M'eh. Could've Been Better

My first attempt with a palindrone skein was a bit of a flop. I'm glad I didn't pick my favourite of the three skeins for my initial experimenting!





First off, my attempt to get the colours to pool was less than perfect because my path on the warping board was not the perfect length. Next time I'll use a hybrid of methods and prepare a warp for the Saori loom using pegs, like would be done for a rigid heddle loom. That way I can adjust the length of the warp to the finest degree and get it exactly right -- but still take the warp to my preferred loom when I'm done.




My next mistake was choosing to use sewing thread as weft. In theory it seemed like a good idea. Nice fine weft allowed the pretty warp colours to show. It also gave the scarf an incredibly luscious drape. The finished scarf drapes more like silk or tencel than the merino wool that is is. So, what was the problem?



Well --- it's not visible here in a photo taken while it was still on the loom, but that thread weft drifted terribly! It didn't even wait for its "wet finishing" bath. As the merino warp relaxed overnight the weft started travelling all over the place. Very disappointing!

I did get a second, small project off the same warp, and it was more successful because I used 10/2 mercerized cotton. I'll try to get photos of both the disappointing scarf and its more successful sidekick tomorrow.

The Path for Palindrone

A palindrone, hand dyed skein can make for an interesting warp with a faux Ikat effect. I think most often they are done on rigid heddle looms. The reason being that with direct warping it is a relatively simple matter of adjusting the distance to the peg to get the warp colours to line up and "pool". I do have a rigid heddle loom -- two in fact -- but I so much prefer using my Saori loom that I wanted to wind a warp for that instead.

It's a little trickier to find a warping board path that will be a perfect multiple of the original skein length, thereby getting the pooling just so. Here is my first attempt. I decided the "Carnival" colourway would be a sacrifice to the initial attempt.



It's pooling, and rather effectively I think, but not quite in the way is usually intended, which is with the colours more or less in softly blending stripes across the warp rather than sharply contrasting ones along the warp's length as this one is doing. I'm not certain but I think it's because my warp path is ever so slightly longer than the actual skein's length, doubled.

Here's a photo of the exact path the warp takes on my Saori warping board. It's ever so slightly longer than 4m. The skein was 2m.



For this type of pooling to work on a warping board you have to have a circular path, rather than one that goes down and then back up as a warp is normally wound. Syne Mitchell of weavezine.com has an article that explains how to wind a palindrome skein on a warping board, for effective faux ikat.

If you are interested in trying this, Nancy, Ravelry user name "MeasuredThreads", has a great explanation of how to evaluate a palindrome skein to create a faux Ikat scarf in her post on a rigid heddle loom forum on Ravelry.

I experimented with a few different colours and weights of weft threads and have decided to weave this one with sewing thread as weft so that the warp colours are all that is really noticed once the scarf is wet finished.