Not Counting Weaving

I have said before that I have no counting gene. And yet I weave. I think there is a shared impression that weavers are all orderly counting people, who know what "double two-tie unit weave" means. This is far from the truth.

Case in point:



This fabric (a shawl actually) is woven of some very beautiful yarn from Treenway Silks. The yarn is 55% silk, and 45% yak. Yes, yak: how cool is that? Thoughts of Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia.

I bought some of it from Karen and Terry at a show, then bought some more from Lynn this past May in Ontario. When I bought the yarn, I had no idea what I would make of it, I was pondering knitting lace. I just liked it, and the silk/camel, also the silk/angora yarns that were the same grist. It is 7000+/- yards per pound, laceweight to you knitters out there:



Planning my fair entries, I decided to use this yarn to weave some fabric. But what kind of fabric: for clothing?, a shawl?, um, what? Thinking Tibet, I decided it would be a large shawl, something to wrap in on a cold trek over the mountains (not planning any cold treks soon, but one must be prepared).

I warp with a paddle. To you non-weavers, a paddle is a device (a stick with holes) that helps one run more than one thread at a time. Because it is easier to use even numbers in a paddle, I decided to run a warp with four of the five skeins of silk/yak yarn. I will have one skein leftover, which may come in handy.

I had to determine how long and wide the shawl would be. I wanted at least a two yard shawl, therefore I would put three yards on the loom (there is loom waste, and there is fringe. I likes me some fringe). I ran the four skeins into balls of yarn, laced them through the paddle and onto the warping board and made a "bunch" of warps. No determination of fabric width yet: that will happen after I count the threads in the warps. No counting yet.

As I run the warps I am thinking about colors. Tibet being the inspiration, I decide on muted reds, golds, browns and oranges. I think the weft (to be determined) will be red, so I want to warps at the edges that match/coordinate with that, then extend that color into the body of the shawl:



I want some of the yarn to be undyed, because I really like the silver-beige color. Then I always like a few painted warps, so I decide on a large one for one side of the fabric, a small one to tie it together on the other side, and some stripes to carry the colors of the painted warp across the fabric:



So here I go, winding warps, not counting threads yet: that still will come later. Is the math onerous so far?

After I wind the warps, they are divided into piles of big and less big (as in this one is thicker = more threads, this one is thinner = less threads). Still not counting.

I dye and paint warps. Now I count. 1522 ends. I have more threads than I have heddles (little flat steel things that each have to be threaded with a warp on the loom). If I had a few more heddles (like 22 more) I could just barely fit this warp on my narrow (32") loom. At the intended sett, the warp would be 31.7" wide. I don't like pushing the width, so I decide to eliminate on warp chain: out goes the gold:



I warp the loom. This involves counting heddles on each harness frame. The counting gene would come in handy here, but being gene-less, I count and then add a few to each frame to make sure. Another reason not to try to use every heddle I own: I don't trust my counting.

I thread the reed, thread the heddles, and wind on the warp. I tie on the front and reach for the weft. Decision time again.

Now, the fabric will be warp-dominant. That means the warp mostly covers the weft, and I will need less weft than warp. How to calculate the weft I will need? Hmm. Buy lots. Since I am dyeing the weft to match the warp stripes: dye lots.

I had 5 skeins of silk/camel, the same grist, which I decided to use as weft. Since I used 4 skeins as warp, and I need less for weft, how many skeins should I dye? I hate running out of weft, so I dye five skeins. I know. But I like red, and I can use any red left over. Maybe even for knitting lace (trying to keep you knitters from glazing over here).

I dyed the 5 skeins red. Not the right color red, so I dyed them again. Oops, one more time: thrice dyed they are the right color red:



Then I weave. Weaving takes 6 hours. Twisting the fringe took three days. I twist by hand. There are several devices which would help with the twisting, but none of them do as nice a job as my fingers. I like to twist fringe, and I am not selling scarves or needing lots of items twisted. I go all zen and twist. For days:



Then I wash and full the fabric, and iron it dry. I have produced one of the most beautiful fabrics I have ever made:



And there was very little of the counting or math:



Some consequences of the lack of counting are humorous: the weaving uses one skein of weft. I have four skeins left! Plus that extra gold warp. Plus a last skein of silk yak: methinks there is more fabric in my future :):