Several goals combined to send me searching for a
great Waffle Weave draft. The hand towels in my kitchen are showing wear from
many years of hard use. My handwoven Cottolin towels are particularly worn
which is no surprise since they are favorites. Christmas is coming and I always
like to send handwoven kitchen towels as gifts. And there are yarns on my
shelf.
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| Early attempts at Waffle Weave Top: Cottolin sett at 24 e.p.i. Bottom: Cottolin sett at 18 e.p.i. |
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| Detail showing wavy Waffle Weave hems |
Waffle weave with its superior insulation and
absorbance has always attracted me. And it is a magical and beautiful
structure. Years and years ago I wove this little piece (tan one above) of Waffle using
Cottolin, sett at 24 e.p.i., for both warp and weft. Machine washed and dried,
it shrunk a bunch and the hems went wobbly. Next I tried weaving the same
structure with (white) Cottolin sett at 18 e.p.i. I hoped a less dense sett would
improve the hems. The problem with that idea is the waffle structure suffered.
So I shelved that goal. But I have been meaning to get
back around to waffle weave for the longest time. Now is as good an opportunity
as any.
Over time yarns from various friends, studio sales,
estate sales, and such have worked their way into my stash. One late weaving
friend in particular was an ardent yarn hoarder. Sorry to write it but she did
very little weaving and a whole lot of yarn collecting. Anyway, one way or the
other my shelves hold yarns that I did not particularly seek. They arrived without
plan or purpose.
Not meaning in any way to dwell on the morbid, I intend to use my yarns—to use my stash while I am able. If the good Lord wills it, there will be plenty of time to achieve this goal. Going forward I aim to use, as far as possible, yarns already in hand, even if they are garish colors, unknown fibers or difficult grist or ply.
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| Sample #1 Orphaned yarns somehow make their way to me The larger sample here has not been washed This portion of the sample shows variegated perle cotton ends centered in the plain weave sections. |
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| Sample #1 Top left is the unwashed portion I tried several different colors and yarns for weft |
With a few cones of 16/2 cotton on hand but wanting
to save those for the actual towels, I decided to combine gift yarn of a
similar size (pink and orange 14/2-cotton machine knitting yarn) to weave
samples. Love for variegated yarns has kept several skeins of what appears to
be space-dyed linen singles in a very fine size on my shelf. The pink and
orange are eye-popping. Aside from the color it is beautiful, soft yarn. If
only those yarns could tell me their tales!
Attempting to weave waffle without wavy hems, I am trying drafts that combine waffle with plain weave. First I tried draft #388 from Carol Strickler’s "A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns". I like this draft because it combines a six-end waffle with three ends of plain weave in each threading repeat. Surely the addition of plain weave sections would help even out the hems.
Sample #1 sett of 24 e.p.i. was far too loose. For Sample #2 I tried 30 e.p.i., a big improvement but still not ideal. Later I re-sleyed to weave at 35 e.p.i. Also, using sewing thread as weft while treadling the waffle pattern for hems kept them nice and flat.
In the first few of these samples I tried to use a
few widely spaced ends of the variegated among the cotton ends with disastrous
result as it immediately began to break. (Predictable—what was I thinking?) The
ones that survived eventually frayed away. Really, I ought to have expected
problems. The second time around, I tried using my spinning wheel to ply the
linen single with one ply of sewing thread. The thread held but the linen still
broke and frayed. Back at the drawing board, I replaced the problem yarn with
variegated perle cottons.
My friend Sue at The Willingham Weavery weaves lots of waffle weave so I asked her what she does about the hems. She told me she uses sewing thread for the hem weft. Another hint she gave was to weave in two "gathering" threads at each hem fold line. So far I haven't tried the second hint but it's good to know and may come in handy.
My friend Sue at The Willingham Weavery weaves lots of waffle weave so I asked her what she does about the hems. She told me she uses sewing thread for the hem weft. Another hint she gave was to weave in two "gathering" threads at each hem fold line. So far I haven't tried the second hint but it's good to know and may come in handy.
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| Sample #2 - Spaced dyed ends plied with sewing thread, alternating coral and pink in threading repeats, variegated ends are centered in the waffle cells Top: Sett at 35 e.p.i., machine washed & dried Middle: Sett at 30 e.p.i., machine washed & dried Bottom right: Sett at 30 e.p.i., not washed, lower portion shows sewing thread weft for hems |
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| Sample #3 Kerstin's draft from an IKEA towel I gave up on using the linen singles. This sample shows 10/2 variegated perle cotton instead. |
Yarn skips in the 6-end waffles seem too long to be
practical as kitchen towels. So now I am trying a draft from Kerstin's Extras blog. She analyzed an IKEA towel and came up with the draft. This structure is far more
stable. The sewing thread hems worked well. But I didn’t like the way the waffle
areas do not weave to square and I’m still not certain this is the way to go for my Christmas towels. The blue 10/2 perle cotton variegated ends are very pleasing in these samples. This draft will be worth coming back to another time.
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| Kerstin's draft makes a very stable structure sett at 36 e.p.i. Here you see the sewing thread weft hems both before and after finishing |
My pile of samples is growing. But I am learning lots and lots. Maybe
all this pink and orange will be consumed and then with the 16/2 cotton I will begin again at square
one. Waffle square, that is.
As for my goal of using Cottolin . . . I guess it
will wait. And there are lots of other yarns on my shelves.
Warp
On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver
RepWeaver
