The Two Warps

Phishing email was, I hope, just phishing and not a real ransomware thing; at least the blog is still here. 

 

Though there was much indecision on the way, I finished making two warps for the upcoming Wagamama Summer & Winter (or more accurately, a tied weave, since I decided to use five shafts to tie down,) project on Thursday. 

This is the one I like slightly better. (The width of each stripe is not accurate as I push warp ends as they build up around the pegs. Is that even the correct English here??) There are more orange strips on the left, and more purples on the right, although another option is to flip the left half, so on the left selvedge I have pink, then move on to oranges, then four purples in the middle, ending with the lucky pale blue and orange on the right selvedge. Or something else.

This is the one I like slightly less, but I'm not worried because the way I weave these, it become hard to see the warp colors on their own, so I can disguise elements I like less. And by that logic, the one I like slightly better may not appear all that special after all. The colors look duller in this pic, but I used all the same yarns, so these are as shiny and saturated as the top colors. This one, I'm pretty certain I'll go with this arrangement, but who knows; on the day, I might flip the right half and bring the lucky pale blue to the center, ending with the purple selvedge on the right.

The biggest difference with these two and the successful 2010 warp is I did not sprinkle random colors of one and two ends all over. I looked at the above photo on the laptop and on the phone so many times I began seeing things I did not when I started making these two warps. The kind of special treat I incorporated in the 2010 made a big difference in the finished piece, I'm sure, so I am considering maybe adding or substituting random warps with interesting colors to bring back the feel of 2010 piece. That kind of frivolity is so fun when the mood is right.

They are both made of 20/2 mercerized cotton, 42EPI, 22 inches wide on the loom. I hope to get three pieces each, although you know me and sampling. :-D 

 

This is Wagamama, (in this context, "random"), and at this stage I plan to use five shafts to tie, so the threading will be something like1-P-2-P-3-P-4-P-5-P-4-P-3-P-2-P-1-P, where P will be random between Shafts 6 and 16. 

The lifting/treadling won't be as random, as these pieces will be woven on the computer dobby, meaning I have to prepare files beforehand. Instead, I'm making multiple files with not too many picks in each, say between 20 and 50, and will be choosing them randomly as I weave. The base structure may look something like this:

Much is undecided, because usually everything to do with Wagamama happens right in front of me, on the moment, with no real planning and no drafts. I find it so strange to write about it before I've "done" it, or to make a draft, even just a skeleton.

 

I may have mentioned, I have a 10m cottolin towel warp already on the loom, but no draft yet, and I have to get that woven before I can move on to these colorful scarves.

Onward!