Thursday, December 6, 2018

Weaving a Christmas present

My daughter will be having her first child in early February. For Christmas I am weaving a baby wrap for her. It's a really long wrap that can be tied on one's person in such a way as to hold a baby or toddler against you, keeping your hands free to do other things.

The weft is all handspun and hand-dyed by me. No wool. It's all plant-derived fiber and silk. There is just over 5,000 yards just for the weft, so I went with commercial cotton for the warp, which is 8 yards long and 648 ends.

The spinning was a lot of work and the dyeing was a little different from my usual. I dye mostly with natural dyes and acid dyes, but for most of the fiber, I needed fiber reactive dyes. I was nervous about using them for the first time on such a big project. I only screwed up a little in that the colors on all of the plant-derived fibers came out pastel when I wanted them to be stronger. The silks came out much stronger. And then I have some carbonized bamboo that is undyed because it's a dark gray. Doesn't really fit with the color scheme, but I'll make it work somehow.

I chose the fibers to be wicking and breathable and washable. I hate giving new mothers things that have to be hand washed.

Anyhoo, I got the warp on the loom - am I the only one who gets blisters when warping? And I've started the weave. I'm about 30 inches in on a 202-inch weave. Pics below.