Fabric Design & Planning

In July 2013, I attended NEWS (New England Weavers' Seminar) and took a class with Marjie Thompson, who is known for her work with historic textiles. She gave me some tips on patterns and fibers. We talked about linsey-woolsey (linen warp, wool weft), all linen, and all wool.  Linsey-woolsey and linen fabrics are typically sett relatively close.  So, since the heddles for this project are knit at 20 epi (10 epi on 2 harnesses), I've decided to do an all wool fabric.

My weaving friend Dorothy had a huge stash of a natural color wool singles - 2800 yds/lb and 35wpi - and she generously donated two huge cones of it.  I made a sample on my Harrisville, and tried out some different accent colors for horizontal stripes, all of different weights.  I didn't have a 10d reed, so I used a 12d reed sleyed 2-2-1, resulting in some pretty serious reed marks, which became less obvious after washing. The accent wool colors were various weights, and I beat them differently. Some of the accent colors fulled differently than others during washing.

Sample after washing

Sample before washing

In the photos:

• Green - 5300 yds/lb, 20 ppi
• Natural - 2800 yds/lb, 14 ppi
• Red - 2100 yds/lb, 13 ppi
• Charcoal 3200 yds/lb,18 ppi

I also tried the green doubled at 14 ppi and at 12 ppi, and the natural beat at 11 ppi. (Not shown in the photo.)

My conclusion is that Dorothy's singles yarn would work well at the given sett. The fabric weight is perfect for a blanket, and it could be displayed on one of the beds in the Garrison House. With a weaving width of 26" and taking shrinkage into account, it would need 3 panels. To allow 2 yds/panel plus loom waste and lots of extra, I decided to warp 10 yds. There was plenty of yarn, thankfully...