Our shipment of Colcolastic yarn from Venne arrived; so I just had to try it to see how it works.
I was impressed with the minispool, in that it fit into my shuttle and saved me from having to wind bobbins. The Colcolastic thread consists of two threads - a regular cotton thread with the fine lycra thread wrapped around it. I thought I could see trouble on the horizon.
I decided to use the active yarn in my weft only, for my first attempt. I warped the loom with 20/2 mercerized cotton in a twill pattern.
I wove alternate pics of 20/2 mercerized cotton (light green) and the Colcolastic thread (dark green). It was easy to weave, the Colcolastic behaved no differently than the regular cotton.
Taken off the loom, the sample looked rather unremarkable. The magic is in the water – as they say. When the sample was wet finished, the Colcolastic yarn came to life. The resulting piece was about 30% smaller than the original sample and has a stretch similar to a tensor bandage.
Now I am intrigued. I need to try this same weave with different spacing. I think an inch or two of regular cotton with 5-6 pics of the Colcolastic should give me a very different result. And then, I need to try it in the warp. I’ll let you know how this works out for me.
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