Having recently completed my curtains in Ms and Os using white yarn I decided it was time to add a bit of color to my next project. It was spring after all, wasn’t it?! I also wanted a little challenge and after perusing my weaving books and magazines I settled on a pattern from the January/February 2019 issue of Handwoven magazine. The project was entitled “In the Pines Table Runner” by Jenny Sennott. It featured a shadow weave structure and while it reminded the author of pine trees and pine cones to my eyes it somewhat resembled a flower in bloom!
I headed off to see what my yarn stash might have that I could use to put this project into motion. I settled on a 6/2 cotton yarn (Sunshine, #107U) from the Woolery and a 5/2 perle cotton yarn (Wedgewood blue, #2608, Valley Yarns) from Webs.
My next challenge was to wind the warp holding the two yarns together separating them by a finger so that they would not twist together while winding. I was skeptical that this would work thinking that I’d likely end up with a mess of tangled yarns! I was pleasantly surprised that this technique worked perfectly. I was able to pluck each thread from the cross as I went and ended up with no crossed threads as I threaded the heddles!
The day I started weaving the runner we experienced a major winter snowstorm! It was nice and cozy in my weaving room while the snow piled up outside. I couldn’t help but think about the little spring flowers shivering under the accumulating snow.
It took a while to become accustomed to used two shuttles but after a while I was able to get into a rhythm. I did have to pay attention while weaving through the pattern repeats since the treadling repeats were short and it was easy to forget where I was in the sequence! Also, the pattern made it somewhat difficult to count picks to determine how many repeats I’d made. So I got into the habit of repeating out loud which treadle and which pass I was on. (treadle 3, pass one became 3-1, followed by treadle 4 , pass 1, 4-1 and so on).
It should be noted that on my first pass through the overall repeat I noticed that the pattern didn’t look quite right. The treadling color order instructions for the last four picks immediately following the last 3x repeat were incorrect. I found the errata in the March/April 2019 issue of Handwoven and also online here. I made a note to self to always check the errata section of the next magazine issue for any corrections to patterns!
I think the finished runner turned out well. It still brings to mind the spring flowers which have survived the snowstorm and have now started to pop out in the woods around our rural Wisconsin home.
Loomcraft Weaver 