During the weave alongs, I like to bring those of you not in the Facebook world up to speed with anything going on in the weave along chat that might be of interest. To be honest, it’s been a pretty quiet weave along! Many pretty photos, much discussion of things learned, but no problems with solutions that I need to share.
A Fantastic Finish!
We have, however, had our first Fantastic Rigid Heddle Finish! CPH got her project done and dusted in a very timely fashion and it looks wonderful! I love seeing projects “staged” in actual places they will be used.
It’s not too late…
When I was a small child, I was enrolled in singing lessons.1 The only song I remember learning during this time was “I’m Late, I’m Late,” from Disney’s animated Alice in Wonderland, sung by the White Rabbit. “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date! No time to say ‘Hello! Goodbye!’ I’m late, I’m late…” It’s truly stuck in my head. There was, eventually, a rabbit costume involved as well. Sorry, no photos.
But, my point is YOU are NOT too late to join in on the Honeycomb Weave Along! If you’ve been on the fence, or just didn’t have a loom free at the beginning of the month, you can easily join in! The rigid heddle pattern can be found here; the pattern with the added 1 hour video is here. There is a kit available from Cotton Clouds here.
Proper sampling for increasing the measurements of a project
More than one person has asked about making the table runner wider than the finished size of 12.” Expanding a honeycomb draft has a couple of moving parts. Obviously, one needs to know the width of each “cell” motif of the honeycomb. which can vary by honeycomb pattern. You also need to evaluate the pattern for anything that differs from just working Honeycomb. The WAL pattern mirrors from the center, so any cells one might add need to be added to both sides, for balance.
But, perhaps more important is realizing that Honeycomb has a tendency to shrink by a surprising amount when worked in cotton.2 For our project, the shrinkage was close to 19% in the width, which is considerably higher than the standard 10-12% width shrinkage one expects with a plain weave cotton project. This is where sampling comes in - and taking notes and measurements when sampling.
When I do my measuring on my samples, the process brings to mind the bewitched tape measure used by Mr. Olivander from Harry Potter when it “measures” Harry for his wand. It measures all sorts of things - Harry’s height, the length of his arm, the point from his elbow to his longest finger tip, and just keeps going. By the time Mr. Olivander stops the tape measure, it’s measuring the distance between Harry’s nostrils!
But really, when making a sample, it’s worthwhile to measure and make a note of any metric you can in order to make the best possible evaluation. At a minimum, you should measure the width of the project at the heddle, the width of the fabric as it is woven on the loom and under tension, the width of the fabric off the loom before washing, and the width after washing. You should note the warp length overall, the length of your woven fabric while under tension on the loom, the length off the loom before and after washing. Also, make notes of the picks-per-inch (PPI) with the project under tension.
All of these things can help you make a reasonably good decision about how much warp and how many cells you need to add to your project to achieve the width and length you want for a project. I often sample for just this reason - and for sett, especially if I am using a new-to-me yarn or using a yarn in some fashion I haven’t tried before.3
If you haven’t already downloaded it before now, I have a free project record sheet that will prompt you for all of these details, and more. You can download it here.
Pressing Handwovens
I am still playing with Honeycomb and trying new things with the structure. My most recent Honeycomb fabric got machine washed *and* dried. The drying process resulted in a pretty messy looking fabric, so I made a video about pressing your handwoven fabric.
Hopefully you will find this helpful for any handwoven structure you need to put an iron to.
A brief plea…
I’m still finding my way around all of the facets of Mingo’s Corner. This month, the Etsy shop lost its “Star Seller” badge and I had no idea why. Turns out, I didn’t have enough reviews from my buyers!4 So if you get those requests from Etsy to “leave a review,” do know that to micro-shops like mine, they make a HUGE difference! And if something isn’t working for you, please, let me know and we will get it sorted.
That’s about it for this week! Don’t forget, if you are playing along with weaving Honeycomb (any honeycomb pattern) at home, you can submit a photo of your project - WIP or finished project - to Chris@ActonCreative.net to be added to the Gallery Video for the WAL. Those need to be sent to her by April 30th. I’ll be sharing the video here for everyone to see as well.
Until the next newsletter, happy weaving!
This sounds FAR more pretentious than it was. The teacher was a local lady - I was too young to know her name or credentials. My mother was worried that if I kept “singing” with my dance class for our dance numbers it would ruin my voice. I have no idea where she got such a notion, but maybe it made a difference.
I have only worked Honeycomb in cotton yarns. I don’t know how well other fibers might shrink, or by how much, in forming the structure.
For instance, I’ve used a LOT of 5/2 Softspun Cotton lately, for the WAL project and a Little Looms submission. But I haven’t yet used it for a twill, and I’m not entirely certain about the sett. Tomorrow, I’m warping it for a Bird’s Eye twill to check the the sett, and eliminate surprises. I can already sense the bewitched tape measure itching to get started in the background…
Anyone else think it’s crazy that buyers *not* responding to the “leave a review” prompt should impact a seller’s status? I am showing my age, I know. Again. Sigh.