Monday, September 12, 2011

Four Selvedge Backstrap


This is a project I started a couple of months ago. It's about 11 inch wide by 24 inch long. I need to get it finished so I can start the next one. I twined the edge of my warp and tied it to the beams so I could have a finished edge when I was done. The main yarn is white with pale red and blue color spots. I tried weaving some yellow/orange/white weft to make it more exciting, but it really wasn't a good combination, so I went back to usinge white/red/blue.

The piece of yardstick and two clamps is my temple to help keep the edges from pulling in. It is definitely helping. It is easy to set and to move.

Above I started from one end then turned it around and started again toward the middle. As I get closer to the middle there is less room so I start using narrow shed sticks made by cutting a paint stick lengthwise and sanding it. I am using a thin dowel as a shuttle stick. Soon it will be too narrow for those sticks.


When it gets too narrow, I pulled the sticks and I am using an afghan hook (a long crochet hook) to weave through and pull through. As you see there is some uneven weaving leaving a bigger gap on the right than on the left.


As I pull the yarn through I use a fork to beat the weft. After the last yarn is pulled through, I start shifting the weft down to spread out and fill the weft gap.


Here I am untying the beam so we can see the finished edge. You can see a little bit of the twining I used where I first started the edge. The edges are a little bit "loopy" but it should tighten up on the wet finishing (machine wash and dry).


Here is the piece off the loom. There is some loose threads to be woven in with a needlepoint needle. There is a lot of rough edges on the sides. There is some narrowing in the middle where I finished. I am not especially happy with it. The goal was to have 4 finished edges.And I did that.

Now to move onto the next one.

Have a good day!

PS: Here is a picture of the bottom side of the temple so you can see how it holds edges.





No comments: