This draft was going form the basis of the first sampling. The blue is 28/2 superwash merino and the white is a 30/2 silk. I'm hoping for a little differential shrinkage between the two yarns so that the areas with two separate cloth layers (they appear the whitest in the draft) puff just enough to separate. It comes down to how the superwash behaves...otherwise I might try some cashmere in 26/2. The sample is 16cm wide in the reed and has 240 warp threads. First sample will be at 15 epcm (38epi) and depending how it feels, I might try a wider sett too. I need 2 or 3 samples at each sett to experiment with the finishing process to control the differential shrinkage. The final piece is a commisioned shawl.
After contemplating the above I realised the areas of the raised silk layer will only be on one side...fine for a wall hanging, not so great for a shawl. So I revisited the draft to get the pattern more evenly distributed on both faces.
After reading Alice Schlein's book on network drafting and several other books besides (some given to me by Pat Foster when I bought her Megado) I succeeded in getting a networked draft with the silk squares alternating on each side backed by squares of wool....then my silk yarn finally arrived!
It's beautifully lustrous and as I know from the swedish lace doubleweave scarf I just completed, that shine is killed by plain weave. I drafted something in doubleweave with each layer as a 5 end satin, but it wasn't pleasing to me. Finally I redrafted a design with 3/1 twills - a compromise but a good one I hope. An extract from the draft below. Using the same yarn I originally intended, the change from plain to twill increases the warp density to 25 epcm, so the sample is only 22cm wide with 550 ends. I ll weave three samples and finish them differently. The new Megado will enable me weave these 18 shaft samples.
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