Time to Weave: Sample First, Weave Second

Sampling is the bane of the fiberist's existence.  It takes time; it takes yarn.  Neither of which you want to "waste" when you really want to jump into the project.  But samples give you information--how the materials are going to work, if they're going to shrink (and how much) when washed, what is the best fiber/yarn/color combinations.  If you don't waste a little time making samples, you're going to waste a *lot* of time and yarn when the finished project ain't right.

Fortunately, in this case, I had already done two big samples--the shawls I wrote about previously.  That told me that my default yarn (24 epi, 2 ply) would weave up well at 6 ends per inch.  What I really needed to do was audition different fibers for the weft yarn, and see how they reacted for the fulling.

So here's my audition strip (all fibers chosen from my rather extensive stash)

Right to left that's black alpaca, brown CVM (California Variegated Mutant--who names these breeds?), light brown alpaca, and the brown Lincoln.

I nixed the two alpacas--I liked the matching color better.  I was pretty sure I didn't have enough of the Lincoln for the warp and weft.  Besides, when I had made the shawls, by the time the fabric had fulled enough  to hold together it had developed quite a fuzzy halo, and that's not what I wanted for this cape.  CVM has a stronger crimp (Lincoln is wavy) and would be more likely to draw up easily.

By now I had my 2000+ yards of the Lincoln spun.  I needed close to that amount of the CVM.  I prepped that on my drum carder -- while I prefer combed wool, carding makes a lighter, loftier yarn.  And I churned out another 2,000 yards.  The warp yarn I had washed to allow for any drawing up of the yarn.  The weft, on the other hand, I left unwashed.  I wanted any drawing up to happen in the cloth.

And let the weaving begin.  I wound off the first 9-yard panel (120 ends) and onto the loom it went.  It was making me nervous.  The spinning had gone well, and putting the warp on the loom went well (a rarity--I usually develop Tourette's while warping the loom) and the weaving went well and smoothly.

Fabric on loom--you can see how it looks like window screen

Then came the scary part--cutting it off the loom and washing it.  I sewed the two ends together (it seems to make the fabric full more evenly) and into the washing machine it went.  My two shawls had taken 15-20 minutes to full.  This?  Thank goodness I was paranoid and checked almost constantly, because samples lie.  From my samples I had expected about a 15% reduction in width from loom to finished fabric.  Meaning that my 18" wide fabric should go down to about 15 inches wide--my target width.  But in 4 minutes it was down to 13".  Yikes--pulled that out.  But after drying and ironing, the fabric was soft, not fuzzy, and surprisingly stable.  First length--success!

Second length . . . also a success!  This was the most drama-free weaving I have ever done.

Fabric before and after fulling; you can see how much denser it becomes