September 2024: Tricot

Woven by Sue Willingham

Using up the stash!  I had cones of light aqua cotton flake and one of yellow cotton flake that I wanted to find a use for.  I had no idea where it came from and there was no size information on the labels.  In the SWG on-line structure study group we had just talked about tricot, a simple eight shaft draft discussed by Sharon Alderman in her book, which seemed a candidate.  The draft has two-end ridges that alternate either vertically or horizontally.  I threaded it vertically so that the yellow ridge showed on alternate sides every fifth ridge. 

Based on the yards per pound which I estimated using a McMorran balance (about 3000 ypp for the aqua and 2100 for the yellow), I guessed at a sett of 20 epi which worked out well.  Ppi is about the same.  The warp was 900 ends wide, 45” in the reed, which I arrived at by backing into the warp length based on the yardage of the aqua yarn on hand.  The goal was to use it all up!  To weave it I used my 56” Macomber.  That actually led to a problem – it’s a wonderful loom but one treadle hook kept disconnecting until I taped it against the lamm.  After taking the blanket off the loom I discovered I hadn’t caught all those episodes and there were too many skips to correct.  Ah, well.  I can offer it as a “second quality” at our Holiday Studio Tour. 

After washing and drying with other laundry, the hand is quite nice although not as soft as I hoped.  Takeup in the weft is 20% and warp appears to be about the same.  This structure would work well with a heavier yarn, say 8/4 or 5/2 or even heavier.  The ridges would be clearer than with this finer flake yarn.  It would make a good towel, also.

Downloads:
Drawdown (.PDF)
WIF

Bio:

Sue writes: “I started weaving in 1995 after my daughter, Janet Dawson, became an enthusiastic weaver.  In about 2005 I started teaching classes on Vashon where I live, in 2010 Janet and I began teaching in January and February each year in my studio, and I weave on whichever of my looms strikes my fancy whenever I want – pure luxury!”