myths floating around. Cathie did hers in wool since the shininess of the cotton affects how the color looks...

back to the loom....

 

Sat, 02/21/2015 - 09:05

Erica J

I am in the UK as well. I will keep your generous offer in mind, if I find a  need for my ertificate of Achievement samples.

Sat, 02/21/2015 - 09:16

Kate in Scotland

Hi Erica,

Let me know if you're coming to Fife. I often have silk- and wool-dyeing days at my place, and there are some excellent weavers within 20 miles. 

Sat, 02/21/2015 - 09:22

Kate in Scotland

Hi Ingamarie,

Thank you for your meaty message. I wish I had known before spending the £220 that we weren't supposed to use LF yarns for the colour blanket. This prohibition isn't mentioned in the handbook. If they wanted us to hunt-and-gather our colours, they could have spelled this out! I guess that's what this group is for: additional nuanced information and collected wisdom. 

Happy weaving. Kate

Sat, 02/21/2015 - 12:54

Erica J

Kate, I think the first question is did you buy their entire color range, or did you buy their colour gamp kit?