As a little girl, I was fascinated with the puckered texture of seersucker. Remember pastel summer seersucker outfits? Thanks to Winnie Poulsen and her Linen-Cotton Crinkly Tablecloth (Väv Magasinet, Nr. 3, 2021), I now have a puckered fabric that reminds me of those seersucker days of summer.
This is a challenging project. Double width, two warps, fine sett, nylon fishing line for selvedgeends at the fold, and “sticky warp” the whole way. After repeated frustrations, I resign myself to the thought of repairing hundreds of skipped threads after this comes off the loom. I have doubts that I will even be able to unfold the cloth all the way.
Fold line before washing and drying.
Whew! Was I wrong! I had far fewer skipped-thread repairs than I expected (only about 15). And the finished tablecloth is a gleeful ending to a what-did-I-get-myself-into adventure.
After being washed, the cloth is rolled up on a 1 1/2″ PVC pipe and hung to dry.Fold line after washing and drying is barely noticeable.Summer puckered tablecloth lends cheer to the room.
Puckers are whimsical surprises from ordinary threads.
I hope you enjoy this video review of the process:
My friends, thank you for walking with me on this weaving journey! July is the month for Warped for Good’s annual pause. I’ll meet with you right back here the first Tuesday in August.
May you find a gleeful ending where you least expect it.
I am constantly improving my methods of operating the drawloom. I pull and release draw handles and draw cords, check for errors, and throw the shuttle for each unit of threads (six times per unit with the current setup). Everything is in order. And, while I’m actively absorbed with this mental and physical choreography, I experience freedom from every other care.
Hem of towel is bleached 16/1 linen weft, and then green 16/2 linen weft. The pattern area of the towel is woven with royal blue 16/1 linen weft.Solid row of pattern across the warp requires that all pattern shaft draw handles are pulled. It always seems thrilling to me to see all the handles down at once!Lower border of the towel is the easy part. Pattern shafts are used for making a repeated pattern, and no single unit cords are involved.Pattern shaft draw handles are now relegated to the side borders. The center body of the towel uses single unit draw cords to create non-repeated pattern. The single units give me freedom to design a (planned) random snowfall expression.Snowflake Towel 01 is wrapping around the cloth beam. Snowflake Towel 02 is going over the knee beam. Snowflake Towel 03 is being woven. Snowflake Towel 04 will be the final towel on this warp. (But, who knows what I’ll be able to weave after that to the very end of the warp?)
These snowflake patterns are delightful to weave. There is enough consistency with the border pattern shafts to make it simple. And there is enough (planned) random snowflakes using single units and pattern shafts to keep it engaging. All I have to do is follow the graphed chart. As I weave, the snowflakes emerge, as if by magic. But it’s not really magic, is it?
Standard procedure is to always have a temple in place. I have rubber bands on the first and last draw handles for the side border pattern, and on the center handle for the border pattern (not pulled in this photo).Everything works together! …for the good of the fabric being woven.Sometimes one single unit is enough to make the next row of pattern.I keep the chart at eye level and constantly refer to it. Closely following the chart is the only way I can hope to weave something worthwhile on the combination drawloom.
If you believe in Jesus you must walk with him. And as you do, you come to know the truth. Truth is found by walking in it. The pattern on the chart is true, and gives direction. The delight comes as we see the real-time results emerge in our own hearts. That’s freedom in its purest form.
I am not fiddling with the weft fabric strips. Instead of making the right side of the fabric always show on top, I am letting the fabric strips fall as they may. The resulting variance in the weft gives the rug a vintage-like appearance. Also, I am using print fabric for some of the the light color of the double binding that purposely obscures the contrast of dark and light in some places. This is to give the rug a softer, more playful appearance.
Some of the red fabric for the rug’s hem has a wrong side that is much lighter than its right side. I am letting some of that lighter fabric show on top. Besides giving the rug a vintage-like appearance, this variance also makes the rug more reversible. The front and back side of the rug will be similar to each other, instead of one dark side and one light side.Glimåkra Ideal, with the beginning of a burst-of-color short rug to be used as a bath mat.
Home is where we make our true expression. The textiles from our hands speak without saying a word.
Rag rugs are up next on the Glimåkra Standard. I’m filled with anticipation. Oh, to have the momentum of this hanging beater at my fingertips again. I’m drawn to the simple power of the hanging beater, which is perfect for rug weaving. I already have a place for these rugs in my home once they are woven. So, let’s get going!
First of three bouts. Brick and Bittersweet are wound together, and Unbleached and Umber (a dark green that is almost black) are wound together.I secure the end by pulling a loop up under the wound threads, so I can count the ends of the last group in this bout.Finished winding the third bout. Before cutting off and tying the final pair of ends, I did a visual check of the counted ends at the cross.
The draft is “Den Vackraste” from Älskade Trasmattor, by Hallgren and Hallén, p.87, to which I added some width. I plan to start with a short sample rug to test wefts and check for size. I am winding the 12/6 cotton warp in three bouts. These long, heavy warp chains tell me I’m now on an unstoppable trek that will result in rugs on the floor!
As each bout is wound, I place it in order through the beater, with the tied cross on the other side of the beater.Anticipation!
Until I wind the warp, the rag rugs I’d like to see are merely good intentions. Warp chains placed in order through the beater, though, are a picture of expectation. I have put enough warps on the loom to know with confidence that the rag rugs I anticipate will, indeed, become reality. Faith has that kind of expectation. Faith activates your prayer. The simple power of faith is in believing that the Lord Jesus hears your prayer and that he is able to do what is right for you.
Some things are easier done than said. I said to myself that it’s too much trouble to tie retaining cords on the shafts. I am weaving almost full width on the Glimåkra Julia. I know that heddlescan slip off the ends of shafts. Still, I tell myself I can keep an eye on it. It won’t be a problem, right? Wrong.
Juila’s wide warp. So far, so good. I’ll pay attention and everything will be just fine. Famous last words.Oops. I took this picture after I had fixed most of the mess created by dangling heddles. When heddles slip off shafts they must be put back on thread by thread to maintain correct warp order. These were tangled enough that it took me a few tries to get it right.
Tie Retaining Cords on Shafts
Purpose: Keep Texsolv heddles secure on their shaft bars, especially when weaving a wide warp.
Supplies
Tape measure
12/6 cotton seine twine
Scissors
12/6 cotton seine twine (rug warp) to the rescue!
1 Measure shaft bar from hole to hole. (Julia shaft bar is 70 cm) 2 Figure additional length (about 40 cm) for tying two knots. (70 + 40 = 110 cm) 3 Cut seine twine to measured length for each upper and lower shaft bar. (Heddles can slip off lower shaft bars, too.)
4 Insert one of the seine twine cords through the hole on one end of a shaft bar. Tie. (I use the half-bow slip knot as described in Learning to Warp Your Loom, by Joanne Hall, p.38.)
Tie retaining cord to one end of the shaft bar. Any knot will do, but I like this half-bow slip knot because I can untie it simply by pulling the end of the cord.
5 Insert the other end of the cord through the hole at other end of the shaft bar. Tie.
Thread the cord through the hole at the end of the bar.Tie a simple knot and tighten it.Tie another simple knot, leaving a fold in the end of the cord.Pull the loop to tighten the knot.
6 Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each remaining upper and lower shaft bar.
All tied up and ready to go! When this project is finished I will wind up these retaining cords on an empty tube and re-use them for the next wide warp on the Julia.
Continue weaving with one less thing to think about.
45 minutes: Time it took to reposition heddles that had slipped off a few shafts and were in a mess because I didn’t notice it immediately. Less than 10 minutes:Time it took to cut string and tie retaining cords on 4 upper shaft bars and 4 lower shaft bars.
‘Nuff said.
May you take the time to do what needs to be done.
