Sorry! I keep thinking of new questions! :)

I decided to go with rug warp for my rep weave coasters. I am going to use strips of fabric for the weft. Really excited to get started, just waiting for the yarn to arrive. :)

Here are a couple of questions I came up with as I'm waiting, any thoughts/help would be appreciated:

1. A helpful poster suggested Madelyn van der Hoogt called "Block Weaves: Designing and weaving with blocks". Unfortunately, it's not at my library. Does anyone have any ideas for other rep weave resources?

2. I have no idea how to figure out how many ends per inch to set for my warp. Since rep weave is so close together, my guess is that it's really tight, but how tight? Any guidelines?

3. My understanding is that when doing rep weave one uses their regular fatter weft alternating it with a thin weft. How thin? If my warp is 8/2 and the pieces of fabric are rolled to about the thickness of a pencil, can I use 8/2 for the skinny weft? Should it be thinner? Is the thin weft supposed to match the color of the fat weft? Or should it be the color of the warp?

4. Do I need to cut my strips of fabric for the weft on the bias?

Thank you all! :)

Comments

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 16:58

Joanne Hall

There is no reply as yet, so I will just sugget some extra warp length to sample at the beginning.  And, a narrow warp is easier to weave than a wide one.  It should work just fine.  If it is hard to make a shed, just re-sley less closely.  It is easier to get a shed on a counterbalance or countermarch loom than a jack, so if you have a jack loom, don't make the sett too close.

Joanne

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 17:02

kerstinfroberg

(1. as I'm Swedish most good refs I have are in Swedish...)

2. "it depends" :-) Trad  Swe rep rugs have a warp of 16/2 cotton set at 36 ends per cm - that gives "total coverage". Then there are other possibilities, such as "half rep". A couple of pictures, unfortunately not the best quality:

For this, I used cottolin and cotton 8/2 doubled for warp, with a total of 14 ends/cm (or, if you will, 7 doubled/cm). The idea was to make the rag weft show a bit. For the thin weft I used the same as for warp, also doubled. (FWIW, the rags were cut on straight grain)

This is not made by me, so I don't have all the details. However, it shows what happens if you use a dense warp alternated with an open. To change blocks when weaving, just omit one thin weft.

Hope this helps some -

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 20:32

sally orgren

Back issues of Handwoven, specifically Sept/Oct 2005. Various articles will give you an overall idea of warp sizes, setts, and ratio to wefts.

Joanne Tallarovic, Rep Weave and Beyond (DO also check the Interweave website, as this book as a lot of corrections posted)

Rosalie Nielson, based in Portland, OR. She teaches a great workshop that includes understanding and designing with blocks in rep weave.

Back issues of Vav magazines, but they are harder to come by here in America.

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 20:33

sally orgren

There is someone here at Weavo who goes by the Avatar of Repweaver. You might send her a PM (private message) and ask?

Tue, 04/02/2013 - 09:41

caloosa (not verified)

A few years ago I wove a rep rug - in my projects.

Warp was 16/2 and it was sett at 60 ends to the inch.  It was woven on a big old Macomber which provided a good shed - still good to use a sword - a stick a bit wider than the warp with a tapered side to really open the shed.

Also instead of threading 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 - you may want to thread 1, 5, 2, 6, 3, 7, 4, 8.  This will spread the warp more to make getting a shed easier.  Tabby treadling is 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, 6, 7, 8.

Good luck - looking forward to seeing your rug.

 

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 12:41

marmaladefiend

Thanks! I really appreciate all the help!!! I'm excited to get started.