Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Swivel

 
A heads-up: This (and the next in this series) will be long, technical, and likely boring, except for the pictures (hopefully). This is because I really struggled to understand this one. I had to piece together bits of information from five different books plus experiment a bit. I'm hoping that by being thorough, I won't be completely lost should I decide to revisit it again someday.
 
Originally, this post was going to cover two related manners of weaving, swivel and petitpoint, of which petitpoint is a subcategory of swivel (although, apparently, some say it's the other way around). Why it's called swivel, I have no idea.

Harriet Tidball classifies swivel as a weaving method rather than a threading system. This means it can be treadled on a variety of threadings. Swivel treadling with crackle threading is one of the variations.

Similarities between swivel and petitpoint

  • Weaves as small dots on plain weave on the front of the fabric, with long floats on the back. 
  • Two shuttles and two colors (pattern and background)
  • Uses a 3/1 twill tie-up, instead of a 2/2 twill tie-up (see "tie-up" in my sampler introduction.)
  • 1-3-4, 1-2-4, 1-2-3, 2-3-4 & tabby
  • With a table loom, I must lift the sets of shafts myself to make the shed.
  • This unbalanced tie-up is what weaves the design on the front of the cloth and leaves long floats on the back. 
  • Usually woven on twill threadings, which is why it works with crackle. (See "threading" in my sampler introduction.)

Differences between swivel and petitpoint

  • The difference (that I can tell) between swivel and petitpoint, is that swivel uses only pattern and background wefts. Petitpoint uses uses the same, with the addition of tabby.

Swivel

#28, crackle threading  treadled as swivel
  • alternates 3 shafts with 3 shafts 
  • one shed for pattern (p), the other for background (b, called “binder” by Bress)
  • treadled as drawn in (treadling follows the threading draft). From Bress:
    • Block A is threaded on shafts 1-2-3-2 and treadled
      • 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4
      • 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
      • 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
      • 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
    • Block B is threaded on shafts 2-3-4-3 and treadled
      • 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
      • 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
      • 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4 
      • 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
    • Block C is threaded on shafts 3-4-1-4 and treadled
      • 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
      • 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4
      • 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4 
      • 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4
    • Block D is threaded on shafts 4-1-2-1 and treadled
      • 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4
      • 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4
      • 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
      • 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4
    • no tabby
  • Yarns
    • background weft is the same weight and color as the warp
    • pattern weft is same weight as warp but a contrasting color

Notes & Observations

  • To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to include this in my sampler at first. The sticking point for me was the long floats in the back. If crackle doesn’t have floats longer than three ends, is this really crackle??? None of the authors questioned it, and it does look intriguing, so I gave it a tr.
  • I think some interesting things could be done with color. Maybe thread each block in different colors and ditto with the weaving.
  • I like the look of it, but found it complicated to weave. With a table loom, I’m lifting three shafts for each throw of the shuttle and I found it difficult to keep track of. I worked out a system for keeping my place, but it was slow going.
  • The long floats on back limit the use of the fabric. It would best serve for things that either could be lined, like vests and jackets, or which displayed only one side of the fabric, such as throw pillows or upholstery.
With a hand mirror, you can see the long floats on the back.

Resources

 

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Lengthwise Stripes

Sample #27 of my 4-shaft crackle manners of weaving sampler. 

Lengthwise stripes are attractive and easy to weave. Using different warp colors is one way to do it, but in this sample, the stripes are created with pattern weft. The tie-up is for 2/2 twill, so it's just a matter of choosing one pair of shafts to lift for every shot. Tabby is thrown in between to stabilize the fabric. My sample was done with shafts 2 & 3, just because I liked the location of the stripes with my particular threading.

#27, lengthwise stripes

The wider brown stripes in the pattern blocks, of course are dominant. But what I find interesting, is the tiny stripes in the background blocks. This may change with wet finishing, which will shrink the fabric somewhat, and is something I'm curious about. 

With a different threading, I could change the width and location of the stripes. I could even make them different colors, to add more interest.

Another idea for stripes comes from Susan Wilson, who included lengthwise stripes in her lacey manners of weaving section. Mary Snyder's book has an exercise in creating a variety of crackle stripes. My sample followed Lucy Brusic's instructions. Page numbers for all three are below.

Resources


Thursday, November 14, 2024

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Mixing Drafts

 Samples #25 & 26 of my 4-shaft crackle manners of weaving sampler.  

One of the points Lucy Brusic emphasizes in her A Crackle Weave Companion is that drafts can be mixed and matched. In chapter two, "Rethinking Crackle," she states,

"New Crackle patterns can be evolved simply by using the treadling of one Crackle pattern with the threading of another." Lucy Brusic, page 14

She showcases numerous examples of this as she discusses how to choose compatible pairings. Two somewhat universal treadling patterns are Scandinavian Favorite and Blooming Leaf. These are the two I chose for my sampler. 

  • Both treadling drafts are found in Marguerite Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book.  
  • Both are woven in overshot manner (pattern-tabby-pattern-tabby).
  • Blooming Leaf as a whole draft is not one that particularly draws my interest, but I have done several table runners in Scandinavian Favorite variations. You can see my samplers here
  • The particulars for my sampler threading and tie-up can be seen here.
#25 treadled as Blooming Leaf (Davison page 201)

#26 treadled as Scandinavian Favorite (Davison page 200, variation I)

The Blooming Leaf treadled sample doesn't look anything like the complete Blooming Leaf draft in the book because my threading is different. But Scandinavian Favorite looks similar because my sampler is threaded in a diamond pattern anyway. I could experiment with others, but I'm not sure this manner of weaving is something I would be interested in pursuing in the future. Still, it will make a good addition to my 4-shaft crackle sampler.

That said, I now find myself checking how much warp is still wound on the back beam. I've worked my way through most of the ideas presented in Brusic's and Wilson's books, at least the ones I want to try. Some ideas need a different threading, and some don't interest me as much. I'm getting anxious to get this sampler off the loom and wet finished, so I can see how they turn out and which ones I'd like to explore more.


Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Pictorial

Sample #24 of my 4-shaft crackle manners of weaving sampler. 

The term "pictorial" crackle comes from Lucy Brusic's A Crackle Weave Companion (pages 52 to 62). While not terribly detailed, crackle is capable of weaving recognizable albeit stylized shapes. Brusic lists a number of them:
  • flower patterns
  • church (ecclesiastical) motifs
  • cottage windows
  • pine trees and snowflakes
Most of these I've already woven in various projects, and I'll put photos of them at the end of this post. The one I'm particularly interested in for this sampler is the pine trees. Pine trees and snowballs were a favorite when I wove them on eight shafts in Summer & Winter: According to Harriet Tidball, crackle is the only structure that can weave pine trees on four shafts. In looking through my books, I found three designs for pine tree motifs in crackle.

Mary Snyder, The Crackle Weave page 23, adapted
from Mary Meigs Atwater's The Recipe Book.

Mary Meigs Atwater's The Recipe Book,
Series I, "Coverlets," Recipe No. 12.

Several designs from Harriet Tidball's The Weaver's Book page 131

Because my loom is already threaded in a particular pattern I can't weave any of the above for the sampler. Nor can I try the snowflakes. But considering that loom woven pine trees are highly stylized anyway, I decided to see what I could do.

A pine tree of sorts. Can you see it?

Okay, not one I'd do on this threading again, but I liked giving the possibility a try and I'm curious as to how wet finishing will tidy it up. I think tree motifs have a lot of possibilities: small towels, table runners, place mats, napkins, scarves, gift bags, etc. Maybe add some beads and embroidery to make Christmas and fruit trees.
 
As promised, here are my other pictorial crackle motifs from previous projects:

Church weaving as another table runner.

Cottage Windows table runner

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Broken Twill Treadling

Sample #23 of my 4-shaft crackle manners of weaving sampler.

I found this one in Susan Wilson's Weave Classic Crackle & More, when I was working on my Italian manner samples. It's in her polychrome chapter, of which there are so many examples that I started with only a few for my polychrome sample page. There wasn't a photo for this one, but there was a quote from an article by Nancy Lyon. She calls it a broken twill polychrome. Of it she says that it "lets me blend many weft colors within and across threaded blocks, creating the illusion of complex threading on four harnesses." 

That statement caught my attention, and I like the result so much I wanted to give it it's own blog post. It's one I'd like to further explore in the future.Here's my sample:

Sample #23, broken twill treadling on crackle
  • The description presented in Wilson's book is described as one method to treadle polychrome in this manner. (I'd love to get my hands on the original article).
  • Description calls for two colors with a note that more may be used.
  • Uses broken twill treadling. I'm also notating it as a table loom liftplan:
    • Block A (1-2-4-3)
      • 3-4
      • 1-4
      • 2-3
      • 1-2
    • Block B (2-3-1-4)
      • 1-4
      • 1-2
      • 3-4
      • 2-3
    • Block C (3-4-2-1)
      • 1-2
      • 2-3
      • 1-4
      • 3-4
    • Block D (4-1-3-2)
      • 2-3
      • 3-4
      • 1-2
      • 1-4
 
With only two weft colors, I'm not seeing it as polychrome. But it presents an interesting visual complexity that gives me all kinds of ideas.