In our last meeting at Merrie's house, we decided that those who were in a position to, could do a little double weave collapse experimenting. It's a pretty big section in the Fields book and is in several other books, too.
Well you don't have to ask me twice to do doubleweave of any sort! My favorite structure!
And holy cow, the sample I just finished today is so freakin' awesome.
I started with warping a half-inch of a thin mill-end cotton-linen blend alternating with a very thin elastic/cotton that I got from Giovanna. Both are a nice neutral color, but I could dye it too because Giovanna told me the elastic takes a dye nicely (this was as she sold me a sale yarn, and I was saying, eeww, tan? But it was cheap haha)
Threading the heddles wasn't bad, I'm feeling more comfy each time I use this funky stretchy stuff. I just got really good light on it all, and used my handy clips. Denting was no problem either, 4 per dent. I used 8 shafts because I wanted to do a block weave, and I did wind up doing that, with great results, but I realize now that the end product I had in my head could only have worked if I'd alternated threads, 1 elastic, 1 mill end, instead of 1/2-inch each. I may try that next time.
Weft-wise, my first tiny sample used the same mill-end as the warp, and I realized it was going to have my usual double-weave problem, way too thick & heavy for any drape after the shrinkage. So I switched to a super lace-weight linen which I actually bought for bobbin lace:100/2. Sure glad I did.
So here are pictures of it after it came off the loom, and after wet-finishing in hot sudsy water/hot rinse (in reverse order becuase uploading pictures is not my forte!). Wait til you see this sucker in real life. I'm thrilled with it. However, I did a 3-yard warp and the end product is just 52 inches long (and my loom has only 20" loom waste) so there was a ton of vertical shrinkage! To be expected I suppose, but once again it's a pretty danged short scarf! Or a long sample I guess!
Oh, and I forgot to take a picture of it on the loom, it looked gauzy is all I can say now.
