debor048

...you're about to jump in! I think this is one of the prettiest warps I've ever done! And this was one of the prettiest hikes I've ever done!

It's 100% done, but riddled with mistakes.  I realized only when I was done threading the constant mistake I kept making.  However, I'm all the way through now and it's only a sample mainly to test color, so I'm really not worrying about them yet.  If I want to make it into a towel, I can either start completely over or fix them and then tie onto the warp.  Chances are I will pretty much always choose staring over from scratch. David's eyes look just like the eyes on his toy!  haha

I know there are some threading errors on the first 2 rows (on the far left), but it is nothing major.  I think there is an extra row of 1's and not enough 8 blocks in the first one, and then something like that again in the second one.  It took me a few to get into a threading pattern.  But since it's just a sample, I didn't go back and fix it to make it absolutely perfect!  I'm just really testing the colors and sett at this point. Just chillin'...  Oh yeah, and now that David is eating solids, talk about energy!  He kicks his legs so much more, and moves all the time!  He doesn't nap much now either.  He is growing up so much everyday!

It occurred to me while measuring out this warp that this isn't even all the combinations of lights and darks I could make at one time!  I could probably make yet another warp that is also this big if I went in the opposite direction of combining them!  Yikes!  That is a lot of combinations!  This will at least give me an idea of what I have to work with.  I'll worry about all the other missing combinations some other day!  :)  I also got to thinking that a warp that slowly fades from green to blue would be spectacular!  You could do it the same way as this one by replacing one thread every combination.  It's amazing how it changes as you go across.  My favorite section so far is the middle right half with all those blues and greens.  I'm excited to see what this will look like!  Hopefully it's not a complete flop, but a great learning opportunity instead. David loves his blankets and quilts!

I decided to do a gamp.  Here is the rotation and all the possibilities out of the 8 colors I chose: Dark blue, med blue, teal and light blue exchange dark blue for a new dark color, green exchange med blue for new light color, yellow drop teal for a new dark color, plum drop light blue for a new light color, orange Drop the green, add back dark blue drop the yellow, add back med blue drop the plum, add back teal All the color together: The weft rotation will go in the same order with these same colors:  dark blue, med blue, light blue, teal, green, yellow, orange, and plum There will be 8 different warp combinations mixed with 8 different weft possibilities, so there will be 64 different squares to study.  This is a much faster way to do this than little samples one at a time on my loom!  I just have to do it so it all fits.  Sett will be 40 epi, which will be 4 ends in each dent on a 10 dent reed. I hope this works... In other news, David had a successful feed...

I finally tightened up the warp sett from 30 to 45 epi.  I am using a 15 dent reed, so I switched from 2 threads per dent to 3.  I think if I were to back it down to 40, or 4 threads per dent on a 10 dent reed, I think it might look pretty darn good!  This is the best one by far... and I really like these colors together.  I have hope now... David loves his new knit cap!!  I saw this yarn and had to make him a little hat for the cooler weather! It fits his personality perfectly!

I should just weave a gamp instead of individual samples!  It probably wouldn't be a bad idea... and then I can try several combinations of colors at one time. I have come to a conclusion... I don't like the light wefts as much as the dark wefts.  You can actually see the design much better on this sample in the picture than in real life.  In real life, it doesn't make any sense to my brain.  So I didn't finish this one.... And here is a dark weft sample: I didn't put enough yarn on the shuttle to actually finish it 100%, but I do like it more than others.  I notice though that it looks a little squatty, so I wonder if I made the sett just a tad tighter if it would change it overall to look better than ever.  I'm still not 100% fond of this weave... mine just don't look like the cool ones in the book and I am running out of ideas.  I might or might not abandon ship after this one... but I might do a gamp. Still not sure where I'm headed or how hard I w...