Son of Users and Yarn

Among the most interesting users of Weaving Today are those who have no local weaving community available to them, but who feel the need to reach out and connect with others involved in the same craft.  Several of these are from overseas, and at least a few are unable to participate in local guilds because of access issues (transportation or disability) or because there are no guilds close enough to them.  These users may post from time to time when they have a question or when they know the answer to someone else's question.  The latter is less frequent, likely because the Weaving Today staff answer questions when no one else answers, and nobody wants to argue with Madelyn.  I went looking for a few of these users to prepare this project.  One is a specialist in a particular weave structure (huck lace) and the other is a generalist who is an occasional weaver.  Each has over a dozen posts, a large number for users of this site (average is just over two if professional users aren't considered).

Lynn is a huck lace specialist.  She weighs in on most conversations in the huck forum, including technical discussions about reading drafts and designing huck. On her "about me" page, she lists only her age (60) and gender, and lists her "favorites" as the huck forum.

Kaaren is a generalist, with comments on five different threads.  Her "about me" page is unusually complete for Weaving Today users.  She has a short biography, including a description of her weaving practice.

These two users stand out by virtue of their length of use and number of posts.  These "front pew" users are recognized as experts of sorts in the Weaving Today community.  Even so, 16 posts over two years hardly qualifies as the kind of use most affinity spaces boast.  Although these users are not typical, they do illustrate a type of use that underscores the differing practice of older users.  Both of these women ask technical questions and answer the questions of others.  This is a fairly typical post:

I want to weave a scarf using sock yarn with stripes of plain weave alternating with stripes of three thread huck in the warp. In the past when I've tried to have a plain weave border on huck lace the tensions are so different that the plain weave section ripples. I only have one warp beam. Any tips on avoiding the ripple?
Margaret

• Filed under: huck

Posts 35

Lynn Tedder wrote

on 9 Aug 2010 5:34 PM

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Hi Margaret,
When stripes of huck lace alternate with stripes of plain weave, ripples such as you describe are a definite possibility because the threads in the lace areas interlace less frequently than those in the plain weave areas, and the plain weave areas take up more than the lace areas. Particularly if you are weaving with inelastic fibers like linen, the longer the piece is woven (as for example, several scarves woven on the same warp), the more likely it is that the warps in the lace areas will also lose tension and droop into the shed because their interlacement uses less warp.
The elasticity of the the yarn being used has a lot to do with rippling and drooping problems, too. Was the project that rippled of sock yarn, too? I'm thinking that with sock yarn, which is even more elastic than wools for weaving, you might have less of a problem with rippling (and certainly less drooping) than would occur with tencel or cotton, or less elastic fibers. However, not having used them much for weaving, I can't say for sure.
If you do encounter rippling or drooping warps, there are two commonly used solutions. The first one is to add tension to the warps weaving the lace stripes separately from those weaving the plain weave. With a single warp beam, you slip a dowel under only those warp threads weaving the lace and then weight the dowel so the extra length of those warps isn't woven into the web. The other option (especially if you are having problems with drooping warps and are weaving multiple pieces on the same warp) is to add extra warp so that you can cut each piece off as it is woven and then re-tension the warp when you tie on. (If you do both of these things, be sure to remove the weights and the dowel before you cut the warp, though!)
Hope this helps.
Lynn

Lynn shows her expertise in her chosen specialty, providing specific advice for the problem posed, in a straightforward manner.  As is usual for Weaving Today users, the post is fairly short and to the point.