Random blanket/shawls/runners

When I started this project (in 2016!), I fully intended to weave a third panel and sew them together to make a blanket. I'm not sure what happened, but I ran out of steam (and maybe yarn). The first two panels hung in the closet, awaiting their fate. The cover of a recent Little Looms gave me the idea to reframe them as shawls. My daughter, however, thinks they would do better as table runners.

Pattern: Random-striped Blanket, from Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom, by Syne Mitchell
Weave structure: Plain weave
Loom: Ashford 24" rigid heddle
Warp: Yarn leftover from this vest
Weft: More yarn left over from the above mentioned vest, plus some similar yarn in natural or white
EPI/PPI: 7.5/7.5 (theoretically)
Ends: 166
Finished size: 45" x 18" each (not including fringe)


Finishing these two panels involved twisting a LOT of fringe.

I have no idea where my notes are for this project. For the vest, I developed a spreadsheet, which provided some input for these two panels. But otherwise, the details are lost to history. (If I ever come across those notes, maybe I'll update this post.)

This project was one of my first. There are a few floats, but otherwise it turned out surprising good. The yarn fulled nicely, too. I may still stitch the panels together, as they would make a lovely, if narrow, lap robe.

Sari yarn runner

It's too bad I did not take a photo of this sari yarn runner or at least measure it before putting it through the washer (on gentle) and dryer. It used to be as wide as the coffee table it rests on, and hung over both ends. In the midst of this project, I did work up a little swatch and washed it, to see what the sari yarn would do. I didn't pay attention to the cotton warp which is used as both warp and weft; the swatch went from about 5"x5" to 4"x4".

Cotton warp shrunk a bit

Pattern: Derived from the Rewoven Fabric Bag, from the book Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom, by Syne Mitchell
Weave structure: Plain weave
Loom: Ashford 24" rigid heddle
Warp: Maysville 8/4 cotton warp in black
Weft: Maysville 8/4 cotton warp in black, Darn Good Yarn sari yarn in 'Multi Color'
EPI/PPI: 7.5/7.5
Ends: 144
Finished size: 42"x16"

In situ

The pattern is for a bag, which matched my original intention. Then it became a runner for the coffee table in front of the TV couch. The cotton warp used as weft alternates with the fabric and locks the it into place for a very sturdy result.

Weaving with sari yarn is, well, challenging. The so-called yarn consists of strips of sari cloth that are sewn together to create a skein of fabric. There are a lot of loose threads that I trimmed as I went along. A temple helped keep the selvages in line.

In real life

This is one of those projects that came off the loom a while back, but sat and sat, waiting to be hemmed. Consequenlty, I lost the project notes, so I'm a bit hazy about the above details. But rest assured, the runner exists and it is finished.

The old swatcheroo

My spinning guild issued a challenge: spin for a project, then execute the project. Lucky for me, I already had a project like that sorta started: weave a runner for in front of the sofa. With the deadline looming, I am (finally) putting the pedal to the treadle.

But first. I decided I should make a swatch, to see if my assumptions were correct. Spoiler: some were, some were NOT.

One assumption was that I would weave 3 ppi (picks - or rows - per inch). That turned out to be false. The actual ppi is 5, which means I need to spin more yarn. Also, there was virtually no shrinkage of the swatch, so I don't have to worry (much) about that.

The roving I spun is not dyed. My assumption that the natural colors would play well together? Correct. The dark brown and light brown are both Shetland, which I chose because of its reputation to be pill-resistant. The white "art yarn" is my poor attempt to spin woolen, using Dorset Polypay. The yarn is 3-ply, because I was trying to imitate some commercial 3-ply rug yarn. The Shetland came out super bulky, at 5 wpi (wraps per inch), the Dorset Polypay is bulky, at 7 epi. This variation will give the runner some visual texture (she said optimistically).

Yesterday I put on my big girl panties and warped the loom with 'Khaki' cotton/poly carpet warp. I really hate warping because I can't seem to get even tension across the loom, but this time it worked relatively well. The epi (ends per inch) is 5. (Pay no attention to the bright super bulky yarn - I use that to spread the warp.)

Although I wove only 10 rows of the carpet warp on the swatch, it seemed like enough to assume its quarter-inch length would translate to 40 ppi. On my rigid heddle loom, though, it was more like 35, even with beating. Today I finished up the edging at one end, securing it both fore and aft with a row of cross over stitches. This edging will be folded under (I think).

I did some cypherin' to figure out how much of each yarn to use where. The runner is supposed to be 18" wide and 72" long. As of right now, I plan to do the following:

• 2" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 2" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 2" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 36" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 2" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 2" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 2" dark brown

I'm not exactly following the implied rules of spinning for the project, as I started spinning with a general idea of how I would use the yarn. I'm making the yardage determine the pattern instead of the other way around. But spinning bulky yarn is new for me, I have a lot of Shetland to use up, and the white was serendipitous. Good enough for me.