tiny little samples

They go into the washing machine a respectable 8″ wide and up to 12″ long, and then they come out all small and wibbly – which is exactly the effect that I am looking for, thank goodness! I have qualms about using the washing machine as a wet finishing device, since (a) it seems such a cavalier way to treat one’s precious handwovens and (b) I have a front loading machine (standard for the UK) which offers little opportunity for control and intervention. However, I learned last year that this is how James Donald finishes his amazing scarves and wraps, so I reckon it has good precedent. And I do want quite a bit of shrinkage/felting in my little woolly stripes…

I used three different yarns in my warp and I have tried each one out in the weft as well, mainly as solid blocks of one weft type. In each of the three samples which follow I have woven some kind of twill in the cotton and silk-wool warp stripes while the wool warp stripe is unwoven: there are four picks floating over it and then four picks floating under it.

Yarn #1 — the wool — is a 20/2 worsted yarn. This gives me a warpwise shrinkage of about 30% but not much shrinkage in the width, which I rather like. The photos are ‘before’ and ‘after’:

Another wash and some fabric conditioner would make a really lovely scarf out of this.

Yarn #2 — the silk/wool — is Jaggerspun Zephyr, a wonderful luxury yarn which I am excited to be trying out for the first time. It really shrinks! It makes a lovely soft felted cloth, about 50% shorter than the woven length and it shrinks the width much more than the wool does (about 30%).

Gorgeous to touch, but maybe not what I am looking for at the moment.

Yarn #3 is a 16/2 mercerised cotton, which in this sample is used doubled in both warp and weft. It gives a great result, as it allows both the wool and the silk/wool warp stripes to shrink right up — again by about 50% — and the all cotton sections become really bubbly. I need to try out some different setts and threadings, though, as I am not happy that I have found the right combination yet.

To try out those alternative threadings, I am thinking of a warp in just cotton and silk/wool and of reserving the wool for use in the weft.