Swatch test

After washing

Before washing

After washing

Before washing

I've learned, through experience to swatch test all the yarns I want to use together in a weaving project, especially if I'm putting them on the Newcomb. It takes 16 hours to tie and wind a warp onto the big old rug loom, and that's after I've dyed and measured the yarns. Then I can weave between 5 and 8 rugs on that warp, depending on the size of the fleeces, so I need to make sure the yarns in that warp play well together.

To do a swatch test for rugs, I take the yarn I want to use and crochet tem together. Then I just throw them into a regular wash load and see how they come out. I think this batch will make a pretty set of rugs. And I should have it on the loom by this year's Shearing Day, Saturday, March 30.