Family Tartan

With a busy Sunday of weaving I managed to finish off the tartan sampler that began so long ago.  It only took two days of weaving to make up the 15 inch sample once everything was prepared.

The skeins wound onto balls prior to warping

 The warping took a lot of knotting - changing the colours at each of the many stripes.  Each colour having a minimum of 2 threads so the knots were all at the one end.

The warp tied on to remaining warp.

To cut down the amount of the hand spun/dyed yarn that would be wasted the warp was tied on to the remaining warp after the ikat project, plus enough to make up the number of ends.  The 200+ weavers knots meant that by the end I was fairly quick at tyeing them! 

Tartan on the loom

 The weaving was fairly quick and once I worked out the right beat to maintain the 45 degree twill line, it was relatively easy.  With the weft threads having a minimum two for each colour all the shuttles stayed on one side and I was able to hook them into the selvedge on the way up the right side.

The traditional wine at the finish of the weaving

Tartan off the loom and sewn at either end

Simulating the cushion that it will become.

The next job will be to full the cloth and then to sew it into a cushion to put on the couch.  In the mean time it is back to work on the large loom and the Navajo throw/rug.

Progress on the zig-zag throw/rug.