More on Tapestries and a Couple Words About the Rug

Last week, I got all the Christmas packages into the mail and so now I can concentrate on tapestry again and figure out something for the Grand Ideas exhibit in conjunction with Convergence in Grand Rapids, Michigan this summer. Friday and today, I worked on 2 cartoons from these photos that I took in Utah in October (I could never get the second one to load but this is the one I will work on first). When I went back and looked them all over since I posted about them earlier, these 2 were more interesting to me than the others. I am planning to warp the loom for 2 tapestries and because of the many vertical lines in the cartoon, they will be better woven from the side rather than from the bottom up. So the warp will be about 8.5" and the completed tapestry will be around 11". The rules for the exhibit say that the finished work can't be more than 100 square inches.

I am very excited about the cartoon that I made from the first drawing and that is the one that I'll do first. I like the second one, too, but I have reservations because it has too many colors per row for such a small tapestry at the sett that I like to use so I'm afraid that it will widen and widen as the weaving proceeds. I like to use a wool warp sett at 8 epi and all the handspun yarn that I have works with this sett. I don't think I have enough time with moving in a month or so to start spinning all the yarn from scratch to match a closer sett. So I will probably keep this cartoon for another warp and just double the size so it will work better. That would be about 16" x 22", which is about as big as I ever weave a tapestry. So I am going to have to come up with an idea for the second one as I work on the first weaving.

Now that I know where I want to start, I can warp the loom tomorrow. I usually use Davidson's wool warp but I found some warp that I handspun so if it looks like there is enough, I will probably use that. I have found that my handspun warp works really well on my Mirrix loom. At first I was afraid to try it because the loom seems to have such a tight tension and I like using it that way but the handspun can hold up to that without a problem. I also checked to see what colors I might not have spun already and need to spin up and all I need is a medium dark green but all the rest I have a good amount of. That was lucky! I have bins of dyed fiber so that I can just go into them and see what I have to blend up the right color on my drumcarder. The yarn is a singles so it doesn't take long to spin it either.

Now a little about the rug... I don't have a photo yet but I asked Gabe to take one for me sometime soon. The best explanation of a six-end two-tie unit weave is in Boundweave by Clotilde Barrett but there is also a decent description in The Techniques of Rug Weaving by Peter Collingwood. It is related to twills and to overshot but it makes a thick and sturdy weft-faced rug without the usual high tension and hard beating that rugs often require. I don't think I would try any other kind on my jack loom and I love the design potential the weave has.

Merry Christmas to all!