Weaving and Watching

It's a nice, crisp autumn evening. Am I curled up in front of the fireplace, dozing with the dog? No!! I'm sitting in a semidark room trying to weave a table runner. I know, it sounds sketchy and it is. It's dark enough to require me to really focus on counting the pattern instead of visually checking for mistakes. And I'm sure the question rolling through your head is 'Why doesn't the ninny just turn on the lights????

 Well, it's homecoming week here in Natchez. I teach high school and our student's favorite activity during this week is rolling houses. They say they only roll the houses of teachers they like, but I have my doubts about that. It wouldn't be too bad if they just threw the toilet paper and left, but no, they finally have to show some creativity. One year, the rage was to 'fork' the yard by individually shoving hundreds of clear plastic forks into the ground. It's amazing how quiet a bunch of teenagers can be when they want to. Another year, everyone's cars got saran wrapped shut. Another time, they decided to tear off each square of paper and drop it on the ground. This year, it's 'snowblowing'--the dumping of thousdands of Q-tips all over a yard.

 The year we got wrapped six nights in a row, we decided to fight back. Clean up is brutal and if it rains before they're done for the week, we'll be picking toilet paper out of our trees until March. So we got a couple of spotlights and mounted them on stands. Now my front yard is brighter than an airport runway--you could easily pick up a dime at midnight here. And if I sit in my semidark loom room--a.k.a my living room--I can recognize them, sneak out the side door, and scare the living daylights out of them. Yes, I know it's a little juvenile, but I have to get my entertainment somehow.

 So what am I weaving in the dark? I'm weaving on a four shaft jack loom. The warp is a blonde rayon chenille. The weft is a really neat loosely spun silk. It's the recycled pieces left over from Indian saris.

The yarn itself is amazingly beautiful. This is a multi, but I've seen it in an array of colors. It's a little stiffer than I had figured it would be. Originally, I had thought to use it as part of a warp for a shawl, but it's too loosely spun. It kept stretching as I tried to set the tension and eventually just shredded apart. Very disappointing, but really, I should have seen that one coming. However, it works well for a weft. The texture of the yarn will add to a simple weave and make for a more interesting runner.

It's a really easy pattern -- a simple 2/2 twill. The sari yarn has a good body to it. When combined with the sheen of the chenille, it should make a really nice runner. Once it's done, I think I might twist the fringe to help keep the chenille frm losing it's fuzz. The finished size should be 10 x 32 inches, not including the fringe. So here are the specifics:

 warp: 12 epi

 120 warpends

 threading: 1,2,3,4

 tie-up:1 & 2
        2 & 3        
        3 & 4
        1 & 4

 treadling: 1,2,1
            3,4,3