Making of - Hellas tablecloth


I found a good idea from (unfortunately Swedish) VÄV -magazine. There were blue and white models and I asked my roomie what theme. The answer was Greece, so I picked ancient Greek colors, orange on black. Width is 40cm and the length was supposed to be 150. The warp was not quite 3 metres long and the teacher said I could make two tablecloths from it. I have a metre or so ready by now and a bit over metre and a half left of the warp, but this type of fabric shrinks like Super Mario. 10-20%, which is hella lot. Most likely I will do one long one, then it's not so troublesome if it is left in the middle of the dinner table.
Here it is, what I dub as Hellas pöytäliina:





 I had to wait for the black mercerized cotton thread for a while, they both are tex76/2, if I remember correctly. The biggest image is when I "created" the warp, on the top right are my threads, bottom right was something I could NOT mess up. It was really important. I added two images of the warp braid and damn do the colors fit ^^ My original warp thread count was 800, which means 400 "siblings" (black and orange) but I accidentally managed 804 (402), but we simply added them into the middle later. The whole warp was supposed to weigh closer to 360 gr, but it ended up being way less, 320gr or so, we were also scared that the orange thread would run out before 400, but in the end, there was plenty left. The length of the warp on this is about 2,80-2,90m.

Then to phase 2. Handling the warp as scary. I was afraid that the constant pulling it tight and wrapping it on the log would make some threads snap, but nope. I needed 804 heddles and in stead of doing what teacher said and pulling the threads through with fingertips/nails, I tied a crocheting hook to my hand and pulled them through the loops. I was done pretty fast and with ease. Later, while I was sleying the threads through the reed, I noticed I had missed a pair and of course I didn't have the crocheting hook with me anymore... Aww fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu... Took me twice as long to re-pull the threads through the heddles with my nails.
 This phase was pain in the ass. Or rather, numb and cold feeling in the ass, since I had to sit on a concrete slab floor. And my looms are tiny,which meant even less space to deal with "pedals". Teacher made a mistake with her directions to me and she was baffled by the fact she did a complete amateur mistake and marked the chair upside down for me. Even I didn't notice it, but to my defense, I was tired and worried sick about my dearest roomie, who was sick. I also added pics of the tight pulled loom with the edge dealt with and of course, what patterns I have in the cloth.


Weaving itself is pretty fast. There are pics of the edge, my shuttles, the already made cloth, the remaining warp... Also the important tool with lovely, sharp spikes at the end of it, which keeps the cloth steady so it doesn't get narrow. My sheds open hella wide, which is good. I'll add more images as I progress.
I think this was close to the point when it was 1,50m while stretched tight
This was the absolute limit how far you could weave, I needed some help to open the sheds, which were so close to the reed the shuttle almost didn't go through anymore
 And here it is, folded,but damn did people like it, including myself. The orange has that coppery shine which makes it perfect.

I did the ends with sewing machine, three step zig-zag at least twice. Then I cut the excess threads and folded it over twice. I failed the other end, because I idiot sew it too narrow, it wasn't the natural bending point so...

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