Tying one on

I spent my New Year's Eve, tying on a new warp and making lame weaving jokes about it.
Same pattern, different yarns and colours.   The natural white is a labelled cotton, so the sett and shrinkage should be appropriate, and the blue is a partial tube of 2/8 perle cotton, all shiny and nice.   I picked it up someplace along the way and since I don't need a lot of the second colour, it is the perfect place to use up ends and bits.

I liked doing the huck pattern from last time, so am redoing it, especially since it was pretty obvious that while those towels were nice, they will be much nicer using appropriate fibres.   It is faster to just tie on the new warp for a project like this than to re-thread the whole loom.   The loom waste of the old warp, will provide most of the loom waste for the new project, so I will have either an extra towel or space to sample with different colours etc.  

Sampling can be a good thing.  If' I'd bothered to do it with the first project, I would have know about the lack of shrinkage in the natural colour and either changed the sett to accommodate it or cut it off and redone the project.  Sampling at the beginning will tell you all sorts of important details like if you have a mistake in your threading etc.  If you cut it off and wet finish it, it will tell you if the sett, take up, and shrinkage are right.  More importantly it will tell you if the end results are what you anticipated.   However, once I have sampled enough towels in 2/8 cotton, or a specific wool, or if I am repeating a project or doing a similar project, I usually have enough knowledge to not bother with anything but a cursory pattern check.

However,   I often sample at the end of a project, after I've woven off whatever was on the agenda that day.  It is there that I am trying new colours, treadling patterns or fibres, using up the very last of the loom waste that I can.  Usually I learn something.  Usually it is never boring. Usually it makes me more happy with the projects I just completed.

Back to winding on the warp.... 

 May the New Year be plentiful, with much love and laughter, for everyone.