Cellulosic Experiments

Three tapestries, as yet unnamed, all 3" square - four selvedge --linen, wool, natural colored cotton, natural dye

Apparently,
despite years of serious misgivings
​about mixing wool and linen

Linen warp, linen and wool weft.

(reasons include:
acid/base chemistry,
stretch, compression,
textile integrity),

I'm doing it anyway.

And naturally, it is a blast.

What fun to poke at my prejudices--
​to weave spindle wool and flax
into unwearable sweaters,
​on a loom made of plastic?

How freeing to 'hackle' a messy strick of flax,
(using Russian Paddle combs that have been gathering dust for years),
and make deliciously lumpy yarn from the disorganized tow,

then to spin some rather nice singles
from the now silky smooth hackled flax
and ply it for warp for the next tapestry?
note:  plying stick HIGHLY recommended for keeping the fine line linen orderly 

Jenkins "Lark" plying wet spun line linen singles; Iosub plying sticks; Edwards "Hepty" spinning commercially prepared tow top

Then to discover that my wet spinning technique
left much to be desired,
for after plying, washing and warping --
 hairiness ensued. 

Spindle Spun Line warp before sizing

Then to remember that I wanted to try flour and water size
(approx 1 teaspoon flour mixed with water till consistency of thin cream
applied with my fingers then allowed to dry).

Linen warp after sizing

Then to find that some of the hairiness returned with all the handling
(perhaps particularly with finger picking?)
but that it all worked fine anyway,
(though perhaps if I'd  soaked the warp with size
rather than just lightly coating it,
it'd have stayed glued down?)

Then to notice that I had some selvedge wonkiness --
in part because of my carelessness
(as Susan Iverson says, "if you weave it right you don't have to block it ")
and in part because I wasn't taking into account 
 the huge differences in the size and properties of my wefts:
--ground: the lumpy tow I showed being spun up above (singles)
--house: leftover warp (two ply wet spun line)
--sky:  two strands of cotton I've had floating around for years,
( Sally Fox organic roving spun on a supported spindle
and purchased punis spun on a book charkha--
the latter the source of the black flecks).

But also to notice how interesting it all is.
And how much I want to keep experimenting.

​It is worth noting that all three tapestries were woven at 10 epi 
but because of differences in grist
between the hand spun warp,
 the commercial linen warp in the two pictured at the top,
and all the different weft materials--
the surfaces vary as much as the selvedges.

(Note: Rebecca Mezoff is in the midst of writing
​an amazingly clear and useful series of blog posts on the relationship between
sett, warp and weft size. 
The photos of her samples make this deliciously clear!)

This is all I can think to say,
today,
at this point on my creative oxbow,
but hopefully there will be more.