setting a difference

The wool samples are off the loom. I am definitely a wet-finishing woman: it's not finished until it's washed. Even things that will be treated as dry-clean only get washed when they come off the loom. Here you can see what a difference a few ends per inch can make. And what a difference a rainy day makes for photo colors--weird! The colors below are much more accurate. All the pieces above are from the same warp. Left to right, 15 epi, 12 epi, 10 epi. Unwashed, the 15 feels like a scratchy board; the 12 feels itchy but hopeful; the 10 feels like a window screen.

Washed, each one starts to charm. The 15 is still rather stiff and dense; I'd use the twill fabric for a heavy jacket or a blanket. I might try a 3/1 twill too, rather than 2/2, or an 8-shaft crepe at this sett. The 12 is a nice all around wool tweedy twill. It could be used for a skirt or jacket, but I wouldn't try welts or lapels. The 10 is soft and cushy and delicious. I wouldn't sew anything out of it, at least nothing that needed much cutting, because it's too loose. But as a shawl or a scarf, it would be wonderful. It was the last piece I tried, and I had some warp left over, so I did some experimentation. This is a nice exercise, to try to come up with different treadlings directly at the loom, rather than playing with drawdowns. I did some standard crepes and twills, but my favorite is this one:

The colors interact well, and the stripes form a nice change in texture as well as color. This fabric would be wonderful as a shawl (if only I had a wider loom!)

There is color-and-weave in all the twill sections of each sample, but you can hardly see it, the values are so close. I don't think I'd spend the effort to weave yards of the color effect in these shades; the pattern is lost. From a distance the twill lines are more prominent than the colors. The yarns, btw, are from WEBS.