02/09/2010

Grist-and-weave?

I have always wondered if/how colour-and-weave designs would work with thick-and-thin yarns.

Now I had a good opportunity to test it. I had some cotton 8/2, and some 16/2 that was just a shade darker, so I threaded up a hound's tooth pattern:


This is what I got:


Ho hum.
How fortunate I did not have a thin yarn in the same colour...

So - obviously the difference in size was not enough, thought I.

For the next sample I used 4 ends of a white mercerized cotton for the thick and one end unmerc for the thin, threaded to log cabin.


Okay, this time the pattern shows, but the quality is, er, sturdy. And not interesting enough to merit a re-sleying.
Re-threaded to hound's tooth:


Even more ho-hum (or should that be "less"?)...

For good measure, as there was a bit left of the lilac warp, I re-threaded that to log cabin.
Wove, from the top down,
- log cabin in thick and thin
- plain weave with only thin weft
- 2/2 twill with only thin weft.


Now I have one not-very-interesting (but soft) scarf, and one idea less to bother with.
I think it is called "experience"?

(But we did get a "draft-of-the-month"  for September, at the guild site, so it served a purpose) 

No comments: