Tuesday 24 November 2009

Baby blanket

On Sunday I finished off the baby blanket which I made for a relative's Christening as an alternative to the usual white bible approach. It uses blue and cream cashmere / merino wool mix - it's lovely and soft.

Following the scarf I made for Ivan which I was quite pleased with, I wanted to continue to push myself rather than playing it safe as scary as it is when it's a gift! So I wrote a draft which I've done before but never actually seen into fruition! The draft isn't as sophisticated as it sounds - it's a diamond shape using 4 shafts with a tabby weave border. The challenge here was to combine the two and trust myself to get the draft right. As basic as it sounds, I haven't done this before!

I took my usual approach to making the warp - improvisation in light of my warping board being about 250 miles away. Here is a photo of that taking shape - my main worry was that the dog would knock over the top-heavy green lamp which she duly did!


It turns out that I hadn't taken into account the reed width. There weren't enough dents in my reed to handle the width of the blanket despite the warp being capable of a wider piece. So that meant I had to cut chunks of warp out while it was partially threaded. That was scary!

Anyway, no real harm done. The blanket is just a bit narrower than I had anticipated. The upside is that I have some leftover wool :)

Once on the loom I struggled a bit to get the tension right and you can see that in the next photo. It's all a bit wobbly!


Also you can just make out a mistake running through the warp. I accidentally missed one of the reed dents when threading so it left a gap. It looks worse on the loom though - when I took it off it just about disappeared.


Where's Margot? Hiding in the corner from the storm outside.


I like the diamond pattern and I'm pleased that the scale turned out well - I was a bit concerned that the shapes would be too small but they seem quite bold. The tabby border helps a lot too because it means I can get straight edges for once!

Finally I wasn't sure how to handle the ends. I opted eventually to tie knots and have a really short fringe, although I originally anticipated hemming the ends. However I rather like having the bold solid blue at either end because it highlights the blue throughout. So the fringe won.


Overall I'm quite pleased, hope baby likes it!

5 comments:

  1. It is so beautiful! I'm sure the baby will love and cherish it. Such a good idea for a christening present too.

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  2. The blue and white diamonds look great to me! Have you washed it yet? I have found that reed marks aren't normally noticeable after washing. It's a lovely present for a lucky baby.

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  3. Congrats on finishing the blanket! I love that feeling of finishing a project. (Not quite as much as I love starting one though!)

    Love your improvised warping board!! I have a friend who just bought a loom and doesn't have a warping board. I might have to show her that picture from yours!!

    That's great that your design worked! I would have been worried that the edge and the center would have ended up with different tension since they're different weave structures. But obviously that didn't happen and I'm glad!!

    I'm sure the baby (and parents) will treasure that blanket!

    Sue

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  4. Love the blanket......nice job. I can't believe you wound your warp that way. You ARE brave.
    I hate warping boards. Give me a sectional beam any day.

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  5. Oh my goodness this is amazing! I'm so impressed - I don't know much about weaving but it looks very time consuming which may be why I haven't investigated further.... Did you teach yourself? Thank you for your recent lovely comments on my paintings by the way. :)

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