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~ Jean Williams, Handweaver

jeanweaves

Monthly Archives: January 2014

Busting the Stash

17 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by jeanweaves in Uncategorized, Weaving Inspiration, Yarn Stash

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Weaving, Yarn Stash

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about looking at my yarn stash and planning projects accordingly. So I have two batches of yarn that have been on the shelf for years–honestly! One is a heavy cotton/acrylic blend. I have several shades that remind me of orange and strawberry sherbet. My original plan was to weave sturdy block design placemats with it and I did weave some, but obviously not enough to use up the yarn. Time to revisit that plan!

The other yarn is a crinkly, thick and thin cotton novelty yarn in several shades of blue, nutmeg and natural. I inherited this yarn from another weaver several years ago. The balls were wound with two or three strands together; not my usual put-up, but with some patience, I’ve rewound it as singles. Because of the fiber and texture, I’m envisioning terry-like towels. We’ll see what comes off the loom.

My goal is twofold: first, I want to stretch myself to use what I have on hand. Accumulating more and more without using what’s there is inefficient and wasteful. Second, I need to make room for the finer perle cotton yarns I use most often, many cones of which are stacked in precarious places. It’s all part of the New Year clean-out.

After I finish with the heavy cotton/acrylic and the novelty cotton, there are several small balls of perle cotton that a friend had used for Finnweave and gave to me when she could no longer weave. What’s Finnweave, you ask? That’s for another blog!

Two Trains left the station traveling in opposite directions….

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by jeanweaves in Planning, Uncategorized

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Arithmatic, Weaving

Word problems. We all had to do them in elementary school. Some people I know can arrive at an answer before I even mentally map out what is going on. Just give me straight numbers and what you want done with them; that’s all I ask. Good old arithmetic!

I’ve been doing some arithmetic this week. I planning to weave a small table cloth. Let’s see, 48″ square sounds good. In order for the cloth to lay flat, I’ll need fine yarn. The yarns I have on hand need to be threaded 48 threads for each inch.

48″ x 48 threads per inch = 2304 threads

But how long do each of those threads need be? Okay, here’s a variable: If I’m going to all the trouble of threading 2304 threads, why make only one table cloth? (I have a pin from the Lunatic Fringe shop that says “Weave Long and Prosper”–sound familiar?) So in this case, I’m going to weave four table cloths. There are all sorts of conditions that come into play in planning a warp length but to cut to the chase, I’ll need 7.5 yards for each thread.

2304 threads x 7.5 yards each = 17,280 yards of warp

That’s a lot of warp! My next question is: do I have enough yarn on hand to do this? Each size of yarn has a standard weight per pound. The yarn I’m using comes to 8400 yards per pound. How many pounds will I need?

17,280 / 8400 = 2.057 pounds

But this is just for the warp, the threads that travel lengthwise from the front to the back of the loom. What about the weft, the yarn that crosses the warp? That, too, is variable and depends on how hard I beat it in and how much the woven cloth draws in, but a good guess would be to estimate the same amount of yarn for the weft as for the warp. So now how much yarn will I need?

2.057 x 2 = 4.114 pounds of yarn.

Good old arithmetic!

 

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