Schafenfreude

(click through here for the full-size pix on Picasa)

All the samples have been woven, zig-zagged, cut (where necessary) and finished. Time to take a look at the results. Here’s what I’ve got:

The two on the left are my unfinished samples, sett at 24 and 30. Both are woven off with the 11/2 (natural) cotton and have both plain weave and bronson sections. Other than a basic reference, I’m pretty done with them.

These next two samples are the plain weave pieces that were sett at 30 and woven off with the 11/2, post-finishing. Of the two, I like the look of the mixed warp. I also like the hand of it. It has better drape and doesn’t feel as stiff. However, neither of them have the feel that I want for my light-weight shirt so I’m glad that I spent more time at 24epi.

First off, the plain weave. Definitely closer to a balanced weave than the 30epi samples, but still a bit on the stiff side. I’m sure some of that is the cotton, some is the size of the yarn. It’s also boring.

Here are the two mixed-warp samples, both woven off with the 11/2 cotton. The drape of this is better and I like the complexity of the fabric. Amazingly, I really, REALLY like the bronson on here. If you go back to the top-most picture, you can see the effect of the Bronson on the fabric. It distorts the vertical stripes just a tiny bit – almost yielding a honeycomb effect. And, I like the horizontal floats much more than the vertical for the same reason. They’re small enough that you can’t really see them but definitely enhance the fabric. Really wonderful.

These next two were woven off with the 10/1 silk noil. Can you see the texture on the plain weave? The hand of these two is TOTALLY DIFFERENT. It’s soft and drapey and the irregularity of the noil is really wonderful. Take the awesomeness of the mixed-warp above and go one notch further. I just love it. Unless someone talks me into something different, the mixed-warp with noil is the fabric I expect to take to production. We just have to argue about Bronson or not.

The last bit of homework was to weave off whatever was left with something “unexpected”. I was casting around for something and glommed on to the remnants of the cone of 14/2 Alpaca/Silk from WEBS. This is really, really good fabric, too. The alpaca/silk has enough texture to give some life to the fabric but doesn’t overwhelm. The drape is still really good, but now it’s a bit heavier. I think it might work well for a light jacket rather than a shirt – and with the variety of cotton colors I have, I think I may well toss something together as a complement to the shirt. I didn’t bother taking a close-in picture of the plain warp, but suffice to say that the alpaca really enhanced the look of the Bronson. You can see it second from the top in the overall piece, right-hand sample.

Boy did I learn a lot from this. The biggest thing I learned is that I don’t know squat about fabric and that I need to weave a lot more before I do. It’s like discovering a new author that’s written 50+ novels. I think I’m set for a while.

Whaddya think?

As promised yesterday, here are some pictures of the first set of samples. None of these have been washed so bear that in mind.

First up is an overall shot of the fabric. As you can see, the warp is split in half vertically with one side being all 11/2 natural cotton and the other half the mixed-warp of 11/2 cotton in natural, light brown and green, 20/2 cotton in bone and ecru and 10/1 silk noil. Sett is 30epi with each thread being treated the same; no consideration for the difference in diameter between the 11/2 and the 20/2.

There’s not much to show in the plain weave all cotton warp that isn’t evident in a later picture, but I’m quite intrigued by how the mixed-warp is weaving up. As I said earlier, I threaded this one without regard to order; whatever was closest got put through a heddle and that has resulted in an irregular set of stripes. I wondered about what would happen if two 20/2 threads were next to each other and whether or not I wanted to avoid that – but I was talked out of trying to do anything special to either avoid it or encourage it.

It’s really quite pleasing, no? The other thing to keep in mind is that the darker brown won’t stay that color. Rather, it’ll become a medium to deep green over time with washing. I can encourage that by finishing the fabric in a baking soda boil. I think I’ll see how it looks post normal machine washing before I decide whether or not to do that.

Again, close-in of the Bronson. From here, you can see the reed marks. They’ve relaxed just a bit, but there’s a lot of pebbling in the fabric and that leads me to re-sleying at 24epi. I’m half way through that task and plan to finish that today so I can complete weaving the sample. Since it’s for a top, it needn’t be as sturdy and a more balanced weave will be interesting.

And here’s a close-in of the Bronson on the mixed warp. The same pebbling occurs since the majority of the warp is the 11/2 or 10/1 but the vertical striping camouflages the spots when viewed at a distance. Regardless, I really, REALLY like the overall color scheme.

I’m planning to put hands on some additional 11/2 (heck, I should call it 10/2 and be done) cotton that will keep these neutral browns. I think they’re just beautiful. I also like the bits of shine that ther 20/2 gives as it’s mercerized.