Sticky warp

I have been putting the silk warp on my rigid heddle loom. It has been an extremely difficult task because the warp is the most sticky warp I have ever dealt with. The slightest movement and clump, the threads stick together, wrap around each other, tangle up. I have a 14 inch wide warp at 10 threads per inch and have nearly finished threading the heddle. That leaves tying onto the front beam and tensioning. Everything else is done. I am taking a short break before completing the heddles. Then it's off to bed and finish in the morning.

I had thought of using this silk for weft originally, but was not sure if there would be enough, hence using it as a warp. I have plenty of rayon chenille for the weft and hope the weaving will be relatively painless. At least the weft will stay in place as the silk grabs onto anything! So, tomorrow's post will be a report on how easy or otherwise, this warp is to weave. Maybe I will take a picture of the warped loom as my first picture on the blog.

Tasks are piling up now. I have 5 pairs of trousers hanging by the table waiting for me to take the waist in on each pair by an inch or so. Then some will need hemming as they are unhemmed. I haven't checked lengths yet, as I wanted to make sure the fit was good first. I also have a jacket with sleeves that need taking up a bit. All this is for my hubby, as he has lost some weight recently. Not that he had any weight on him to lose - he is very thin already.

I have knitted about half the first hat. I am not too keen on the ribbed edge with the pattern I am doing. The colours are blending together well. Another picture for the blog coming up, I think.

Quiet Day

Once in a while it is nice to have a quiet day, and today is one of those days. I have been sitting around, writing emails, chatting with my daughter on Skype, and knitting the hat for my hubby.

The knitting has taken a longer than it might have if I had not followed a simple pattern for two needles without thinking about how I needed to change every even row for circular knitting. After doing around an inch I realised the pattern was not what I expected. I made a swatch on two needles to see what it was supposed to look like, then worked out what I needed to do on the circular needle. Unknitting is one of those skills that I have developed over the years, so I quickly got back to a good restarting point. Now the pattern is as I like and I am just concerned with colour changes to get a nice look. As this is for my hubby I have to be a little careful with the colours or he will not wear the hat.

I have also calculated how many warp threads I need to wind for weaving the poncho I described in yesterday's post. I brought my warping board down to the main room, checked the sett or how many threads to the inch I need for the rigid heddle loom, and now can wind the warp. The rigid heddle is 10 threads to the inch, and I will weave a 13 inch cloth. Allowing for draw-in during the weaving, I will wind 140 warp threads, each 2 yards long. I can weave a cloth around 56 inches long on that warp. I hope to have enough silk left to warp a 3 inch scarf about 6 feet long.

So back to knitting now while I listen to some good music on the radio. From the Top has just finished. Those young players are fantastic, and most have a great sense of humour, too. They are truly inspiring and dedicated to music.