Broken diamond twill experimenting and Indigo dyeing.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 19112019
The tieing took all day so I didn't have the time to test the sheds last week. Then I did there was a couple of threads that were crossed back at the heddle, but it was an easy fix, just untie and pull them right. Then it came to weaving you couldn't see a thing then it was black on black. So I asked to get colour out and got this beautiful petroleum blue.

I thought the diamonds are too big for a Viking fabric, my teacher, on the other hand didn't like how the way the pattern with 8 tredel steps hade the small diamond in the middle of the larger changed, so with her magic, she started experimenting and got a tredel order with 7 instead, that hade all diamonds looking the same and it was a lot more pleasing for the eye. She went and made it in weave point so I could get a new draft to look at. I was still not pleased with the new draft after some weaving, but she wanted me to still weave enough for samples for the school and my self as at some point I might want it for some other project. I used a pin to know where I was. If I have to stop at any point that is not at the end of the repetition I put the pin on that tredel the first thing I do.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 20112019
The weaving of the test went real smooth so I already finished today, The rag strip I finished with is so that the real inlay doesn't pope out the weave. I did some more spinning.

I got impatient to see if my teacher could find the reproductions she has somewhere. I went online and did some more research on my own. I started to find where they have found diamond twills from the Viking age. Found out that Coppergate in York got a good amount of sample. found a document with nice pattern images and good data. I took one that was pretty course as the Gotland samples are course with Viking standards. It took some time in weave point but I sort of got it in the end, with some help. So that is what I am going to test next to weave. But to do it I have to pull it all out and redo the heddle and the reed.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 21112019
I spent the day with the sewing class today, We did some dyeing with Indigo. The reason I joined them was to refresh my memory on how you do it, as I will dye the yarn for the Viking cloth am doing the tests for. One thing that was new this time for me was that we added gelatin to the bathe, it supposedly makes the dye stick better to the material your dyeing. It came out whey darker than it usually do on only one dip. On the picture with the drying rack, some pieces have been dipped multiple times. In total, we did five white and five grey squares of wool cloth, and after each dip removed one pic of each start colour. We finished at lunchtime so the rest of the day I could thread the heddle and sley the reed with the new draft.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 22112019
Finished the slaying and tie it to the front and checked the shed, something was off though but I didn't take to much notice to it until I started weaving and found that I hade crossed threads in the heddle, so I untied the knot and pulled the threads I needed out and fixed the issue and finished it off with a stick so I hade a flat base to start wiving against again.

Here are the dry pieces we dyed yesterday. As you can see it's dark compared to the yarn I have posted pictures of earlier on the blog. This probably that we hade a bit too much of the dye solution. Think we hade 200 ml, will go with less than I do my dying even though I will aim to the colour of the first bath one. This due to that I have more control to get what I want, and less of an all eggs in on basket and I think it was mentioned to me it's more healthy for the yarn.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 23112019
Washed the pice I finished earlier this week, but am not used to my dad's washer so then I thought I removed the centrifuge, I selected something that did cancel it but also didn't empty the washing machine of water so I hade to do it manually it took some time. So then I washed the yellow shirt cloth I know what settings not to pick. I also zig-zagged all the pieces am giving to my class as samples.