Huck Lace Effect

In my blog post, “Weaving Huck Lace!” I wrote about my experience with weaving patterns designed with clear cut blocks of plain weave and Huck Lace.  I later wrote another post, “Lace & Spot Weave Variations” about patterns designed with warp floats and weft floats on a plain weave background.  So here I am again playing around with lace weaves, designing profile drafts and using block substitution, trying to create something interesting.  I came up with a few drafts that I liked and wove a scarf and a shawl, here they are followed with some drafts and notes:

Huck Lace Effect Scarf

Huck Lace Effect Scarf (8 shafts), flecked cotton/acrylic, 2023

Huck Lace Effect Scarf (8 shafts), flecked cotton/acrylic, 2023 (close-up)

Huck Lace Effect Scarf (8 shafts), flecked cotton/acrylic, 2023 (very close-up)

I used a 20/2 flecked cotton/acrylic yarn to weave this scarf at 30 e.p.i. and about the same p.p.i. on 8 shafts. The pattern looked really nice after wet finishing (hand washing and steam ironing).

I started with a profile draft and used block substitution using Fiberworks weaving software to generate the thread-by-thread draft. It’s so easy to do this: click on Tools, click on Block Substitution in the drop-down menu, click on Lace Weaves, and click on one of the choices – I chose “Huck Lace effect.” On this first try the result was nice but not very interesting:

Profile Draft #1

Huck Lace Effect Draft generated from Profile Draft #1

Then I made a little change to the profile draft that looked hopeful, and I liked the resulting thread-by-thread draft so I used this draft for the Scarf:

Profile Draft #2

Huck Lace Effect Draft for Scarf generated from Profile Draft #2 (click image to enlarge)

Huck Lace Effect Shawl

Huck Lace Effect Shawl (10 shafts), flecked cotton/acrylic, 2023

Huck Lace Effect Shawl (10 shafts), flecked cotton/acrylic, 2023 (close-up)

Huck Lace Effect Shawl (10 shafts), flecked cotton/acrylic, 2023 (very close-up)

Using the same process as for the Scarf, I designed a different pattern for the Shawl. It was more challenging and so much fun! I used the same yarn as for the Scarf except in a golden color. The sett and wet finishing are also the same as for the Scarf. If you would like to learn more about designing and weaving Huck Lace, I recommend the book from the Best of Weaver’s series, Best of Weaver’s – Huck Lace, edited by Madelyn van der Hoogt.

While hiking with my husband in the Fall at a nature preserve, the beauty of the colors and textures inspired me to weave this scarf and shawl:

Inspiration

Happy New Year, see you next time!

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Lampas!

I learned that lampas is a type of double weave with many possible variations.  There are variations that have some areas with “pockets” between layers and variations with “tied” layers that have no pockets, and different yarn sizes can play an important role in lampas.  My experience with this weave comes from studying Alice Schlein’s enlightening e-monograph, Lampas for Shaft Looms.  This monograph is a real treasure, covering just about everything you always wanted to know about lampas including block, straight, and networked threadings, even pick-up lampas, and much more.  I was searching for a new challenge and this was it!

I started out by weaving a few basic “easy” samples of a 2:1 warp ratio of plain weave in both the primary and secondary cloth.  Then I tried something a little more challenging and came up with this:

Lampas Pillow (4 blocks, tied), cotton, 2018

Lampas Pillow (4 blocks, tied), cotton, 2018 (close-up)

My design for this pillow began with a profile draft of 4 threading and treadling blocks:

Profile Draft for Lampas Pillow (4 blocks)

After inspecting all my samples, I decided to use the following specs to weave tied lampas cloth to make the pillow:  warp ratio of 2:1 plain weave for the primary warp and 3-end straight twill for the secondary warp.  There are no pockets at all in the tied version so the cloth is more stable.  I created the draft below (front view for my rising shed treadle loom, using 11 shafts and 9 treadles) that shows two repeats of each threading block (9 units per block) and one repeat of each treadling block (12 units per block).  For this project I repeated each threading block two times and each treadling block also two times, manually substituting the corresponding blocks in the profile draft.  The tie-up shows a skeleton tie-up and 2 treadles have to be pressed at the same time for each weft shot.  I wove it this way and it was actually a lot of fun!  In Fiberworks you can use block substitution to automatically generate a thread-by-thread draft of several types of lampas from a profile draft, and you can choose a normal, skeleton, or liftplan tie-up.  But none of the types of lampas listed was what I wanted so I did the substitutions manually.

Threading and Treadling units (4 blocks, tied) used for Lampas Pillow

A few notes about how I wove the cloth for the pillow:  primary warp – 10/2 light green perle cotton, secondary warp – 40/3 orange quilting cotton, primary weft – 20/2 (2 strands together) beige unmercerized cotton, secondary weft – 5/2 coral pink, purple, and yellow perle cotton; warp ends per inch – 30 (3 per dent in 10-dent reed, 2 primary and 1 secondary per dent).  While the coral pink weft is loom-controlled, the purple and yellow wefts are inlaid by hand.  The cloth was finished by hand washing, air drying, and steam ironing.  The finished cloth is about 26 inches long and 21 inches wide.  The close-up photo of the pillow shows the pattern exactly as it appeared from the front of the loom as I was weaving while the pillow on the sofa is on its side so the pattern is turned.

The photo below is a close-up of a lampas table runner that I designed and wove showing front and back.  I like both sides equally and use it either way.  It’s also 2:1 tied plain weave and 3-end straight twill with the same threading but different tie-up and treadling than the pillow.

Lampas Runner (4 blocks, tied), cotton, 2018 (close-up of front and back)

Next are two photos, front and back of the same sample, illustrating 2:1 plain weave in both the primary and secondary cloth.  The bottom half of each photo shows tied lampas and the top half of each shows untied lampas.  I find the subtle differences very interesting.

Lampas Sample (front and back)

I was delighted when I read in Alice’s monograph that Theo Moorman’s inlay weavings can be considered to be lampas because I explored and wrote a post about the Moorman Inlay Technique some time ago.  Here’s a photo of something I found in my stash of things I wove long ago – a little bag with fabric strips used as the inlay weft:

Moorman Technique – bag woven with fabric strips for inlay pattern weft, 2003

This has been another enjoyable and exhilarating weaving experience!

Happy New Year 2018!

UPDATE November, 2018:  I developed an article from this blog post that is published in the October 2018 issue of the Complex Weavers Journal, “Lampas and Moorman Inlay Pillow.”  You can download the wif files of the profile draft and the thread-by-thread draft of the four blocks from the Complex Weavers website at this link.

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Turned Taqueté Variations

The next step in my weaving experience with turned taqueté was to try some variations.  While I was browsing through Marian Stubenitsky’s amazingly beautiful book, Weaving with Echo and Iris, I came across an 8-shaft draft in Chapter 7 of a turned taqueté variation with a different interval – the threading is designed with an interval of 3 instead of the usual 4 as in true turned taqueté.  I designed a few drafts this way on 8 shafts, chose one I liked and wove some yardage.  I also experimented with another turned taqueté variation that was inspired by my fascination with interleaved threadings.  The drafts I designed this way looked very interesting and so this time I chose a 12-shaft draft that I liked and wove some yardage as well.  Following are photos, drafts, and notes of these two fun projects.

Turned Taqueté Variation – 8 Shafts

First, here are photos of the woven work:

Turned Taquete Variation, fabric woven on 8 shafts, Tencel & cotton, 2015 (blue weft version)

Turned Taquete Variation, fabric woven on 8 shafts, Tencel & cotton, 2015 (blue weft version on the loom)

Turned Taquete Variation, fabric woven on 8 shafts, Tencel, cotton & rayon, 2015 (yellow weft version)

And here are images of the profile draft and a partial thread-by-thread draft:

PROFILE DRAFT for 8-shaft Turned Taquete Variation

Partial thread-by-thread draft for 8-shaft Turned Taquete Variation

The thread-by-thread draft is generated from the profile draft.  When using Fiberworks PCW weaving software, the threading design line in the profile draft is first networked (initial 2) and then extended parallel repeat (shafts shifting by 3 not 4).  The treadling is generated by simply adding plain weave, as you can see in the partial thread-by-thread draft.  I wasn’t sure if I did this correctly so I emailed Marian and asked her about it, and she assured me that I did it well.

Additional notes:  I used the same warp to weave both the fabric with the blue weft and the fabric with the yellow weft, alternating 8/2 Tencel (variegated colors of dark browns, reds, and purples) and 2 strands together of 20/2 off-white cotton.  The blue weft is 20/2 cotton (only 1 strand, not 2 together) and the yellow weft is 20/2 rayon (also just 1 strand).  The sett is 40 epi and about 28 ppi.  I used a 20 dent reed, 2 ends per dent, but you can probably use a reed that’s not as fine and be able to avoid getting reed marks after wet finishing.  However, I would recommend weaving a sample first and resleying if necessary because in this particular variation the finished fabric looks much better if certain warp ends are sleyed together in the same dent.  For example, with my 20 dent reed I sleyed together in the same dent the ends on shafts 1&4, 2&5, etc. rather than 4&2, 5&1 etc.  I think the reason for this is the way certain warp threads slide together here.

I washed the yardage by hand, spin dried in the washer, hung to dry and steam ironed.  The pattern became a little less sharp than before wet finishing.  The first photo above of the fabric viewed from a distance was taken after wet finishing while the close-ups were taken before wet finishing.

I was going to make something functional from these fabrics, but for now I enjoy just looking at them as they are.

Turned Taqueté Variation – 12 Shafts

Here are photos of the woven work for this project:

Turned Taquete Variation, fabric for pillow woven on 12 shafts, pearl cotton warp & acrylic weft, 2015

Turned Taquete Variation, fabric woven on 12 shafts, pearl cotton warp, acrylic weft, 2015

Turned Taquete Variation, fabric woven on 12 shafts, pearl cotton warp, acrylic weft, 2015 (close-up)

The warp is wound with 4 different colors of 5/2 pearl cotton yarn.  You may also notice the rug in the photo, that is a summer & winter, weft-faced taqueté rug that I wove years ago:

Winding the pearl cotton warp

I used a profile draft here too but made revisions to the final thread-by-thread draft until it looked like this:

Draft for 12-shaft Turned Taquete Variation (view with corrected aspect ratio)

Partial thread-by-thread draft for 12-shaft Turned Taquete Variation (interlacement view)

As mentioned earlier, I designed this variation by interleaving two threadings, actually I interleaved the same threading with itself.  It may look like a turned polychrome taqueté, but Bonnie Inouye pointed out to me that the threading and tie-up would look different if that was the case.

Additional Notes:  I originally wove some yardage using this draft with a very close sett of 20/2 cotton but was not satisfied with how it looked.  So then I resleyed part of it with a wider sett and tied on the thicker and more lustrous 5/2 pearl cotton warp.  I really like the way the four different bright colors in the warp mix with one another when they are woven together this way.  The sett is 28 epi and about 20 ppi.  For the weft I used a lofty white 20/2 acrylic yarn that I had in my stash.  Wet finishing is the same as for the 8-shaft turned taqueté variation.  I really like the little pillow I made from this yardage!

I’m not done yet with exploring turned taqueté.  What’s next?  Maybe a painted warp?  Until then…happy weaving everyone!

UPDATE 2019:  Marian Stubenitsky, author of Weaving with Echo and Iris, is now sharing some of her beautiful drafts on handweaving.net at this link.

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Turned Taqueté!

This year I learned to design and weave turned taqueté, a warp-faced or warp-emphasis weave also called “warp-faced compound tabby” and other names as well.  I love it!  In the past I wove weft-faced taqueté rugs and now, what inspired me to explore turned taqueté is Bonnie Inouye’s article, “Turned Taqueté: an Introduction,” published by Complex Weavers in the June 2014 issue of the Complex Weavers Journal.  Bonnie’s article has everything you need to know about this versatile weave to get you started.  You can view images from her article including downloadable WIF files of the drafts (but not the text) on the June 2014 Gallery page of the Complex Weavers website.  Bonnie also contributed two 4-shaft turned taqueté drafts to handweaving.net that can also be viewed online, one is a checkerboard pattern with two clean threading blocks and the other one is a flame pattern with four overlapping threading blocks.

Keeping in mind Bonnie’s suggestions that for scarves the sett should be between twill and double weave and the weft should be much finer than the warp, I began my quest.  I wove a few samples trying out the clean checkerboard pattern first but decided to continue exploring with overlapping threading blocks that I liked better.  I ended up designing and weaving a few 8 and 12-shaft patterns this way.  In this post I’m happy to share photos, drafts and notes of an 8-shaft scarf, a photo of a placemat woven on the same threading, and photos of another scarf woven on 12 shafts.

Here are photos of the 8-shaft Turned Taqueté Scarf:

Turned Taquete Scarf woven on 8 shafts, Tencel & rayon, 2015

Turned Taquete Scarf woven on 8 shafts, Tencel & rayon, 2015 (detail)

I started by designing this Profile Draft:

PROFILE DRAFT for 8-shaft Turned Taquete Scarf

The thread-by-thread draft is derived from the Profile Draft, easily generated by weaving software in several steps.  Bonnie gives clear directions about how to do this in her article.  This is how it looks using Fiberworks:

Thread-by-thread draft for 8-shaft Turned Taquete Scarf

Here’s a close-up of the upper right hand section of the above draft:

Partial thread-by-thread draft for 8-shaft Turned Taquete Scarf (interlacement view)

This next draft shows the structure of turned taqueté, recognizable by the letters “T” turned on their side:

Partial thread-by-thread draft for Turned Taquete Scarf (structure view showing sideways T’s)

My thread-by-thread draft is not easily readable as shown so I made separate threading and treadling drafts that are even larger and clearer to read when you click on them.  Note that the threading draft may be threaded as is for this scarf, but each block in the treadling draft should be repeated more than one time (I did it 3 times for this scarf) to achieve a more elongated pattern.  For example, reading the treadling draft from the bottom to the top and starting with the column on the far right, repeat three times:  1,4,2,4; then repeat three times:  1,5,2,5 and so on.  Repeat the entire treadling draft as many times as you wish depending on how long you want the scarf to be.  Here are the threading and treadling drafts including the tie-up:

Threading Draft for 8-shaft Turned Taquete Scarf

Treadling Draft for 8-Shaft Turned Taquete Scarf (repeat each block of 4 picks three times to elongate the pattern for this scarf)

Notes on weaving the scarf:  I wove this scarf by using a warp of 8/2 Tencel, alternating light and dark colors (purple and off-white) with a sett of 40 ends per inch and an off-white 20/2 rayon weft at about 30 picks per inch.  The result is a warp-emphasis weave, the weft shows a little but the warp is what shows the most, and the scarf drapes nicely.  It was very easy to weave with  a light/medium beat, nice selvedges with no special threading or floating selvedges needed.  I twisted the fringes and washed the scarf by hand, let it hang to dry, and steam ironed it.  Shrinkage was about 10%.  The finished scarf is about 9-1/2 inches wide and 48 inches long plus the fringe.

Placemats woven on the same threading:  Keeping the same threading after cutting the scarf off the loom, I resleyed the warp to 30 ends per inch and tied on a new warp with a thicker, 8/4 cotton carpet warp and wove a couple of placemats using a 20/2 cotton weft at about 16 picks per inch.  I kept the treadling at only 1 repeat of each block in order to achieve a more squared pattern rather than an elongated one, repeating the first block several times for the borders.  These placemats turned out to be closer to being warp-faced than warp-emphasis – you can hardly see the weft, rather nice and sturdy, each one about 13 inches wide and 16 inches long plus an inch or so of fringe.  I like experimenting with setts, and turned taqueté is very satisfying in this regard.  Here’s a close-up and full view of one of these placemats:

Turned Taquete Placemat woven on 8 shafts, cotton, 2015

Lastly, as a member of the Fine Threads Study Group at Complex Weavers, I challenged myself to design and weave something interesting for this year’s study and sample exchange – turned taqueté on 12 shafts:

Turned Taquete Scarf woven on 12 shafts, Tencel & cotton, 2015

Turned Taquete Scarf woven on 12 shafts, Tencel & cotton, 2015 (detail)

The longest float in turned taqueté is three so it’s great for weaving soft and supple scarves as well as thicker and sturdier placemats.  Bonnie mentions in her article that even chenille works well as warp with this weave.  I may try some more color experiments next time, maybe dyeing or painting a warp or trying a variation of this weave.

Hope you enjoyed looking at my work and are inspired to try turned taqueté too.  See you next time!

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Shadow Weave Samples & A Woolen Pullover

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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!

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Double Weave Revisited

Of the many ways of designing and weaving double weave, my favorite is loom-controlled, patterned double weave.  On my 16-shaft treadle loom I can weave up to 4 blocks of plain weave as well as network drafted double weave designs.  I have written several posts on this topic and thought it was time for another visit because it really is so much fun!

In this post I share photos, drafts and notes about my recent projects that include a 16-shaft, 4-block double weave table runner and a couple of 8-shaft, 2-block placemats.  I also share a photo of a double weave Tencel shawl that I plan on submitting to my guild’s annual exhibit in April.

Double Weave Table Runner – 16 shafts

The first project is a table runner I wove using 5/2 pearl cotton with a sett of 28 e.p.i. that turned out to have a fairly good but not perfectly balanced weave.  I happen to like it this way, but a wider sett of 24-26 e.p.i. would have helped make the rectangular areas be more square.  After twisting the fringes, I washed it by hand, spin dried in the washer but I could have rolled it in a towel too, laid flat to dry and steam ironed while it was still a bit damp.  Here it is:

Double Weave Table Runner, Pearl Cotton, 2014

As part of the preparation for this project I wove a small plain weave sample to see how the colors mix with each other:

Prep for Double Weave Table Runner – yarns, warp, and sample

The design started out with a profile draft that is a variation of the same profile draft I designed for the Turned Twill Table Runner that I wrote about in my previous post.  It’s a 4-block profile draft to be woven on 16 shafts:

PROFILE DRAFT for Double Weave Table Runner (4 blocks to be woven on 16 shafts)

With the magic of block substitution, my weaving software (Fiberworks PCW) generated the complete drawdown.  You can do this manually as well (it’s still magical!) by looking at the profile draft and substituting the following for each block:  first block is threaded and treadled 1, 2, 3, 4; second block 5, 6, 7, 8; third block 9, 10 ,11, 12; and fourth block 13, 14, 15, 16.  I then experimented with different colors and came up with a color scheme I liked, choosing colors that I had in 5/2 pearl cotton in my stash.  Below are different views of the thread-by thread draft.  The double weave view shows how each side actually appears, one side appears different than the other side.  The close-up interlacement view shows how the warp and weft interlace or cross each other and gives you a hint that there are 2 layers with areas in one layer exchanging places with areas in the other layer:

Draft for double weave table runner (double weave view, side 1)

Draft for double weave table runner (double weave view, side 2)

Draft for double weave table runner (close-up of one section, interlacement view, side 1)

UPDATE 2017:  Bianca Geiselhart used my draft to weave two lovely placemats.  She sent me this beautiful photo and gave me pemission to post it here:

Bianca Geiselhart’s Double Weave Placemats, 2017

Double Weave Placemats – 8 shafts

The second project is a couple of placemats I wove using 20/2 unmercerized cotton, 2 strands used together as one, with a sett of 40 e.p.i.  I wove a few inches of basket/plain weave with the 20/2 cotton used singly in between mats to be turned and hand sewn as hems for a neat finish after the wet finishing process which was the same as that for the table runner.  Here’s how the placemats turned out:

Double Weave Placemats, Cotton, 2014

The design for the placemats also started out with a profile draft, but this time with only 2 blocks to be woven on 8 shafts:

PROFILE DRAFT for Double Weave Placemats (2 blocks to be woven on 8 shafts)

As before, block substitution generated the complete drawdown, the first block is threaded and treadled 1, 2, 3, 4 and the second block 5, 6, 7, 8.  Since this pattern looks so busy I decided to use only 2 colors to make it appear simpler and to highlight the balance between the dark and light areas.  Below is the thread-by-thread draft in double weave view of one side.  I didn’t show the other side because it looks the same except that the dark and light areas are interchanged.  The close-up of one section of the draft in interlacement view also shows the basket/plain weave I mentioned earlier that I used to weave for the hems on the placemats.  As you can see in the tie-up you need two extra treadles to do this.

Draft for Double Weave Placemats (double weave view)

Draft for Double Weave Placemats (close-up of one section, interlacement view with basket weave for the hem)

A Challenge

OK, I asked myself, what now?  How about challenging myself to weave something interesting in double weave to enter in my guild’s show in March?  After experimenting with many drafts, I came up with a 16-shaft networked draft for double weave that looks like mosaic when viewed from a distance and also looks interesting when viewed close-up.  I liked the design and wove this Tencel shawl:

Double Weave Mosaic Shawl, Tencel, 2014

UPDATE March 31, 2014:  This shawl received “The Kathryn Wellman Memorial Award” for imaginative weaving incorporating design, color and texture at the 2014 Philadelphia Guild of Handweavers “Celebration of Fibers” exhibit.

Now it’s time to start thinking about the next challenge…see you next time!

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Turned Twill Adventures

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

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

Draft for Turned Twill Woven Table Runner, 4 blocks

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

Below are the drafts for the fabric.

Draft for Networked Twill Woven Fabric

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

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

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

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

Something Completely Different:

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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Rep Weave: Placemats (4 shafts) & Table Runner (16 shafts)

Warp-faced rep weave, sometimes referred to as warp rep, mattor, or ripsmatta, is a relative of shadow weave.  They are alike in that the structure of both these weaves is mostly plain weave and light and dark ends alternate in the warp and are threaded on pairs of shafts.  They differ in that the warp in warp rep is sett much closer and thick and thin wefts alternate to create horizontal ridges with an interesting, ribbed texture.

Having woven rep weave before, I wanted to give it another try and learn more about it.  Following are images, drafts, and notes describing my recent rep weave projects that were great fun to weave.

Rep Weave (Warp Rep) Placemats (4 shafts)

While researching this topic, I came across a unique article I found online at handweaving.net, “Mattor,” by Robert Frederic Heartz, published in 1936.  I was inspired by the informative, hand-drawn illustrations, drafts, and meticulous notes.  I picked Draft No. 7 accompanying Illustration No.7, entered the info into my weaving program and wove a set of four placemats:

Warp Rep Placemats, 14″x 18″, cotton, 2011

Warp Rep Placemats, 14″ x 18″, cotton, 2011 (detail)

If you look at the article, each threading block consists of 8 warp ends, but you can vary this number as long as it’s in multiples of pairs.  I translated the handwritten notes into this computer generated profile draft and noted the block numbers on top:

Profile Draft for Warp Rep Placemats showing threading blocks

The threading of each block and the tie-up is easier to understand if you look at the two views below.  The top one is an interlacement view so you can see the plain weave structure and what is actually going on with the thick and thin wefts.  The bottom warp rep view shows what the actual weaving will look like, the weft is no longer visible covered by the close sett of the warp.  I didn’t include the border that is shown in the handwritten notes in the article because you can create solid colored vertical stripes by simply repeating any block using a solid color instead of alternating light/dark colors as in the rest of the warp.  Here are the two views:

Draft for Warp Rep Placemats showing interlacement and warp rep views

Additional Notes:

I wove a few samples with different setts and yarns before weaving the placemats to help me figure out how many times to repeat each block in the threading and the treadling so they would turn out nice and a good size for a placemat.  I followed the threading exactly the same number of times as indicated in the article with 8 ends in each block.  However, I treadled as if there were only 2 ends in each treadling block, otherwise the pattern would have been too elongated.  I also created a pdf of the thread-by-thread and treadling drafts for the placemats:  Threading & Treadling for Rep Weave Placemats

For the warp I used 20/2 cotton (2 strands together used as one) at a sett of 60 e.p.i., sleyed 4 ends per dent in a 15-dent reed.  For the wefts I used a thick, 4-ply cotton of variegated colors alternating with a thin 20/2 cotton (single, not doubled up as in the warp).  The final measurement of each placemat turned out to be 14 inches x 18 inches after wet finishing – washing by hand and steam ironing while still damp, and hand stitching the hems.  Next time they can go in the washing machine on the gentle cycle.

A word about the shed:  Because of the close sett it can be difficult to get a wide open shed for smooth and fast weaving.  In this project it was good but I still had to help it a little, prying it open wider as the shuttle passed through.  For a neater selvedge, I placed the weft in a rounded, inverted “v” shape and beat it in on the opposite shed.  I read in one article that if you keep the warp tension looser you can lay the weft in straight and the looser warp will do all the bending, but I didn’t try it this way.

There are books and articles with different tips on how to weave rep weave efficiently, my favorite is Joanne Tallarovic’s book, Rep Weave and Beyond.  “Weaver’s” magazine has many articles on rep weave that were written during its publication years from 1988-2000.  My favorites are:

• “A Designer’s Handbook: Warp Rep,” by Donna Sullivan, Weaver’s #11
• “‘Ripped’ About Rep,” by Rosalie Neilson, Weaver’s #9
• “4 Shaft, 4 Block Rep: A Sampler,” by Rosalie Neilson, Weaver’s #9
• “Warp Rep: 8 Shafts, 8 Blocks,” by Rosalie Neilson, Weaver’s #11
• “Warp Rep: 16 Shafts, 16 Blocks,” by Rosalie Neilson, Weaver’s #15

Rosalie Neilson’s website has info about her work including the 4-shaft warp rep Sampler.

Rep Weave (Warp Rep) Table Runner (16 shafts)

Among my collection of samples woven by members of the Fine Threads Study Group at Complex Weavers, I found a warp rep sample that was designed by using parallel threading and treadling that inspired me to design a table runner.  I also read in one of Rosalie Neilson’s articles, “Warp Rep: 16 Shafts, 16 Blocks” (Weaver’s #15), how to easily derive tie-ups from 16-shaft twills that can be used in warp rep.  I went ahead and designed many parallel threadings and treadlings, tried them with different tie-ups, chose one I liked, and after a few revisions (ok, many revisions), was ready to weave it.  Using weaving software was really helpful in speeding up this process.  Here is the finished woven piece:

Warp Rep Table Runner, 19″x 35″, pearl cotton, 2011

Below are two drafts for the Table Runner, one is a close-up that shows the colors I used in the warp, the tie-up, and the thick and thin wefts.  The other is a black & white version that shows one full repeat of the threading and treadling.

Weaving Draft for Warp Rep Table Runner (color detail and b&w showing one repeat)

Additional Notes:

I wove a few samples first for this project as well and chose 5/2 pearl cotton for the warp, sett at 40 e.p.i. and a thick, 4-ply cotton of variegated colors for the thick weft and a 20/2 cotton for the thin.  I tried sleying 4 ends per dent in a 10-dent reed but some warp ends didn’t sit where they were supposed to and so the colors didn’t look exactly right.  I resleyed at 2 ends per dent in a 20-dent reed, but this made it more difficult to get a wide open shed.  On the other hand, there was ample space between pairs of ends (e.g., 1,9 and 2,10) that somewhat compensated for this handicap.  I still had to insert a wooden sword in the narrow shed behind the reed, turning it on its side to open the shed wider so the shuttle could easily pass through.  It was slow weaving but it worked.

The only finishing for the Table Runner was twisting the fringes, no wet finishing because I want to use it mostly as a decorative piece.

There are many variations possible in rep weave such as multiple color combinations, a lesser dense warp where the weft plays a bigger role because it’s more visible, and even warp rep and weft rep in the same piece.  I wove a couple of different colorful warp rep runners some time ago that may be of interest, the third and fourth images on my Gallery – 2005 & 2007 page.

UPDATE January 2017:  I revisited warp rep in 2017 and you can find photos, drafts, and notes in my new post that describe how I designed and wove two warp rep runners and a belt .

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Weaving Huck Lace!

I know how to do Filet Crochet, it’s very open, lacy, looks beautiful using fine yarns, and patterns can be easily designed on graph paper.  So, I thought why not try to weave something like this.  From the many types of lace weaves, I chose Huck Lace.  I spent hours designing 7-block profile drafts for Huck and plain weave blocks that I could weave on my 16-shaft treadle loom.

Although a main subject on a background is nice, I was really trying to design a profile draft with a balance between the Huck and the plain weave areas so that the negative and positive spaces would be equally important.  This way the patterns formed by the Huck areas as well as the plain weave areas would be interesting.

I came up with a profile draft I thought would work, and what started out to be a lacy shawl ended up as a curtain because I love the way it looks when light passes through it.  Following are images, drafts and other details about it.

Huck Lace Curtain (pearl cotton) 2010

Huck Lace Curtain (pearl cotton) 2010 (detail 1)

Huck Lace Curtain (pearl cotton) 2010 (detail 2)

Profile Draft and Partial Weaving Draft:

After designing the profile draft, I used the “block substitution” feature in my weaving program to generate a complete thread-by-thread weaving draft.  But you don’t really need a full thread-by-thread draft; just follow the block order in the profile draft.  For example, if you look at the Profile Draft and Partial Weaving Draft below, reading right to left and top to bottom, the first block is threaded and treadled as:  1-6-1-6-1, 2-5-2-5-2, 1-6-1-6-1; the next block as:  2-7-2-7-2, 1-8-1-8-1, 2-7-2-7-2; and so on.

PROFILE DRAFT for Huck Lace Curtain

Partial Weaving Draft for Huck Lace Curtain

Huck Lace Unit:

I used a 5-thread Huck in this project where warp floats alternate with weft floats.  The image and draft below show how one full unit of this type of Huck can be threaded and treadled repeatedly on 4 shafts as 2-3-2-3-2, 1-4-1-4-1.  For my project I used 1-1/2 units per block.

Huck Lace Sample and Draft

For more on Huck Lace using 4 shafts there are two superb articles on Weavezine:  Laura Fry’s “Woven Lace: Huck on a Twill Threading” and Michele Belson’s “Color Gamps” that has a draft for “Huck Lace Blocks in Plain Weave Ground.”

And my favorite book on the subject is:  Huck Lace (The Best of Weaver’s), edited by Madelyn van der Hoogt.

Weaving Notes:

I wove a few samples at first trying out different setts and yarns.  The winner was 20/2 pearl cotton sett at 30 e.p.i., sleyed 2 per dent in a 15-dent reed.  This sett is loose compared to 36 e.p.i. that I often use for plain weave with this type of yarn, but looser works well in this case.

With an added inch or so of plain weave at the selvedges, the width on the loom was about 26″ with a finished width of 24″ after hand washing and steam ironing while still lightly damp.  I wove enough yardage to make curtains for a small window.

There was one other sample I really liked where I used a very fine 64/2 merino silk yarn.  I’m thinking of doing a Huck Lace project with this.  Stay tuned.

Update (February 2011):  I wove two Huck Lace Shawls using the 64/2 merino silk yarn with a sett of 45 e.p.i., they feel really luxurious.  Here’s a picture:

Huck Lace Shawl, silk & merino wool, 17″x68″, 2011

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Taquete: I Wove Rugs on a Summer & Winter Threading

…but didn’t know it was called Taqueté.

In the early 90’s I wove several rugs and used Peter Collingwood’s book, The Techniques of Rugweaving, as my guide.  I especially liked the two-tie unit, four-end block weaves described in Chapter 8 that use the same threading system that is used in Summer & Winter (S&W).  The weave is weft-faced, without any tabby wefts, and when 2 weft colors are used, one weft color shows on one side and the other weft color on the reverse side.  Years later, as I was browsing through Weaver’s Magazine #42, the issue about rugs, I read that when S&W is used this way the structure is called Taqueté.  Taqueté can also be woven using finer yarns and one might not recognize it as a rug technique.

Since I already did S&W related posts (here and here), I thought it’s time to write about how I wove two of my small Taqueté rugs that are being used as meditation mats.  I wove a series of these in different colors and patterns on the same warp by rearranging the treadling blocks for each design.

RUG #1

Taquete Rug #1, Wool, 30″ x 32″, 1993

Taquete Rug #1 (detail showing both sides), Wool, 30″ x 32″, 1993

Profile Draft for Rug #1:

I originally designed these rugs on graph paper starting with a profile draft.  In this Rug there are 4 threading blocks – A, B, C, and D, and 4 treadling blocks – 1, 2, 3, and 4.  A total of 6 shafts and 8 treadles are needed to weave it on a treadle loom.  Here’s what my original profile draft looked like:

Profile Draft for Taquete Rug #1 (A-D threading blocks) (1-4 treadling blocks)

Partial Weaving Draft for Rug #1:

The  Draft below shows the threading to be 4 ends per block and may be repeated as many times as desired.  In this Rug it’s repeated only one time because at a sett of 4 e.p.i. that was enough to create the design that I wanted.  If read left to right, the threading goes like this:  Block A (1,3,2,3); Block B (1,4,2,4); Block C (1,5,2,5); and Block D (1,6,2,6)

The Draft below also shows the treadling to be 4 wefts per block that may be repeated as many times as desired.  For lack of space, this Draft does not show the actual number of times each block is repeated to create the design for this Rug which is 5 times (total of 20 wefts).  Note that 2 treadles are pressed at the same time for each weft because otherwise 16 treadles would be needed instead of only 8.  If read from top to bottom, the treadling goes like this:  Block 1:   lift shafts 1+3 together and throw a weft with the color indicated; lift shafts 1+(4,5&6) together and throw the second weft with the color indicated; lift shafts 2+3 and throw the third weft with the color indicated; and lift shafts 2+(4,5&6) together and throw the fourth weft with the color indicated.  Likewise, refer to the Draft for treadling Blocks 2, 3, and 4.

The Profile draft is a shorthand notation for a thread-by-thread draft (the Partial Weaving Draft here).  Once you know what each block represents you simply follow the block order in the Profile draft when threading and treadling.

Partial Weaving Draft for Taquete Rug #1

Weft-Faced View Profile Draft for Rug #1:

By entering information a particular way into my weaving program, namely in liftplan mode with alternating colors and in weft-faced view, an amazing profile draft is generated that can easily be changed and used with the block substitution feature to create other weave structures, not only Taqueté.

Weft-Faced View Profile Draft for Taquete Rug #1 (showing both sides)

RUG #2

Taquete Rug #2 (detail showing both sides), Wool, 30″ x 32″, 1993

Partial Weaving Draft and Weft-Faced View Profile Draft for Rug #2:

Although I wove this Rug on the same warp as Rug #1, it can easily be woven using only 3 shafts and 4 treadles because it’s really just the repetition of 1 threading block and 1 treadling block.  Again, for lack of space, the Partial Weaving Draft does not show the actual number of treadling repeats but together with the Weft-Faced View Profile Draft you get the idea:

Partial Weaving Draft for Taquete Rug #2

Weft-Faced View Profile Draft for Taquete Rug #2 (showing both sides)

Additional Notes:

For both these rugs I used 5/2 warp twist cotton tripled with a sett of 4 e.p.i. (ends per inch) for the warp, and a 4-ply light/medium rug wool tripled for the weft approximately 20 p.p.i. (picks or wefts per inch).  The finished rugs are 30″ x 32″ and each weighs about 3 lbs., nice and thick and comfortable to sit on.  I have also used linen for the warp when weaving larger rugs, but I heard that seine twine is also very good, even better because fringes don’t fray as much with less overall wear and tear over time.

My favorite large Taqueté rug that I wove in 1990 is in our living room and we really do use one side in the summer and turn it over to the reverse side in the winter because both sides are equally nice.  It’s the second image on my Gallery – 1985 & 1990 page.

By the way, I posted an image of a new shadow weave sample I wove this year for the Fine Threads Study group at Complex Weavers, it’s on my Gallery 2010 page, the fourth image down.

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