debor048

Monsieur David and I had the best brainstorm session today while working. Picture this.... 2/2 twill hounds tooth as a doubleweave blanket in worsted weight yarn.... mmmm... yes!!!  And I can do it on my 8-shaft loom!  Plus, being 2/2 twill, it will hold together so nicely!!  

After washing the blanket, you can still see the center fold quite well, however, I still think overall it's a neat blanket and I definitely still love doubleweave!  I think the centerfold is very apparent still because the yarn is so chunky and it was pretty much one-ply wool so maybe I didn't pull it quite tight enough.  When I look real close, it looks a little loose in the weft at those parts.  But still... neat blanket, love the pattern and the wool yarn, and I also love the colors!  Doubleweave is so awesome!  I love that I can make a blanket twice the width of my loom but I don't have to store a loom twice the width!  Someday I hope to get a big one, but definitely not right now. And the closing shot...

Now on to the washing machine! And as a closing shot... here's a little "Napoleon Dynamite" pose for you to enjoy!

I wasn't quite sure how this blanket would look woven up because of the verigated yarn, but I'm happy to say that I love it! I think my M-I-L will love these colors!   And she'll love these fun stripes! And of course, I can't close without a baby shot! He's such a happy little guy!

It's better to have a late gift than no gift at all... right?!  I'm liking the way this doubleweave throw is turning out.  I like the 2/2 twill throughout the whole thing.  I think it will display this beautiful yarn in a nice way.  I remember now why I used this yarn as a weft instead of warp, and it's because it has a little bit of mohair in it.  It is washable, just on gentle.  The yarn also has some wool and acrylic in it.  I'm hoping it will make a nice warm blanket, but not too scratchy with the wool.  I have unwound the yarn from the skein in such a way that the color pattern will continue until I change skeins.  Hopefully it won't be too obvious!  I have no idea what to expect... and sometimes it's better that way! Here's your daily dose of the little guy... he looks like such an old man in this picture!

I kind of missed mother's day for Brian's mom.  I have just been so busy with the baby and time just got away from me!  I really wanted to make her a doubleweave blanket, and I have the warp all measured out, I just never found time to thread it and weave it! This is what the entire blanket will look like: The yarn I'm going to use has a lot of color in it, so I have decided that a plain 2/2 twill throughout the entire thing would be best.  I bought this yarn a few years ago at Hobby Lobby and I have been saving it for a very special weave like this one.  It's super soft and I love the colors!   The colors are a little outside my usual blues and greens, but real close!  I'm almost half way through threading!!  It's threading really fast because the yarn is so thick.  This was done in about an hours time during one of David's naps. Feels good to be back!  Now I just need to get this little guy napping again so I can thread some more!

The blanket was 44" square before washing, and 43" square after washing. Here is the worst part of the center fold, before washing: Same area, after washing:  Washing definitely brought out the best in this blanket and relaxed some areas like the center fold.  I think this little section is so small that it will be overlooked.  Best of all, is is even softer than it was before, which I didn't even think was possible!

I almost ran out of yarn on this one... wow, I really cut it close! On the last stripe, I ran out of blue, so I had to substitute in a few shots of teal.  I don't think anyone will even notice, and I think it looks cool that way, anyway!  It's a good story! The warp was plenty long!  I advanced it a little bit more before cutting it completely off to make the fringe a little longer.  I actually cut the fringe off 8 strands at a time, and then tie it right then.  Otherwise, the weft just pops out of place so quickly!  One thing I liked about having a slightly longer than needed warp on the doubleweave was the threads not sticking together in the end and causing seriously bad floats.  I had one float I had to deal with, and it was so easy to fix because it was near a short piece of yarn anyway. Lots of work to do when it comes off... it took awhile! But good thing I had Scout to help keep me company! I love the way it turned out!!! It looks great with ...

This blanket is almost done!  I love how quick these blankets go.  I can usually whip out a doubleweave worsted weight polyester blanket in 24 hours time, but I'm going a little slower than usual lately!   Here is a list of the order of colors.  I tried not to repeat too many colors in a row, but I was also rapidly running out of a few colors, so I had to use them wisely in some of the smaller sections.  I wish now that I would have not used the skeins to make some last minute Christmas scarves, or replaced what I had used, but I think I am at least going to make it to the end of this project without having to buy more yarn!  Total skeins used: 6.  Total cost: $12.

 This is for my little boy!   I love this weave so far! I love the deviation from my usual same sized squares!  I did find that the folded edge still had some weirdness going on with it, but after really thinking it through, I did figure it out.  I have to go back and weave the yarn back in for about 3" of the blanket, but I don't think it will be all that bad!  I'll just count over 4 warp threads and follow that thread down to match the pattern.  It does work now!   I had to thread the end as 1 turquoise 2 blue 3 turquoise 4 blue 5 turquoise 6 blue 1 blue 8 blue I love the colors so much!  I am only using 6, and I did use some yarns before hand to make a scarf for someone, so some of the colors are getting sparse.  I'm not sure yet if I'm going to replace them or just keep going, even though the balance will be off just a little tiny bit.  The original price for this yarn should have been $24, but with my coupons for Hobby Lob...

... and ready for threading! Threading is not my favorite activity, but it should go fast now that I figured out a new way to do it!  Also, 418 with worsted weight polyester is not as bad as the blanket made from 12/2 cotton!  I don't even remember how many heddles was on that one...  I think it was well over 1,000!

I don't usually draw out all of my plans completely before I get started, but this time I wanted a whole visual to make sure I really was seeing everything I needed to.  I also wanted to make sure that I had all my numbers correct.  For my warp, I wanted numbers that were divisible by 8 because I am going to be threading it 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 and then on the next round, it will be starting half way (at the 4th heddle) and working its way opposite, so 4-3-2-1-8-7-6-5.  I just thought it would be so much easier to make it all divisible by 8!  My baby wolf loom can handle 204 threads across, so 416 for a doubleweave blanket.  Fortunately, all of this can be divided by 8.  Here are my plans:   Last baby blanket I made for my niece was a 2 yard warp, and it was just a little too small. A 2.5 yard warp makes for a good sized adult throw, which is too big. So I am going to make this one peg larger than a 2.25 yard warp and hope that it’s perfect!!...

I haven't liked what the middle fold section is doing in this sample piece I wove.  It looks like the fold area has a double thread going on, like this: If I add a thread to the 4th heddle, I now get this: This is closer, but still not spot on.  I want this: But I can get it two ways.  I can get it by adding one to either side.  I'm not sure which is better, or if I can add one to each color, or do I need to add two threads to just one color???  This is the other way I can get the same design, but it will make the other side two threads bigger. So can I add one thread color to each side and get the same thing?? I think the answer is no: The pattern color needs to change at the point of the design change: Now the question is, where do I add it to the doubleweave pattern?  So far, I have added one to heddle 4, and it is working, but not quite there.  If I continue down in the same order, that means I have to add one to heddle 3 of the same color and have...