After I took the last shadow weave samples off the loom, I warped a 3 inch width of 10 yards (which the impatient side of me thinks was an insane decision) of Knit Picks Shadow , their lace weight merino. I warped back to front, which I am finally getting comfortable with. I've been using almost full half gallon milk jugs as weights and am very happy with my warp tension.My idea for this warp has been to weave a long sample strip which I can cut and sew together into a vest? cardigan? pullover? handbag? ?????
The warp alternates blue and white, while the weft colors of blue and purple with white alternate for each variation. These are an opposite development of shadow weave from Marian Powell's 1000+ Patterns in 4, 6, and 8 Harness Shadow Weaves, page 103. The yarn weighs in at 4141 yards per pound and my sett is 16 epi. (The individual photos weren’t all the same size, but you get the idea.)
Here is a sampling of the variations I’ve been trying:
One good thing about small samples like this is that it doesn’t matter if I make a few treadling errors. Who’s gonna know? There is also a lot of freedom to experiment; if I don’t like it, that’s okay because it’s only a small part of the entire strip.
This sampling/journaling/exploring/learning activity with weaving is a crucial step for me as a weaver. However, when I’m in a sampling mode, I struggle with the tension of the usefulness vs. uselessness of my end product. Oh sure, the samples are valuable to me personally, but somehow they don’t satisfy my inner desire to produce beautiful and useful things. Sometimes I weave scarves as samples, but how many scarves does one need?
This sample strip is an attempt to resolve that tension. How well it works will probably depend on whether I actually use it for anything. ;)
Next - Shadow Weave Sample Strip Off the Loom
© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal
Related Posts:
Shadow Weave: Doing the Triple S - my introduction
Shadow Weave Profiles- how to interpret
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins the series of samples
2 comments:
Hi Leigh,
Your samples are very nice indeed. Isn't this fun?
Don't worry about usefulness. The sampling is a goal in itself! Make reference books with them, with what you did and how you did it, what you used and where you changed your original idea. Believe me: in a few years you'll have forgotten most of that and you'll be grateful to have kept all the information and the samples!
Hi Leigh when I did art meditation I was told to "let go of the end result" I find that this really frees me up and i usually ( but not always) like what comes! Sometime just making things to because you want to dot is jsut the most wonderful way to work. helen from North Wales ps love your blog
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