Saturday 4 March 2017

Project: Doubleweave Windpwpane Shawl

Woven: January - February 2016
Fiber: 8/2 tencel
Reed/Sett: 8-dent/32 epi

This project was a further development on the doubleweave baby blanket, and one that finally delivered on the weaving porn on the front of Jennifer Moore's excellent Doubleweave book.  My plan was to use her table runner pattern and weave a shawl in 8/2 tencel. 

Before getting started I wove some samples to work on the technique.  Using 4 ends per slot in the reed (2 per layer) I started on the top with a 12-dent reed.  The finished product was so dense that it was almost rigid, which although fine for a very structured garment, was not ideal for a shawl.  The middle, long sample was woven with a 10-dent reed, and the bottom, widest sample was woven using the 8-dent reed.  For a shawl I thought the 8-dent sleyed at 4 ends per slot for 32 epi was the way to go.




For my colours I chose a lustrous bronze as my base, with rainbow colours as my contrast blocks.  The plan was to mirror the pattern throughout the shawl. 
 
 
I used a temple to maintain my selvedges because draw-in without the temple causes by warp threads to snap.  With the temple, the weaving was very straightforward on the 8-shaft Louet Jane table loom.  The shawl was finished with twisted tassels, and after wet finishing (hand wash and dry flat) the finished shawl (exclusive of tassels) measured 23.5" x 72.5". 
 
For more information check out my website at deftlyweft.com or my instagram page at @the_meglg and @DeftlyWeft.