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Thursday, February 7, 2013

Winding a multi-coloured warp


I have just finished winding an 18 yard warp for a series of twill scarves. The colour scheme is based upon the front cover of "The Handweaver's Pattern Directory" which I first tried to analyse about three years ago. It isn't an exact match as I am using my existing stocks of Bendigo 2ply. Once I have used this I can't repeat it because Bendigo Woolen Mills have severely reduced their colour range in 2 ply, which is a great pity.



I used my AVL warping wheel, sometimes it is a pity to take the warp of the wheel -  the stripes of colour look so good!



Because there were frequent colour changes I put together a spreadsheet which gave me a precise guide as  to when to change colour and when a section ends. The raw data came from the .wif file of the draft to which I applied some formulae and conditional formatting.



5 comments:

  1. love all the details and seeing your weaving notes.
    cate

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  2. Thank you for your kind comments. Ideas for projects seem to outstrip my weaving capacity so I have forced myself to make detailed notes so that I don't forget my brilliant ideas when I return to them!

    I once spent an enjoyable weekend working out a series of drafts for double weave overshot but I couldn't understand my logic when I returned to them several months later.

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  3. Hi, I'm a new weaver and just found your blog! I have been using Bendigo Woollen Mills 3 ply, and have been having tension issues due to the 'stretchiness' of it. Do you have this issue, or is your 2 ply spun differently?

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  4. I have never had any problems with the 2 ply either on a warping board or on a warping wheel. I presume that the three ply is the same product but with an extra ply. How do the tension issues manifest themselves?

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    Replies
    1. A few strands of the warp tightens as the weaving progresses - when I asked my guru, she said it was because the Bendigo wool is very elastic and stretchy, and I should be using a worsted wool ;)

      I think I'll keep practising with it though - it's probably mainly due to my inexperience (I've only been weaving for just over 2 months!).

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Comments are most welcome