Monday, March 8, 2010

Fourth Time’s a Charm

At last, at last, there is something to say about weaving around here!  In my last entry on yarn, I showed how I struggled getting the wedge weave of the Noro yarn level.  It was growing thicker, which indicates there is too much yarn in there.  From suggestions – I chalked it up to how the Noro yarn packs.  Typically in a wedge weave, I advance one warp with each pass.  With the difference in the packing, I started to take an “on-off” approach.  So I took out the weaving and tried skipping every other warp with the next pass – the top sank which indicates there’s not enough yarn.  Ugh - Unweave that as well.  Now let’s try two rows together, then one single.  Still droops…  Take that out again.  Finally, I went with two together, skip a warp and two together again.  That seems to be working VERY closely to level without much interaction from me.  So now I can show you a complete wedge!!!!

image

Besides the Noro Yarn, one of the new things about this piece is to make it reversible.  Unweaving and reweaving has given me a great deal of practice since I am working in the ends as I go.

Here’s where I came to the end of one bobbin of yarn:image I did secure the end with a half hitch around the warp and brought the end to the front of the weaving.                                   image I then split the yarn into it’s number of plies and distributed them around the warps.                                                                            imageThe chocolate yarn breaks down into 4 plies, so I distributed two in either direction.  The far left and the far right ends were woven to hide them within the weave.                                                   image From there I threaded each ply through a needle and fed it through the middle of the weaving next to a warp.  In this picture I’ve already finished the first and am about to pull through the second.image The ends are carefully trimmed and i even pull a bit on the half hitch to hide the very tip of the yarn into the fabric. Then same is performed with the start of the next piece of yarn.

Hopefully now there will be a bit more news relating to yarn from this neck of the woods!

5 comments:

kaiteM said...

That's a lot of trouble to go to. I think i've just broken the thread and stripped it down to half it's thickness, both ends, new and old, then overlain them for several warps. Good to see you've got the wedge sorted now. Kt.

Theresa said...

Looks fantastic! Glad you found a sequence that is working with the Noro! It certainly makes for an eye catching wedge.

K Spoering said...

Finally! A beautiful use for Noro! I love the way the yarn looks, but hate it for knitting, as it is so scratchy. A perfect tapestry yarn though, and this wedge weave will be beautiful with it.

Jennifer said...

Kathy - I first saw Connie Lippert use Noro in some of her smaller pieces. I thought - what a great way to let the yarn do the work when it looks like it was something far more difficult. For me it's a good way to keep a piece running no matter what - and may even make good presents.

Life Looms Large said...

That is a great use of Noro. Probably much better than my monstrous Noro slippers!

Those pictures of the tapestry make me want to get a tapestry going. (But I start way too many projects.....progress and finishing might be a higher priority!)

Sue