Bedford Cord Sampler No 2

EXPERIMENTING WITH FIBRE AND SETT.

This sample blanket is designed to develop warp sections 1,2 and 5 of the original Bedford Cord sample blanket.

I rummaged through my yarn store and picked out mainly white of different fibre. They were not particularly of the same weight, but none were very thick or very thin. I found the following yarns in my store:

• 2/24’s Worsted • A fine wool boucle of unknown count (approx 4250 yards per lb). • 16/2 Matt • 12/1 • 1200/2 • 20/2

I used these yarns to make a warp.

I used a 10’s Reed, with 4 ends per dent giving an overall sett of 40 ends per inch, in warp sections 1 & 2.

Warp section 3 was crammed and spaced in the reed. The overall sett of that section was 20 ends per inch, but each individual warp section was actually sett at 50 ends per inch.

Width in loom of the whole sampler was about 11.5 inches. There are 398 ends in the warp, needing 100 heddles on each shaft I warped about 2.5 yards in length.

Design Name: Bedford Cord Fibre and Yarn Sampler Date: March 2005 Warp yarn: Weft yarn: • As listed above • As listed above

Sett: 40 epi Reed:10/4 PPI On average 20ppi Selvedge 10/4 Ends in Warp: 398 Selvedge: 12 selvedge ends each side Shrinkage: Width: Length: Width in loom: 11.5” Woven length: Finished width: Finished Length: Warping Plan: ← Start Warp section 2 Warp 120 ends section 1 174 ends 2 20/2 Silk 12 12/1 Linen 2 16 1200/2 Rayon 2 20 16/2 Cotton 2 2 Wool Boucle 2 2 2 2 12 2/24 wool X X10 x X3 X3 X3 Sel 10 10 v

← Continued Warp section 3 80 ends 3 2 3 1 1 20/2 Silk 3 2 3 1 1 Rayon 12 1 1 3 2 3 1 3 3 2 3 2/24 wool Sel Repeat x 2 v

Threading: ← Start

x x 1 4 x x 1 3 x x 1 2 x x 1 1 Warp Warp Selvedge section 2 Section 1 X 3 Sleyed Sleyed 4 Sleyed with 4 ends per with 4 ends per dent ends per dent NB last 2 dent ends only 2 ends per dent ←Threading Continued Warp section 3 80 ends Crammed and spaced in reed x 0 x x x x 4 x 0 x x x x 3 x 0 0 0 0 x 2 x 0 0 0 0 x 1 Selvedge Repeat x 4 x3 Width in loom of this section 4 inches Sleyed 4 ends per dent Sleying pattern for warp section 3 5 5 5 5 5 ends per dent for two dents, then miss 3 dents. Warp Sections 1 & 2

The idea behind the weaving of warp sections 1 and 2 was to see what differential shrinkage effect occurred with classic Weft Bedford Cord.

The lifting for Warp Sections 1 & 2 were therefore the standard Weft Bedford Cord from the original sampler blanket. Obviously the width of the cords can be varied,

The basic lifting was therefore as below.

↓ Shafts 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Picks a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Repeat for any cord Repeat for any cord width width

The wefting plan was virtually the same as the warping plan for these sections; It was something like this: Wefting 2 Wefting 1 10 20/2 Silk 10 12/1 Linen 10 10 1200/2 Rayon 10 10 16/2 Cotton 12 Wool Boucle 1 1 12 1 1 1 1 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 2/24 wool X3 X3 X3 Each cord is 10 picks wide with two plain Repeat weave picks between each cord. Each cord 10 picks wide The plain weave picks are wool. 2 plain weave picks between each cord Weaving Warp Section 3

The idea behind Warp Section 3 was to develop the section of the original Bedford Cord Sample blanket, which had produced a tiny chequer­board effect on the ‘Twilled Zig­Zag’ threading (threading No 5 on original Bedford Cord Sampler blanket) with the following lifting plan.

↓ Shafts 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 Picks a b c d e f g h X 5 X5

This was the lifting plan I used with the following wefting plans.

I was experimenting with different wefts yarns including lycra yarns and over twisted yarns.

Wefting plan 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 Sections 2/24 Wstd wool 1 1 1 1 1 20/2 silk 1 1 1200/2 Rayon All rayon 1 Lycra 1 Whisper 1 Wool overtwist 1 12/1 Linen tow 1 X X 10 10 Re Repeat Re Repeat Re Repeat pe pe pe at at at