Well, a blanket. I’m not that keen on weaving double-width on the loom. I’ve done it a couple of times and the last time didn’t turn out well at all. There were skipped threads on the underside, a really uneven beat which didn’t even out when the blanket was washed, and let’s not even talk about the fold!
Several years and a new loom later, and I was ready to try again. I needed a blanket for my weaving studio, and wanted to get over my fear of double width. First, I did a lot of research into the fold – and decided to sley the reed more openly near the fold, and to use nylon fishing line as a support at the turn.
Wonky Weaver had started to sell Harrisville yarns in the UK, so I chose to use Harrisville Shetland to see what it was like. The design was based on a popular draft for tea-towels on Ravelry, the Letterzed towels which use four-shaft blocks of false damask. My towels are here.
I used two blocks of false damask, but spread them over 16 shafts to make the weaving easier, as sometimes the wool warp can be a bit sticky.
The warp was 906 ends in total, with 10epi per layer (20 epi). Once off the loom the fold was obvious, but it was easy to manipulate the threads and even it out before washing.
I twisted the fringes and washed to blanket a couple of times in warm soapy water, then dried in the tumble dryer. I think it came out really well. I might even be tempted to try double width again sometime!
Wow! Your blanket is gorgeous! I was surprised that you washed with warm water and placed in the dryer – wouldn’t that cause it to shrink quite a bit?
Hello-yes it did shrink quite a bit, but you have to factor that in when weaving with wool- the cloth has to be finished quite aggressively to remove spinning oils and develop the soft fluffy finish you’re looking for in a blanket. Drying in the tumble dryer is a lot more controllable than using the washing machine, I find.