Christmas Table Runners - a Huck Lace Double Weave Experiment
September 2015

Click image for enlargement.

Ten yards of red and white cotton have been wound on the warping mill, then beamed on the AVL and are ready for threading to start. In spite of how they look in the photo, each thread is either red or white, not a mixture!

(01:09:2015)

Threading has just started. All 16 shafts will be used - white on odds, red on evens. This warp is "only" 650 ends.

(01:09:2015)

It's five days later, but threading is complete and the reed has been sleyed. Ready to tie-on and weave!

(06:09:2015)

Oops! Weaving almost started, but a threading error was found. The regular heddles are white (some with coloured marks). The green one is a string used to tie in a "repair" heddle where the correct one was missing. Seven of these were needed and the whole last inch was rethreaded to fix all of the errors.

(07:09:2015)

All lashed on (for the second time) and NOW it's ready to weave.

(07:09:2015)

Weaving is under way. The side that is up will be mostly white, the other side will be mostly red but the colours sometimes trade sides.

(12:09:2015)

About 18 inches woven - enough for a place mat. A wooden stick has been woven in. Glue will be spread on the fabric on either side of the stick. The the place mat will be cut free along the green line in front of the stick. It will be removed and the stick tied back on to the apron rod so that weaving can continue. Only about two inches of warp is lost in the process.

(13:09:2015)

A peek an the other side of the cloth. This first mat was washed, dried and pressed (wet finished) to see how much take-up and shrinkage there will be. Now I can calculate how much I need to weave to end up with a 36 inch table runner.

(13:09:2015)

Almost a week later - runner #1 is complete, and the hem has been woven for the second runner.

(19:09:2015)

While I was working on a new design for the second runner, Allan added LED strip lights to the top beams of the loom. See how bright the weaving area is now - no need for the teetery old floor lamp I was using.

(21:09:2015)

Runner #2 is progressing - the colour changes are the same, but the background is different.

(22:09:2015)

Some close-ups for the weavers in the crowd. Runner #1 is all over Huck lace. The magic is that the two layers of cloth are "tied" together all over, not just where the layers change sides.

(27:09:2015)

Runner #2 is still lace where the layers exchange, but the background is "Huck spots". The layers are still tied together.

(27:09:2015)
The white side of #1 shows a problem - the warp was not set close enough together and it was very hard to beat the weft evenly. For this structure it should have been 18 end per inch instead of 16 in each layer.

(29:09:2015)

The white side of #2 has a slightly different spot pattern than the red side. This one had more "plain weave" on both sides and made firmer fabric than the allover lace.

(29:09:2015)

A "glamour" shot of runner #2.

(29:09:2015)

And the "Christmas" side. This runner is leaving in a few days as part of a Guild of Canadian Weavers exchange. I will receive a runner made by someone else.

(29:09:2015)

Both sides at once. There are still about six yards of warp left on the loom so I am planning more runners and maybe some place mats. There will probably be more design changes too.

(29:09:2015)