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Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Fringe Testing

In a comment on the previous post, Teena asked if it would be possible to use waste thread and weave in a structure that would make groups of threads the right size for each pair in a ply. I replied that I didn't think that would be possible with an interleaved, networked threading. I know that these threadings can be used with a plain weave treadling, which lifts odd threads then even threads, and it creates a canvas weave or half-basket weave (not sure what you'd call it - the weft goes over two, under two for one pick, then under two and over two on the next pick).

 As I sat twisting fringe, I thought it over, and decided to spare a couple of minutes of my extremely busy day (this is, after all, the last show of the season, and I'd like to have as much inventory available for sale as possible) to test that question. Here's a draft, which uses the same threading as I've been weaving for these blue silk scarves.

First it lifts 12 shafts at a time: 1-12, then 13-24;  then 6 shaft groups; then 4 shaft groups. None of these combinations result in a weave that separates the warp ends into groups that would make it easy to grab the right number of ends for each ply in a fringe pair. Maybe I'll test other combinations of shafts, but I don't think it's likely to succeed. It'll have to be after the show, in any case.

4 comments:

Teena Tuenge said...

I guess I tend to use rather uncomplicated threadings so did not think about yours.
Could you create consecutive lifts that would work gradually across the warp and put the shuttle across a little at a time a la Nancy Searles "Free Form
Design"? Though maybe that would be just as much work as counting them out as you twist the fringes. Oh, well!
Teena Tuenge

Teena Tuenge said...

O.K. Here's another idea. Could you insert the "counting" pick with a pick up stick, using a certain number of reed dents as a guide? They are easier to see than fine threads. That would not as fast a throwing the shuttle, but might be faster than counting them out while twisting.
Teena

Sandra Rude said...

Hi, Teena,
Spending time on extra processes (especially purely manual ones) in my experience doesn't contribute toward the bottom line in a positive way. The goal here is to make money, not the opposite :-)
-- Sandra

Sandra Rude said...

p.s. While I'm grabbing threads for the pairs in a fringe, I'm not actually counting out 12 individual threads. I do what's called "pattern matching" in the computer and data analysis industries. Eyeing 3 pairs of threads that are on TOP of the last pick of the scarf instead of BENEATH it is a lot faster than counting "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...etc."