She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands. --Proverbs 31:13

5/16/2005

Not exactly picture perfect

I really enjoyed making this shawl. It looked so nice on the loom. But when I took it off the loom and washed it, it turned into a lumpy, wrinkled mess. I think that is probably in part to 1) I made a bunch of mistakes in the weaving, mainly not knowing that I needed to straighten out the strands in both directions as I wove. I snugged them up next to each other, but didn't straighten out the "warp" strands.
2) I think the variety of yarn types might have had something to do with the lumpy ness. I mixed several types of wool and some alpaca, and they probably "shrunk" at different rates when I washed the shawl.

However, I am going to look at this like you would look at your first garter stitch knit scarf. It might have some problems, but now I can figure out what I did wrong and do better. And it certainly looks nice enough to hang over the back of the office chair for cool mornings.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this shawl is absolutely beautiful. The colors and the pattern are wonderful. May I suggest that you take it to a reputable drycleaner and ask to have it steam pressed? That will most likely take care of the lumpies and the bumpies. I work at a drycleaning plant, and also had the lumpy/bumpy thing in a shawl made with a variety of fibers, and after pressing.....no more bumps!

You did a great job!

e's knitting and spinning blog said...

This does not look lumpy and bumpy to me ,just beautiful! i really enjoy your work!

Anonymous said...

I have really enjoyed watching the progress (and frequent posts!) on this shawl. It came out really beautiful. As always, the artist sees more faults than everyone else does. You should be so proud.

I'm not a weaver, but I would have thought, during the weaving process, that straightening (or tugging on?) the warp threads would possibly stretch them and cause bumpiness issues in the finished product.

No matter what, it's beautiful and I absolutely LOVE reading your blog. :)

Jill said...

Jan, your shawl is beautiful!

I never heard of a triangle loom. I'm going to have to try it. How long did it take to get all those nails in there?

You're so creative and industrious making all your own hooks and things.

I'd like to make a floor loom some time.

Also, your pictures are great. My daughter Amber did a science project on natural dyeing once. Walnut husks, osage orange, and tumeric are three that I remember using.

Anonymous said...

I'm a lurker on the tri-loom yahoo group and just bought a 7 ft adjustable Spriggs' loom. Your shawl is GORGEOUS-how did you work out the plaid? Do you recommend a book? I did a two color plaid and didn't like the heaviness of one color in one area-how do you balance it out? I am not a weaver, but I do knit. Thanks for any help!

Jan said...

Tenizmom,

Well, this shawl was made up of odds and ends of yarn. I just picked colors that went well together out of my stash. After I had cut and knotted together the strands of yarn at one end for the cut strands technique, I knotted them together in groups of tens. Once I knew how many I had of each color, I figured out how many times I could divide the largest group of color by. I had 72 knotted ends, so I could have 9 groups of 8 or 8 groups of 9. Then I divided each group by 9. That gave me the groups of dark green, light green and grey, place one line of black through each group. I lined them up in what I thought was a pleasing manner, and then I discovered I didn't have enough strands for the size of the loom. (Despite counting and figuring a number of times. I said early on in the shawl project that math is not really my strong suite) So then I went and got that skein of red cherry colored yarn. I was saving that for a scarf, but oh well. After winding it off on the warping board, and figuring how many strands I had, and how many nails I had to fill, I decided to put a band of 4 red strands and 1 of black between every one of the bands I had already created. I also had to create a little on the edges, so the bands there are different than the rest of the bands. So that is how I did it. I hope it helps you. I personally think it was just beginners luck. The next time I try to make a plaid, it will be horrendous, LOL.