Call It A Day

I have already put the warp on my Dorset for the crackle-weave workshop next month.  I've never had a problem- free warp on this loom so I started early in the event I need to call for help, i.e., Laura.  It was another gray day but because the loom is so small and light, I set it up in Ian's stamp room underneath the skylight.  Before I knew it all 8" of warp was threaded.

It's ready to go and so am I!

This is a blend of eight fibers including Starfire. 

I still have a lot of stuff from Melissa including this yarn that I'll use to ply with.

Oh my, easier said than done.  The skein was a tangled mess and took me an hour to unravel with the hank draped over my knees.

I wound the yarn around a felted dryer ball and took it to the COSW meeting yesterday to see if anyone knew what it was.   I showed my skein at show-and-tell, then asked for help IDing my yarn.  Patty Huffer, a local weaving teacher, (in front of white board with back to the photo) used it as a teaching moment and told us to Google "burn test fiber" and then burn a sample.  

I couldn't tell when I just burned that yarn so I lit a candle and burned fibers that I knew what the content was.  Dharma has a great sheet of information on doing a burn test.  My yarn is definitely silk.  I tried to break the thread last week with my hand and it cut into my finger deeply.  I should have known right then.

These are the other skeins Melissa gave me.  The one on the right is 60/2 but the others aren't labeled.

I lashed on the towel warp on Maudie and after getting the first towel underway, I decided to just wind my warp.

I put the warp on the front of Arthur and thought, I'll just sley it so I can see how the colors look, and, well, you know how the rest went.

I was just going to hem-stitch it, but then thought I should weave a couple inches to check the pics per inch and then I thought I should make sure the selvedges were even. By 2:00 I was starving and knew I really needed to call it a day.