{"id":10906,"date":"2024-04-27T07:31:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-27T05:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/?p=10906"},"modified":"2024-04-27T19:17:33","modified_gmt":"2024-04-27T17:17:33","slug":"silk-shawl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/silk-shawl\/","title":{"rendered":"Silk shawl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last summer I spun a lot of singles silk yarn on a supported spindle. I used the small skeins as dye samples in my experimental dyeing with fresh Japanese indigo and woad. I started a striped weave in January and this week I finished my silk shawl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are a patron (or want to become one<\/a>) you can see more from my writing retreat in my January 2024 video postcard<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I must have been in the weaving room every weekend since I warped this weave, and it has just taken forever. I am used to weaving with wool, which is flexible, forgiving and reasonably predictable. Silk however, is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spin, dye and weave. And then weave some more.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It pains me to say it, but this was just not a fun weave. I loved spinning the yarn and dyeing the skeins and I love the resulting shawl. But the weaving, not so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A tabby shawl with a loose sett, woven from spindle spun silk singles dyed with my homegrown fresh indigo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Slow and fiddly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a previous post about weaving this silk shaw<\/a>l I embraced the slowness of the process, but now I take it all back. Compared to wool, weaving with silk is inelastic, slippery and unforgiving. So many threads broke, and joining them once I had passed the break was fiddly and the slippery and fine ends slithered their way out or broke over and over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Insufficiently spun joins lead to broken warp threads. The muga silk fibers are shorter and the warp threads fuzzier. Still, I love the irregularities the woven joins make in the fabric.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The golden muga silk threads I used to separate the blue stripes had shorter fibers and broke more often than the mulberry silk threads, and got quite fuzzy. I do have a history of making insufficient joins as I spin, and it was very obvious here too. How hard can it be to spin proper joins? I don\u2019t mind the joins in the weave, they do add to the character of the fabric, but I could live without the sweat of watching them get gradually thinner and breaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tight sheds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This weave has a sett of 80 picks per 10 centimeters, but the smallest heddle on my loom is 60\/10. So to obtain the smaller sett, I used two 40\/10 heddles. I have used a double heddle several times before, for double layered weaving and for twill. I know from these experiences that the sheds are tighter compared to a single heddle, and it was true here too. Due to the inelasticity of the silk warp, the opening of the shed was fiddly and took a lot of time. To make it a little easier, I opened up the shed with a weaving sword before I inserted the shuttle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deadline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Usually I don\u2019t have a problem with projects that take time. Only, I have an appointment with a fulling mill in late May and two wool weaves waiting to be woven and fulled at the mill, so I needed to get the silk shawl off the loom and warp one of the wool weaves. I managed to weave around 5 centimeters every visit to the weaving room and after thinking \u201dthis will be the last session\u201d for five sessions, I was close to giving up. And I did, actually \u2013 when the umpteenth warp thread broke and I had only 30 centimeters left I abandoned my stubbornness and went for the scissors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loose sett<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I planned the weave I had a vision of quite a loose sett \u2013 I wanted the shawl to be light and sheer and the irregularities of the yarn to add to the character if the weave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The sett in the silk shawl is loose to emphasize the sheerness and lightness of it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Due to the inflexibility of the yarn, the threads didn\u2019t fill out the empty spaces when I cut it off the loom. I actually managed to create the shawl according to my vision, and I really like the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fringe twister<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I had finally finished the weave I asked myself what kind of fringe I wanted. I was learning towards just tyeing the loose warp, but then I realized the warp was single, and that loose threads would probably warp and tangle. So I decided on a twisted fringe. I do own a fringe twister that I don\u2019t use very often, but when I need it I thank the fringe twisting goddesses for its convenience. Twisting 90 long fringes is not my idea of a good time, only strained fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The fringe twister is my friend.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Plant, spin, dye, weave<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

And so I made it. I spent last summer spinning fine singles of mulberry silk and dyeing it in small batches with my home-grown fresh indigo and woad leaves, and I spent the winter weaving a silk shawl for this summer. In December I harvested my own Japanese Indigo seeds and my sweet indigo plants for this season are thriving in the kitchen window. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A finished silk shawl, 40 x 210 centimeter (including 20 + 20 centimeter fringe).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The circle is full, and so is the year and I can’t wait to wear my breezy silk shawl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy spinning!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can find me in several social media:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n