On Instagram recently I was invited to list seven books which have been inspiring for my weaving. Check out the hashtag #myweavinglifein7books
A Handweaver's Pattern Book by Marguerite P Davison was the first weaving book that I bought. I was learning to weave at a local authority weaving class and was hooked from the first time I sat in front of a loom..
Like all new weavers I tried many techniques. One technique, overshot, I have tried only twice. There is a pattern called Norse Kitchen on page 186 in the book. I wove this table runner on a four shaft table loom and only made one mistake! I was so proud of it. It is woven in cottolin.
Here is a close up of the pattern.
Discover Color Weave-Along!
I signed up for the Discover Color Weave-Along! last week. I am weaving mug mats in overshot on 8 shafts. Five thousand weavers have also joined the workshop which is free. This is a 3-week weave-along delivered via an online course with plenty of information. https://www.warpandweave.com/classes/discover-color/
I am using cottolin instead of 8/2 cotton sett at 18 epi. Here is my first attempt on the loom. I am using a double cottolin thread for the pattern weft. I have a useful shuttle which takes two bobbins.
The first mat was woven using a doubled red cottolin yarn for the pattern thread. I do not think that I beat hard enough. For the second mat I used a 3/2 cotton for the pattern weft. I beat as hard as I could.
I have cut off the two mats and have machine hemmed them.
The workshop indicates that the mug mats should be about 8" by 8" but perhaps the cottolin is making the dimensions different. The first red mat is 6.5 inches in width and 8.25 inches in length. Examining it closely I can see that the plain weave tabby has not been beaten in hard enough. The sett is 18 epi.
For the second mat I used a 2/3 white cotton yarn and beat as firmly as I could. The dimensions are 6.5 inches in width and 7 inches in length.
I need to wash them to check on the final size before I weave any more. Perhaps a sett of 20 epi might be more useful. They do seem rather large for a normal sized mug.
Here are the mats after washing. The small mat is the old one that I use. As you can see the new ones are very large. They are both 5.5 inches in width. The red one is 7.5 inches and the blue and white one is now 6.25 inches in length. Although they have shrunk they are still very large.
The white cotton weft has produced a lovely firm pattern so I will use this again.
For the next samples I will hem them on the loom. This is time consuming but does make a neat edge.
Susan J Foulkes November 2020
