What determines shrinkage?

Andrew, over at weave4fun describes a curious case of "differential shrinkage".

I told him it has happened to me, too - but as I can't post pictures on his blog, the illustration comes here, instead.

This is a ... lap rug? ruana? - piece of woollen cloth. It has the same yarn in both warp and weft, in several colours/shades.
The yarn comes from an old industrial stash, is woollen-spun and has a grist slightly finer than 6/2 Nm (which is the Swedish "standard" yarn for making blankets).

The longest side is 160 cm, the shortest is 144. The widest end is 47 cm, the narrowest is 42.

- the phenomenon is true for all yarns from this same source, so whenever I want a gradated weave I have to be extremely careful when wet-finishing...

The only explanation I can think of is that the light-coloured yarns have been bleached, and (because of harsher treatment) therefore shrinks less.

I would be very interested to hear other theories!

(It has happened to me with a couple of other yarns, too. And it has always been the dark shades that shrunk most.)

A chair

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the whole chair - a nice lightweight white one.
But it had a nice fabric:

It wasn't professionaly upholstered, which means I could get a small portion of the other side, too:

Lastly: another pic from the shop - this time waay bigger that it could have been, had I had access to a 'puter with a photo handling program...

Another dragon

We went on a day trip yesterday, to see an exhibition by Jeanette Schäring. (Her own pictures are better than mine...)

In Ronneby, I found two dragons, obviously siblings to the one in this post.

How come I find water dragons everytime I go look at exhibitions, these days?

We also spied a weather-proof chair:

Today I'm shop sitting again. A new picture from the co-op:

The blanket idea has been seen as one of the weaves of the month at Riksföreningen för handvävning.

Netiquette?

I've been hanging out on the 'net since '96 (I think). A lot has happened since then, especially to the discussion lists. Then, everything was strictly text-based, and, as most of us were on dial-up and had to pay per minute and/or byte, postings were often well thought-through.
Now, it is easy to add pictures, broadband often (but not always!) means no restrictions on bytes. There are more "lists", more "forums", more "communities". Blogging is free and easy to manage. It has become cheaper to own websites.
But. It seems to me that at the same time words have become less... important? On some communities where I participate, nowadays it is quite normal that commenters have not really read the question, and thus answers/comments on something else entirely.

Let me fabricate an exaggerated example:
Q: "Anybody knows how to define 'houndstooth' pattern?"
A: "Use one light-one dark in both warp and weft and you get 'log cabin'"

Yes, but... that wasn't the question?

Or, another one:
1:st post: "I found this interesting article (link provided)"
1:st comment: "Very interesting, esp the discussion on ..."
2:nd comment: "Where can I find the article?"

?

I suppose the above is a cousin to what I wrote in january.
Except... these (albeit fabricated) examples are from within a forum. That is: the participant(s) has 1) managed to find the forum, 2) managed to sign in and 3) has had enough interest to read the first part of the thread (well, obviously not - but open the page in question).

OK, everyone of us has "senior moments", whether we are old or young. But I think this is getting more and more common?

I have read articles saying that elderly people get "smarter" when they start using the 'net (whatever that means - and, question is: if you already were a 'net user, are you already "smarter" than you would have been, without the 'net?). I have also read articles saying that surfing/gaming children lose reading ability - but also articles that state that children having access to a computer read better than children without.

Whatever. But: shouldn't we all be courteous enough to try to understand the question(s) before we answer/comment?

Some textile content from our co-op, now open seven days/week:

Frequent flyers... in place

I've found it almost impossible to get good photos of the mobiles... but now they are all in palce. Now we only hope the visitors enjoy the exhibition! (More pictures at the guild site)

A double act

A two-tiered mobile, with passengers:

Not quite in focus, but the top one has two passengers: Ture Sventon and Mr Omar.
Ture Sventon is a children's-fiction detective from the '60-ies (still popular) - he bought a flying carpet from mr Omar. He uses it regularly, and mr Omar sometimes helps him investigate.

I thought it could be appropriate to use them, as the exhibition is in the library...

Oh, and I might add that all three are woven in taqueté, threaded on 16 shafts. (But I don't remember if I utilized all blocks)

In a couple of hours all three mobiles will be in place.

A balancing act

or two?
My flying carpets did not make it for the Friday hanging. They will be there on Monday, though!

Not exactly a "beauty shot", but here is one:

A rainbow (well... artist's freedom?) in corduroy, abow a ... pool of rainwater? (Also corduroy, but it did not come out as I envisioned it. Weft is cellophane.)

The rainbow has a rider, a little hard to see:

Two more to come! And I have all morning to mount them...

Flying

Friday we hung most of the flying carpets:

The actual opening will be Monday. More pics to be added...