Ploshkin - Weaving Along

[Ploshkin]

Yes @Celia some people may be able to wear 2 rectangles lashed together but it's not my style.
Daryl Lancaster does proper dressmaking and tailoring with hand woven cloth but is so desperately tedious in her presentation I can't stick her for more than a couple of minutes.
My view is that I've been garment making for more than 50 years and have worked with plenty of tricky fabrics so I should be able to manage a hand woven cloth.  I have no fear of cutting it.

[b15erk]

@Ploshkin , they are lovely    Far too nice to use for drying dishes!

Jessie

[Cazlyn]

Wow @Ploshkin it sounds complicated but the end results are lovely.

[Ohsewsimple]

Very impressive @Ploshkin.

[Iminei]

   I just played Inkle in my WWF game for 50 points !!! YAY!! and I'd never have known that word if not for you lot ... thank you xxx

[Celia]

Well done

[Ploshkin]

I've finished tea towel #3.  I've used the same slubby cotton as the other two and it's a sort of houndstooth plaid (if such a thing exists).  I must have had a malfunction of the brain because it is 2" shorter than the first two.  I used the same piece of marked tape to measure the weaving but I must have added on the inch at each end for hems on the first two and incorporated it into the measured weaving length on this one.  It doesn't matter one bit - it's big enough.
The whole process is definitely becoming more intuitive which is the aim of the tea towel marathon.  I managed to get very little draw in this time and crossing the 2 colours at the edges just seemed to click though I think that was easier because everything was in even numbers.
@Celia you asked before about my thoughts on the loom stand.  If I had £1 for every time my weft got caught on one of the knobs I would be able to afford another loom    With 2 colours I also work with a stool at each side of the loom so I have somewhere to put the non working shuttle.  I have seen some stands (I don't know about Schacht) with a shelf each side which would be useful and would stop the catching on knob business.  I am also finding it a bit light weight.  The cotton yarn needs quite hard beating and the back of the loom tips forward even with my feet braced on the crossbar.
Here is tea towel #3

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[Celia]

@Ploshkin the tea towel looks great and I am glad to hear you it is getting more intuitive.  Thank you for your opinion on the stand it does help me considerably, at the moment I am holding fire on buying anything more for weaving as I still have a few problems with the physical positions and amount of time I can weave.

[Ploshkin]

Oh dear, when you get the 'not posted for 60 days' message you know you have been a bit idle though, in my defence, I think weaving is more of a winter thing (for me).
Anyway, back on the tea towel marathon amble - I got some cones of 8/2 cotton which comes in a multitude of colours.  It is very fine.  I am using it doubled in the warp and weft which is fine when weaving, just a bit of a faff winding the shuttles.  I had a few moments when putting on the warp when I thought I might have to abandon the last couple of feet as the threads looked as if they were going to get into an impossible tangle but I persevered and managed to get it wound on ok.
I'm doing this one in a log cabin pattern which is deceptively easy, just needs a bit of concentration getting the warp threads in the right order.

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[Ellabella]

@Ploshkin your weaving is lovely.

I would love to have a go but don’t dare start another hobby, lack of space etc.

Creating your own fabric must be so satisfying.

[SewRuthieSews]

Absolutely lovely, though I also won't be getting into weaving.
(I do have a bead weaving loom and a small kids handloom if I really want to)

[mudcat]

Love the purple tea towel (?). 

Some of you may remember I thought about taking up weaving I think back in 2021 and took a couple of classes.  I was thinking about buying a loom but in the end I never did which I'm kind of glad about now with having to deal with two long distance moves in a year.  Depending on how big the place is that we end up buying I may revisit it next year.

[Celia]

They look fabulous, I will be interested to hear if they shrink, the ones I made shrunk so much they are now nearly face cloths

[Ploshkin]

@Celia I have just got one of these from Etsy. It may be of interest to you.  It's a bit pricey for what it is I suppose but I have been looking for ages for some type of mini loom that I can use for sampling.  Previously, the only one I have seen that has multiple setts is only available in the USA and is very expensive.
I haven't done enough weaving to know how setts and colours are going to work out and I am loathe to put a warp on my loom just to find out - I don't have cupboards full of weaving yarn to be able to waste.  I know sampling isn't a waste but even on my 10" loom there is a lot of loom waste.
I have some yarn that I bought for knitting but I am hoping to use it for weaving.  I will be quite happy to weave a couple of small samples on this to see how it goes.

[Celia]

I totally agree @Ploshkin this is one of my problems as I have a lot of knitting wool and I really do want to use at least some of it, I am off to look at this Thankyou for telling me and do let me know how you get on.