More Weave Blankets

I finished weaving 2 more weave blankets using 3 weft systems - since I had done the one based on 10-end shaded satins, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try out 9-end and 8-end shaded satins, too. Here's a shot of the 9-end (lower group) and 8-end (upper group) weave blankets:



Each of them presents trade-offs. The 10-end satin blanket has more visually intense weft colors because the floats are proportionally longer, and also a blacker "black" in the warp-faced areas because there are proportionally fewer weft flecks in the warp-faced 10-end satins than in the 8- or 9-end satins. I can't be sure until the cloth is cut off the loom and wet finished, but I suspect I'll be happier with the "shorter" satins because of the float lengths, and because of the distortion that happens to long floats during finishing. Well, we will see, won't we?

Gotta say, though, that handling 3 shuttles is significantly slower than handling 2.......... and when I contemplate weaves that have 4 weft systems, well, I'll need to solicit help from DH to make shuttle trays on both sides of the loom, because there just isn't room on the woven cloth between the fell and the breast beam to place more than 3 shuttles, without the risk of them diving to the floor with the slightest provocation. It's either that or upgrade to a 4-box fly shuttle system, which costs a lot more than shuttle trays :-)

Next up in the queue is the banner for Tien & Mike's wedding. I wove some samples back in February, and posted a couple of pictures here. I was hoping that all the planned modifications and upgrades to the loom would be completed (and successful!) before weaving the banner, but time and warp length are running out. The wedding is in early June, so the weaving needs to be done NOW. Once this warp runs out, it'll take too much time to rewarp. Tien is already feeling the stress of the upcoming deadline, so I don't want to add to it!