Fine cotton

For a change of pace I moved away from the wool for a while and picked up the finer weaving cottons again. For serious weaving it's actually not that fine - a 8/2 cotton - but it was a big change from the chunky 8 ply wool. On my four shaft loom I'd been weaving the 8/2 at 24 ends per inch, which was quite loose, so on the rigid heddle I used doubled threads in the 15 epi reed, making it 30 ends per inch. It ended up quite a solid cloth but I'm pleased with it.

It's two ends of navy/navy and then two of colour/colour, and the same on the warp. I used different colours in the colour/colour ends in sequence, so each warp end has two colours - I think it makes it look a bit more interesting. The overall pattern is a simple houndstooth again. The top photo is nearest to the colours; the one below is a bit too blue. I am still trying to find a good way to photograph these damn scarves! They are too long to be interesting.

The finer threads were much much harder to warp (with lots of cursing and tangles from me) - I used the direct warping but it might be a situation where indirect warping from the warping board would have been easier. Generally it's not, but I might try it on a later weave and see how it goes. Not that I am in any rush to do something with these fine threads again. Not for a while.

From the fine to the coarse - here is the hemp I ordered from Ice Yarns. I thought it might be quite interesting to use but it's super coarse and immobile. Not overly thick, but very rough with no bend. This is the disadvantage of shopping on line.... but I have been thinking about placemats or even small rugs, and this would be perfect! And such a pretty a colour.