Archive for the ‘Color-and-Weave’ category

Shadow Weave Samples & A Woolen Pullover

December 7, 2014

 

I wove a few yards of fabric in shadow weave using woolen yarns I found in my stash, and from this fabric I made myself a new pullover.  I haven’t made a new one in a long time because the old ones seem to last forever!  Shadow weave seemed like a good choice because its mostly plain weave structure would work well with these yarns to produce a lightweight, felted fabric after wet finishing, and also because there are so many patterns you can design in shadow weave by alternating light and dark or contrasting colors of yarns.  Shadow weave falls under the category of color-and-weave and is considered to be a color-and-weave effect.

In this post I’ll be sharing photos, drafts, and notes about a couple of shadow weave samples and the pullover.  I wove a sample in cotton yarn, liked the pattern a lot and decided to use it to weave the fabric for the pullover as well.  Here’s a photo of the sample:

Shadow weave cotton sample designed with 7 blocks and woven on 14 shafts

Shadow weave cotton sample designed with 7 blocks and woven on 14 shafts

I developed the weaving draft for this shadow weave pattern that to me looks like a plaited twill, from Fig. 586 in G. H. Oelsner’s A Handbook of Weaves (downloadable at handweaving.net), described by Oelsner as a twill “arranged to produce basket or braided effects.”  However, I did not weave this draft as a twill but used it as a 7-block profile draft:

PROFILE DRAFT - 7 blocks

PROFILE DRAFT – 7 blocks

I wrote an article in the June 2008 issue of the Complex Weavers Journal,Shadow Weave & Log Cabin,” that describes the method I used for designing shadow with independent blocks.  That’s the method I used to develop this 14-shaft thread-by-thread shadow weave draft from the 7-block profile draft:

Thread-by-thread draft for 7 blocks, 14 shafts shadow weave

Thread-by-thread draft for 7 blocks, 14 shafts shadow weave

The red and white contrasting colors work well in the woven sample to show off the plaited/braided pattern.  The colors of the woolen yarns I had available were not as contrasting, but since I wanted an understated look for my pullover I hoped it would look nice anyway and here it is:

Shadow weave woolen fabric after wet finishing, pullover, and close-up of sleeve with knitted cuff, 2014

Shadow weave woolen fabric after wet finishing, pullover, and close-up of sleeve with knitted cuff, 2014

Here are photos of the warp and a close-up of the weaving in progress on my loom to show how it looked before wet finishing:

Woolen warp yarns

Woolen warp yarns

Shadow weave in woolen yarns - close-up of weaving in progress on the loom before wet finishing

Shadow weave in woolen yarns – close-up of weaving in progress on the loom before wet finishing

Notes on weaving the fabric for the shadow weave woolen pullover:  I used a 2-ply heathery purple/blue woolen yarn (272 yds./4 oz. skein, “Regal” from Briggs & Little Woolen Mills) and a beautiful, single-ply brown/black woolen yarn, I’m not sure where I bought it years ago, the label says on it “Black Welsh, 1/5-1/2 YSW.”  These two yarns alternate in the warp and the weft at a sett of 8 e.p.i. and about the same p.p.i.  The width of the web on the loom was 28 inches and the total woven length about 3-1/4 yards.  I wet finished it in the washing machine in warm/hot water with Ivory for wool, agitated only two minutes, rinsed, and carefully spin dried it.  I put it in the dryer on low heat for about 12 minutes and then let it air dry until it was completely dry.  The end result was a slightly felted, lightweight fabric, 22 inches wide and 3 yards long.  The construction of the pullover was fairly easy because of its simple design.  I cut out the pieces, serged the raw edges, sewed the pieces together and knitted the hem, collar, and cuffs.  By the way, Laura Fry is an expert on wet finishing and I treasure her book, Magic in the Water, with real woven swatches attached, great tips, and excellent information.  For more about weaving with woolen yarns see one of my older posts, 2/2 Twill: Handwoven Woolen Wearables.

There are other methods of designing shadow weave than the method of using independent blocks of log cabin that I used to design the pattern for the red and white sample and the pullover.  The Atwater method uses alternate threads for the basic pattern and the threads that form the “shadow” are threaded on the opposite shaft.  The Powell method uses a twill-step sequence and two adjacent blocks weave together in the pattern.  Carol Strickler explains it in detail in A Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns in Chapter 6 on shadow weave.  She writes about Mary M. Atwater who introduced shadow weave in the 1940’s and Harriet Tidball and Marian Powell who later developed other methods for designing the same fabric.

I like to design shadow weave the Atwater way with the help of my weaving software (Fiberworks PCW).  I simply design a threading and/or treadling profile and use the extended parallel repeat to generate a complete draft with the Atwater tie-up.  Below are a photo of an 8-shaft shadow weave sample and two versions of its draft that I designed and wove, similar to pattern #8-16-1 in Marian Powell’s book, 1000(+) patterns in 4, 6, and 8 Harness Shadow Weaves.  I designed the Atwater method draft first by using the extended parallel repeat and then used the shaft shuffler to rearrange the shafts to come up with the Powell method draft with the Powell tie-up.  These two methods produce the same results:

Shadow weave cotton sample woven on 8 shafts - designed with Atwater & Powell methods

Shadow weave cotton sample woven on 8 shafts – designed with Atwater & Powell methods

Drafts for 8-shaft shadow weave cotton sample - Atwater method on left, Powell method on right, two methods, same result!

Drafts for 8-shaft shadow weave cotton sample – Atwater method on left, Powell method on right, two methods, same result!

Marian Powell first published her wonderful book in 1976 without the aid of weaving software.  Some weavers find it a little hard to decipher.

Snowflakes

Season’s Greetings and a happy and healthy New Year to my readers who visit from all corners of the world!  Thank you for visiting and wandering around in my weaving universe!

Peace

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Turned Twill Adventures

September 24, 2013

It all began with our new dining room table that needed a functional and pretty runner.  I say functional first and pretty second because this project was going to be designed so that form follows function and not the other way around.  I must confess that sometimes I do weave things out of curiosity without thinking too much about what useful things I can make from them.  The pattern I designed for the table runner turned out to be a traditional turned twill block design woven with lustrous pearl cotton.  I liked the clean lines between the warp-float and weft-float areas in this design and wondered what a design with fuzzy lines would look like, so I tried that too.  Here are photos and drafts of the runner followed by a few more daring adventures:

Turned Twill Woven Table Runner – 4 Blocks

I wove a few samples first, one with a pearl cotton warp and a linen weft that was lovely, but I liked the colors of pearl cotton I had in my stash better.  So I wove the table runner using 5/2 pearl cotton for warp and weft with a sett of 24 epi and about 21 ppi, using a very firm beat.  A wider sett of maybe 20 or 22 epi would have been better for a more balanced weave woven with a lighter beat.  I wove a few inches of plain weave at the two ends with a thin 20/2 cotton so that I could turn and hand stitch a hem for a neat and lasting finish.  I should mention that I used a floating selvedge on each side that was not threaded through a heddle, only sleyed through the reed.  The woven piece was washed in the washer on gentle and ironed while still damp.  The finished runner is 18 inches wide by 60 inches long, perfect for our table:

Turned Twill Woven Table Runner, 4 blocks, pearl cotton, 2013

Turned Twill Woven Table Runner, 4 blocks, pearl cotton, 2013

I weave on a 16-shaft treadle loom, good for a 4-block, 3/1-1/3 turned twill pattern.  I designed a profile draft where Block A is threaded 1,2,3,4; Block B – 5,6,7,8; Block C – 9,10,11,12; and Block D – 13,14,15,16.  The treadling blocks are the same as the threading blocks.  The direction of the twill lines depends on whether you treadle top to bottom or bottom to top.  I chose to weave it so that the warp-float twills go left to right and the weft-float twills go right to left on the side that I wanted to show when I place it on the table, the way you see it in the above photo.  You can repeat the blocks in a profile draft to your liking, easily accomplished with weaving software, and with block substitution you can try it out with different weave structures.  Below are the profile draft followed by the thread-by-thread draft and a close-up of the draft that shows how the warp and weft are interlaced:

PROFILE DRAFT for Turned Twill Woven Table Runner, 4 blocks

PROFILE DRAFT for Turned Twill Woven Table Runner, 4 blocks

Draft for Turned Twill Woven Table Runner, 4 blocks

Draft for Turned Twill Woven Table Runner, 4 blocks

Close-up of Draft for Turned Twill Woven Table Runner, 4 blocks (interlacement view)

Close-up of Draft for Turned Twill Woven Table Runner, 4 blocks (interlacement view)

Without elaborating too much, I would describe turned twill as an uneven twill, and in this project, blocks are made up of 4-end units of 3/1 twill and 1/3 twill.  The contrast between warp-float and weft-float areas on the same side of the fabric can be used to design many kinds of patterns – from stripes to fancy figures.  Sometimes turned twill is referred to as twill damask.  Irene Emery describes it in great detail in her book, The Primary Structures of Fabrics.  To learn more about blocks and profile drafts, I recommend Madelyn van der Hoogt’s book, The Complete Book of Drafting for Handweavers, Chapter 5: From Blocks to Units.  I think Madelyn also has a video out about block weaves.  I have a few past posts with profile drafts, you can find them if you go to my home page and click on “Profile Drafts” in the Categories cloud.

Networked Twill Woven Fabric – Turned Twill with Fuzzy Borders

After the table runner project, I continued experimenting with turned twill but digressed and kept only the tie-up and instead of blocks I tried networked threadings and treadlings.  I liked the fuzzy borders, very different than the clean cut ones in traditional block turned twill, and the longest float was still only 3.  I also read an article by Alice Schlein in Handwoven magazine in 2001, “Network Drafting – Turned Twills on Eight Shafts,” that inspired me to experiment with this idea.  Below is a photo of some yardage I wove from one of my designs using 20/2 cotton in alternating dark and light colors in the warp and a solid color for the weft, at 42 epi and about 40 ppi.  I washed the yardage by hand and ironed it while it was still damp.  The yardage is a bit narrow in width, about 16 inches, not really functional for my purposes, but hey, it’s kind of interesting and I may use it for next year’s Fine Threads Study Group at Complex Weavers, cut into swatches for members of my group:

Networked Twill Woven Fabric, cotton, 2013

Networked Twill Woven Fabric, cotton, 2013

Below are the drafts for the fabric.

Draft for Networked Twill Woven Fabric

Draft for Networked Twill Woven Fabric

Close-up of Draft for Networked Twill Woven Fabric (interlacement view)

Close-up of Draft for Networked Twill Woven Fabric (interlacement view)

More Turned Twill Drafts – Variations

These are drafts I like but haven’t tried to weave.  This one with a 5-end advancing twill threading and treadling illustrates the fuzzy borders between the warp-float and weft-float areas, and the longest float is 3:

Draft for 5-end Advancing Twill

Draft for 5-end Advancing Twill

Here’s an 8-shaft, traditional 2 block draft and the dramatic change that you see when color-and-weave is used on the same draft – 4 dark and 4 light ends alternating in warp and weft:

Draft for 8-shaft, 2 block, Turned Twill with color-and-weave version

Draft for 8-shaft, 2 block, Turned Twill with color-and-weave version

And here’s the same draft as the previous one, with some fun colors for the color-and-weave effect:

Draft for 8-shaft, 2 block, color-and-weave Turned Twill

Draft for 8-shaft, 2 block, color-and-weave Turned Twill

Hope you enjoyed reading about my Turned Twill adventures.  Just one more thing…

Something Completely Different:

E-Reader Case, Crochet, pearl cotton, 2013

E-Reader Case, Crochet, pearl cotton, 2013

OK, this is not woven, but I just love this little crochet case with the little button that I made for my e-reader.  It’s just simple continuous single crochet with 5/2 pearl cotton going round and round and then back and forth for the flap, finished with a double crochet edging.  It’s sitting on a shadow weave mat so there is some weaving in the picture!

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Color-and-Weave Diamond Twill Scarf

May 31, 2010

I recently started to learn how to design and use profile drafts with my weaving software.  My prior experience with this was mostly with a pencil on graph paper or by copying and pasting rows and columns of blocks using Excel, a spreadsheet program.  I’m also learning how to use a feature called “block substitution” in my weaving program that can generate patterns of different weave structures directly from a profile draft.  Amazing!  A profile draft is made up of blocks and is a shorthand notation of a thread-by-thread draft.  To learn more about profile drafts check out Kerstin’s website: Part 1 and Part 2 of her clear and enlightening explanation about this topic.

Starting out with a fairly simple 4-block profile draft, I tried several different weave structures and chose a diamond twill (turned twill).  I liked it but I just had to see what would happen if color-and-weave effects were added.  I liked it even more and wove this scarf:

Diamond Twill Scarf with Color-and-Weave Effects, Pearl Cotton, 11″ x 72″, 2010

Diamond Twill Scarf with Color-and-Weave Effects, Pearl Cotton, 11″ x 72″, 2010 (Detail 1)

Diamond Twill Scarf with Color-and Weave Effects, Pearl Cotton, 11″ x 72″, 2010 (Detail 2)

To weave the Scarf I used 5/2 pearl cotton with a sett of 20 e.p.i., washed the finished piece by hand, air dried it until almost dry and then steam ironed it.  Here are the profile draft and thread-by-thread weaving draft for the Scarf:

4-Block Profile Draft

Draft 1 – Diamond Twill With Color-and-Weave Effects Generated from 4-Block Profile Draft

The colors I chose, blue and red/orange, appear to mix (referred to as optical mixture or visual mix) as the viewing distance increases into a lavender-like color, and the pattern appears subtle with small areas of color next to one another.  Drafts 1, 2, and 3 are identical in threading, treadling and tie-up and the only variable is color.  So, if instead, I would have woven the Scarf with solid colors in the warp and the weft, there would be larger areas of colors next to one another and the pattern would be more striking with less optical mixture and look like this:

Draft 2 – Diamond Twill Generated From 4-Block Profile Draft

The size of the areas of color next to one another and the viewing distance is important in how optically mixed the colors appear.  There are also other important factors: 1)  value – how light or dark the colors are in relation to each other, 2) hue – what color family they belong to such as the warm family of red, orange and yellow or the cool family of green, blue and violet, and 3)  intensity – purity of the color, whether it has black or white mixed in it.  There is more optical mixture if the colors are not only small in area and are viewed from a distance but are similar in value, hue, and intensity with value having more effect than hue or intensity.  So, if I wanted the pattern to be even more striking with even less optical mixture I could have used a lighter blue and a darker red/orange and it would look like this:

Draft 3 – Diamond Twill Generated From 4-Block Profile Draft

I learned about color theory in an art class back in college in the 70’s, and Josef Albers’ book, The Interaction of Color, was the guiding textbook for the course.  We had to go to the Library to be able to see the early version of the book that had all the color plates in it.  What an inspiration that was!

There are a series of incredible articles on color theory in “The Weaver’s Journal” magazines.  Unfortunately, these magazines are probably not easily available but libraries or local weaving guilds might have them.  The articles, “Color Theory for Handweavers” are in four parts written by Pat Boutin Wald:  Part I: The Basics (issue #38, Fall 1985), Part II: Visual Mix (issue #39, Winter 1986), Part III: Visual Illusions with Color (issue #40, Spring 1986), and Part IV: More Visual Illusions with Color (issue #41, summer 1986).

Lastly, here’s an enjoyable way to learn about color theory, from a lecture at the Textile Museum in Washington D.C. on color in oriental rugs and textiles.  Thanks to the weavers who recommended it!

Just one more thing – there are links to other posts I did about color-and-weave on my “Weaving Drafts and More” page.

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Color-and-Weave Medley on 4 Shafts

January 4, 2010

Margaret Windeknecht studied color-and-weave and wrote about it in her books, Color-and-Weave and Color-and-Weave II.  Her article, “What Is Color-and-Weave?” in Weaver’s magazine #20 (1993) is the best concise explanation I have come across about this topic.  Her work has inspired me so much, and I’m sad she passed away in March, 2009.

Briefly, color-and-weave refers to a pattern effect that you perceive as a result of the combination of a weave structure (the way the warp and weft interlace, as in plain weave, twill, etc.) and the sequence of light and dark or contrasting colored warp and weft threads.  For example, shadow weave falls under this category and is described as a color-and-weave effect with a mostly plain weave structure.  I find that the pattern is most prominent viewed close-up when using fine threads and at a distance when using thicker threads.

I have explored shadow weave and wrote about it in some of my earlier posts as well as in my article.  With inspiration from Margaret’s books and Marian Powell’s book, 1,000(+) Patterns in 4, 6, and 8 Harness Shadow Weaves, I recently designed an alpaca scarf and a few samples with my weaving software.  Below are images of the woven pieces with their drafts.  I tried to capture with my camera the softness and lightness of the alpaca scarf, the springiness and surprisingly nice feel of the acrylic/wool sample, and the sturdy and flat feel of the cotton sample.

After a bit of research, I learned that alpaca is often woven as plain weave or twill with a proper sett and the finished cloth is sometimes brushed well for a stable and soft cloth.  But my curiosity led me to try something I always wanted to do:  weave an alpaca scarf so the yarn remains lofty and to do that I decided to weave it looser than I normally would.  I used 4-ply alpaca (1600 yds./lb.), 12 e.p.i. sett, a broken twill (I think that’s what it is) threading with color-and-weave effects.  I hand washed the finished piece, lay flat to dry (shrinkage was negligible), and lightly brushed both sides.  It turned out super soft, stable enough so the yarns don’t shift even though it’s loosely woven, the brushing probably helps to keep the yarns together.  Here it is:

Alpaca Scarf (color-and-weave), 9 x 68, 2010

Weaving Draft for Alpaca Scarf

I wove the acrylic/wool sample using a type of wool-ease knitting yarn that’s 80% acrylic and 20% wool, machine washable and dryable.  I used a 10 e.p.i. sett, again a broken twill threading with color-and-weave effects, hand washed the sample and machine dried it, shrinkage was negligible.  I was surprised at how the pattern resembles overshot.  This could work well for an easy-care, soft scarf.  Here’s this sample with its draft:

Acrylic/Wool Sample (color-and-weave)

Weaving Draft for Acrylic/Wool Sample

The final images are of the cotton shadow weave sample and its draft.  I was having fun with the draft and just had to see how it would look woven.  I used a 20/2 cotton doubled up and a sett of 24 e.p.i., washed it by hand, ironed while still damp and shrinkage was about 10%.  A table runner might work well with this yarn and pattern.

Cotton Sample (shadow weave)

Weaving Draft for Cotton Sample

If you like looking at color-and-weave drafts, there are 475 of them at handweaving.net!

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Double-Width Woolen Blanket in Plain Weave (with color-and-weave effects)

November 24, 2009

In my study of handweaving, one of the first things I was really excited about learning to weave was double-width cloth.  Way back then my first floor loom was a 4 shaft, 36 inch wide jack loom, and I wanted to weave a woolen blanket that was wider than the width of my loom.  In addition, I decided to weave it using color-and-weave effects.  The images below don’t show it well, but I did make a few mistakes such as the “fold” mark that shows at close inspection and the selvedges on the open sides are not very neat.  Next time I would try to weave it better by using some of the tips I learned in my recent research that is included in the Additional Notes at the end of this post.

Woolen Blanket, 1983, 60″ x 80″

Woolen Blanket (detail)

I created the weaving drafts to illustrate how I wove the Blanket.  Draft 1 shows a commonly used threading and tie-up for plain weave, double-width cloth.  It helps visualize the top and bottom layers, and the notes describe how to weave it so that one side is open and the other side is closed (the fold).  If you want to weave a tubular cloth you would simply eliminate one warp thread at one end, begin at either side and treadle 1, 2, 4, 3.  Draft 2 shows how I used dark and light colors to create the color-and-weave effects.

Draft 1 for Woolen Blanket (showing plain weave double-width structure)

Draft 2 for Woolen Blanket (showing color-and-weave effects)

Additional Notes:

For the warp I used a light weight two-ply (2/10) Vermont virgin wool (dark navy and white) that was spun with extra twist in the singles and in the plying so it was easier and stronger to weave with.  I used the same yarn for the white weft and a singles less tightly twisted wool yarn for the dark gray weft.  I sleyed the reed double than for a single layer cloth (10×2=20 e.p.i.).

The Blanket was 36″ wide on the loom (72″ if opened) and about 100″ long.  Once removed from the loom, I braided the fringes and started the finishing process:  it went into the washing machine with a little detergent, about 10 minutes in the hot water, regular cycle, then in the rinse cycle, and finally in the dryer (knits setting) for about 30 minutes until it was dry.  It shrunk to about 60″ x 80″ , about what I wanted, just a little felted and pretty soft.  You would need to sample and experiment to see what you might expect for a final result because there are variables such as the type of wool yarn, the sett – a closer sett can result in a firmer and smoother felting, different washers and dryers perform differently, timing – longer agitation in the washer usually results in more felting, it can also be hand washed and air dried, etc.  There are some links to a few online articles about the finishing process of woolens in my post, 2/2 Twill: Handwoven Woolen Wearables.

One of the problems in weaving double-width is the fold line that can show when it’s opened up.  To remedy this some weavers use a temple (stretcher) but then some don’t like the temple, some skip a dent before sleying the last two warp ends on the folded edge, and some use weights on the last few warp ends to compensate for the natural drawing in at the edges.  Because it’s hard to see what’s going on in the bottom layer, some weavers use a mirror while weaving to catch any mistakes.  I found an online article at handweaving.net from the Master Weaver series (January 1953, #7), “Double Weaves, Circular and Double-Width Cloth,” that discusses in detail the problems of the fold line.  There is also great info about double width weaving at All Fiber Arts as this link.

In her wonderful book, Exploring Multishaft Design (chapter 7 on double weave), Bonnie Inouye has some tips for weaving double-width cloth.  One of her tips for the fold mark problem is to use “helper” warps, a few extra strong yarns next to the real warps (threaded through the same heddle and dent) that are removed when the weaving is off the loom.  The Master Weaver article I mentioned earlier also has something about removing warp ends: to pull out some of the warp ends where they’re too close together and hoping that it will even out after washing.

I would also recommend at handweaving.net, Paul O’Connor’s monograph, “A Reference Guide for Double Weave.” I find handweaving.net to be a great online resource because not only can you find thousands of weaving drafts but you can search by topic and find lots of articles and books to download and study.

If you’re looking to weave double-width cloth in a weave structure that’s different than plain weave you will probably need at least 8 shafts.  For example, there are several excellent articles about double-width overshot in Weaver’s Magazine, issue #34 (Winter 1996).  Unfortunately, Weaver’s Magazine is out of print but you can find back issues on ebay.

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Shadow Weave #4 (version using variegated colors of chenille)

May 29, 2009

Below are images of a different version of the rayon chenille scarf I wove, this time using black and variegated colors.  To view images of the other similar scarf, the weaving draft and notes on finishing techniques click on Shadow Weave #4 (& my experience weaving with chenille).

The more you weave with chenille and discover what works best for you, all the effort is worth it in the end!

Shadow Weave #4 Variegated Colors Chenille Scarf

Shadow Weave #4 Variegated Colors Chenille Scarf

Shadow Weave #4 Variegated Colors Chenille Scarf (detail)

Shadow Weave #4 Variegated Colors Chenille Scarf (detail)

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Shadow Weave #4 (& my experience weaving with chenille)

May 8, 2009

I have worked with chenille in the past but was never quite satisfied with the results because I encountered problems with the finished fabric such as worming (tiny loops of the yarn appear on the fabric), the fabric shed too much when I shook it, and the fringes became partially untwisted.

So I asked other weavers how they solved these problems.  Su Butler recommended that I use a closer sett that was very helpful.  I also read Ruth Blau’s article (Rayon Chenille: A Primer) in issue #41 of Weaver’s magazine that I highly recommend.  The article also includes step-by-step instructions on how to weave a beautiful rayon chenille “Snowflake Shadow Shawl.”

Ruth gave me permission to quote from her article and here are some points to keep in mind:

“A rayon chenille of 1450 yds/lb, for example, should be sett at 15 or 16 epi for plain weave and as close as 20 epi for twills.”

“Because chenille has a tendency to ‘worm’ (little loops of the fiber migrate to the surface of the finished fabric), choose structures with no floats or very short ones.  Plain weave is the safest choice.  Shadow weave, a plain-weave structure with occasional 2-thread floats, can also be used….”

“There may be as many ways to finish chenille as there are weavers who use the fiber….” Ruth goes on to describe three ways of wet finishing that work well.

I recently wove some rayon chenille scarves and I’m happy with the results.  Below are images of one of the scarves, the weaving draft and a description of the finishing techniques I used.  The weaving draft is from a pattern I tweaked (#8-8-11) from Marian Powell’s book, 1,000 (+) Patterns in 4, 6, and 8 Harness Shadow Weaves.

Shadow Weave #4 Chenille Scarf

Shadow Weave #4 Chenille Scarf

Shadow Weave #4 Chenille Scarf (detail)

Shadow Weave #4 Chenille Scarf (detail)

Shadow Weave #4 draft

Shadow Weave #4 draft

Shadow Weave #4 draft showing structure

Shadow Weave #4 draft showing structure

  1. I used rayon chenille (1450 yds/lb) sett 18 epi and a floating selvedge on each side.
  2. After removing the woven scarf from the loom, using a fringe twister I tightly twisted the fringes (2 ends with 2 ends).
  3. I then washed it and rinsed it by hand in lukewarm water, placed it in the washing machine on the spin cycle only and stopped it every now and then to make sure it doesn’t crease too much.
  4. Next, it went into the dryer with a couple of towels on low heat and I alternated between heat and air dry (my dryer is temperamental) being careful it doesn’t get too hot and removed it when it was completely dry.
  5. I trimmed the fringes and put a little bit of anti-fray fabric glue on the bottom of the knots.

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Shadow Weave #3 – Powell Method

March 14, 2009

I wove this chenille shawl using one of the patterns from Marian Powell’s book, 1000(+) Patterns in 4, 6, and 8 Harness Shadow Weave (page 248).  It follows a twill-step sequence and two adjacent blocks weave together in the pattern (unlike the independent blocks in Shadow Weave #2).

The book was first published in 1976 by Robin & Russ Handweavers and it’s a precious book, so many patterns done without a computer.  By plugging in the information from the book into my weaving program I created the draft you see here.  The horizontal and vertical stripes as well as the outlines of the shapes will appear different depending on whether you start threading/treadling with a light or dark colored thread.  The back of the fabric also appears different than the front.

I wove the shawl using rayon chenille at 14 e.p.i.  The plain weave structure works well with chenille because you don’t have long floats that would make the chenille get loose and snag.

Shadow Weave #3

Shadow Weave #3 detail

Shadow Weave #3 draft

The draft showing the mostly plain weave structure (the longest float is 2):

Shadow Weave #3 draft showing structure

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Shadow Weave #2

March 3, 2009

I like using a profile draft when I design shadow weave patterns.  You can read more about ‘Shadow Weave and Log Cabin’ in ‘My Articles’.  Below is a close-up of a scarf I wove using 5/2 pearl cotton at 16 e.p.i.  The profile draft and weaving draft are below that.  Because the weave structure of Shadow weave is mostly plain weave the fabric was a little stiff when I cut it off the loom, but after finishing by washing and ironing it softened.

Shadow Weave #2Shadow Weave #2 profile draftShadow Weave #2 blocksShadow Weave #2 draft

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