Crackle Sampler in the Italian Manner: Planning

The plan is to tie a new warp onto the previous warp on my table loom and use the cottage windows threading from my table runner for a sampler (dishtowel?) in an alternate variation of the pattern. 

The pattern is from Practical Weaving Suggestions, Vol. V, No. 2. Click to enlarge

The treadling will be in the Italian Manner, which I think I've figured out (in this blog post here.)

Before I can get started, however, I had to make some decisions. 

• Yarn size: 10/2s, since it's already on the loom and I'll be tying this on as the new warp. 
• Width: I started off thinking of this as a dishtowel because dishtowels are a great sampler size. So I'm planning accordingly. The table runner had five warp sections and ended up being 18.5 inches wide. This is wider than my other dishtowels, but I calculated that four warp sections would be about right.
• Length: dishtowel length. It's a sampler, so size is arbitrary. But I'm hoping to get all of my t-shirt yarn done soon, and am looking forward to starting on my bathroom rag rug. 
• Colors: I really had fun experimenting with my table runner. I liked having each warp section a different color, while alternating different color wefts. I'll do something similar here, using dark colors for the warp and lighter colors for the weft. This worked really well with the window motif. The difference is, I won't rotate the weft colors in each weft section.

So, I just got my warp measured . . .

And here are my proposed weft colors . . .

Turquoise & light blue for background weft
Golden yellow for pattern weft

I confess I'm a little doubtful about that yellow, especially against the brown. It's so not me. But I might as well be brave and give it a go. Who knows? I may even like it. 

Next step, getting the warp on the loom, assuming I don't change my mind about those colors.

Crackle Sampler in the Italian Manner: Planning 

© April 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

Cottage Windows (Variation H) Crackle Table Runner  

The Italian Manner 

The Italian Manner

A note at the bottom of Mary Meigs Atwater's Cottage Windows pattern states

"Pattern (h) may also be woven in the Italian manner."

This is the variation (pattern h, called "A Modern Arrangement") that I used for my Cottage Windows table runner. Before I pulled off the waste warp from the loom, I wanted to tie on a different color warp and give this a try. But first, I needed to research "The Italian Manner," also referred to as the Italian style or Italian method. 

The simplest definition I found was in Susan Wilson's Weave Classic Crackle & More. On page 53 she states,

"In the weaving literature, Italian manner or Italian style

refers to polychrome treadling with three colors."

Lucy Brusic is a little more specific. On page 26 of her A Crackle Weave Companion she explains, 

"Italian Manner in which a repeating thread alternates with the appropriate opposite blocks."

In examining her treadling chart on the same page, I see that this means that instead of tabby (using one color for both the 1-3 and 2-4 shots), Italian manner treadling uses two different colors for the background wefts using opposite sheds between the pattern shots. For example:

pattern

3-4

pattern

1-2

or

pattern

4-1

pattern

2-3

or

pattern

1-2

pattern

3-4

or 

pattern

2-3

pattern

4-1

Compare that to traditional crackle, which is

pattern

1-3

pattern

2-4

In other words, Italian manner replaces tabby with a different set of opposite sheds.

Other details: 

• Traditional crackle uses one pattern color and one tabby color. 
• Italian manner uses one pattern color and two background colors. The color sequence remains consistent throughout, it is the treadling that progresses with each block. 
• Typically, a heavier pattern weft is used for both.

Harriet Tidball calls the Italian method, "classic crackle" (page 125 of The Weaver's Book), but on page 54 of Wilson's book, she points out a difference based on studying historical drafts. What Atwater, Thorpe, Snyder, and Tod call Italian manner begins the treadling sequence with the pattern weft. Classic crackle begins the treadling sequence with the background weft. Nit-picky? Perhaps. It's just interesting to note these differences of observation and interpretation.

Finally, here are some variations for the Italian manner according to Brusic (page 27):

• 2-shuttle Italian Manner
• heavier pattern weft in one color
• warp-weight background weft in another color
• treadled as for 3-shuttle Italian manner
• 1-shuttle Italian Manner
• weft similar in weight to warp
• treadled as for 3-shuttle Italian manner
• fabric is said to have a nice drape

I can't say that I've got it all figured out, but I do have a better grasp on Italian manner weaving than when I started this post.

© 2024 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

Crackle Weave: Manners of Weaving

Weaving On Opposites 

Crackle On Opposites 

Step Two: The Countermarch Tie-Up

Assembling the loom was probably the easy part. The next step was tying up the lamms. But first, I needed to straighten out the mess with the heddles and make sure the heddle bars were even.

I color coded the heddles years ago, which was helpful because now I knew exactly where they belonged. This was good because it's nice to have the same number of heddles on each shaft. 

To make sure all the shafts were at the same height, I ran a string from beam to beam, threading it through one heddle on each shaft. 

Only one was stubbornly out of place, and this turned out to be a broken Texsolv peg in the countermarch. 

The pegs hold the Texsolve cord

One of the pegs was broken

Replacing it solved the problem. 

Then I was ready to attach the lams to the shafts. The tie-up fixture (upright posts and locking pins below) holds the lamms at the correct height for tie-up and stabilizes them.

The shorter upper lamms are tied to the bottom bar of each shaft.

The longer lower lamms are tied by a long cord to the countermarch. These were more challenging because the lamms are only about 14 inches off the ground and it felt like I was standing on my head to see to attach them! I had trouble holding the cords tight while inserting the peg into the cord. It finally occurred to me to use a tapestry needle to hold the cord taut so I could insert the pin.

That helped! And that completed the tie-up to attach the countermarch, shafts, and lamms.

Done!

The action of this arrangement is that the upper lamms lower the shafts and the lower lamms raise the shafts. Which does which depends on how the treadles are tied to the lamms. Because all the shafts are either raised or lowered, a good shed is created.

The next step will be to put on a warp and tie up the treadles. 

© 2024 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related post

Step One: Glimakra Assembled!

Step One: Glimakra Assembled!

assembled and ready to be tied up

For the most part, assembly went pretty well. The instruction manual was clear and well diagrammed until it came to installing the lamms. The manual went right into how to tie them up, not how to attach them to the loom. I finally found a decent photo online and figured it out from there. Fortunately, I wasn't working from new out of the box, so it went fairly quickly. The harnesses, countermarche, beater, treadles, and bench were already assembled and just needed to be put in place.

That was the easy part! Next, I need to level the harnesses and tie up the lamms and treadles.

© 2024 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

SURVEY: Floors under Floor Looms?

Progress On Setting Up My Glimakra

Step Two: The Countermarch Tie-Up 

Progress On Setting Up My Glimakra

Thank you to everyone who participated in my survey. I asked this question in a couple of places, and all the answers were interesting and with helpful pros and cons for a variety of floors. My goal, of course, is to finally set up my big floor loom. This project, unfortunately, has required a lot of steps to get to that point.

Since the room I want to use has been a storage room for about a decade, the first step was to go through boxes, sort contents, and decide what to keep and what to let go of. Much of it went into my studio/sewing room, and much of it was purged. Building materials went to Dan's workshop storage area, but we don't have a basement or garage, and our attic is limited as to what it can store (mostly Christmas decorations). So I still have to figure out how to store seasonal things like space heaters, box fans, beekeeping equipment, soap making supplies, archery items, surplus tincture bottles, etc. But the good news is that I finally cleared enough space to set up my loom!

The bad news is that the original hardwood floor is in pretty bad shape. The logical thing to do, of course, would be to put down a new floor. Actually, the logical thing to do would be to finish the room before setting up the loom. Even though it's on the to-do list, it doesn't seem likely it will be the priority in the near future. I'm going to make the best of it anyway!

For the floor, I decided to lay down a large area rug. In fact, I ended up buying a new area rug for the dining room and using the old one in this room. It's not in bad shape, just had the misfortune of first being barfed on by cats, which was cleaned up with a spray-on all-purpose cleaner which bleached it! (The responsible party will remain nameless, other than to say it wasn't me!) So I moved the rug into the room, scrubbed it by hand, and I think it will be fine. 

After the rug was dry, I laid out all the pieces of the loom.

wonky photo taken atop a step ladder

Next, I need to go through the assembly manual and inventory them. Hopefully, nothing is missing! Then I can start putting it all together. 

When I first got the loom, the previous owner passed on an assembly video. I no longer have a VCR player and couldn't find that video on YouTube, so I'll have to make do with written instructions. Hopefully, they're clearly written! 

Wish me luck!

© 2024 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts

SURVEY: Floors under Floor Looms?

Step One: Loom Assembled! 

SURVEY: Floors under Floor Looms?

I'm interested in your preference! What kind of floor do you like to set your loom up on? 

1. Carpet
2. Area rug
3. Bare floor (wood? tile? laminate? concrete?)
4. Something else?
5. No preference?

I'd love to know your preference and reason.

© 2024 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts

Progress On Setting Up My Glimakra

Step One: Loom Assembled! 

Weaving On Opposites

One of the things that interested me about variation H of Mary Meigs Atwater's "Cottage Windows" pattern, was that it is woven "on opposites." Being one of the many concepts I forgot during my long hiatus from weaving, I did a little research when I learned it was one of the crackle manners of weaving. I jotted down a definition for my crackle manners of weaving blog post, but found myself thinking more about it as I wove a my Cottage Windows table runner, and researching more. What I realized, is that there are some variations on how "on opposites" is interpreted. 

In some sources, opposites refers to pattern blocks. As, for example, Harriet Tidball's diagram of Cottage Windows. It's treadled . . .

Treadling pattern is in the right-hand column. 

One pattern block is treadled with shafts 2-3 for so many weft shots, and then treadled 1-2 for so many weft shots. The second block is treadled with the opposite shafts 4-1 and 3-4. With this treadling, tabby must be used, or as you can see by studying the treadling sequence, the common shaft in 2-3 and 1-2 (shaft 2) would always be lifted and create a long warp float over the top of the fabric. Ditto for shaft 4 in the 4-1 and 3-4 sequence. Tabby is needed to tie these down to the fabric.

The second definition defines opposites as alternate sheds, using contrasting colors for the wefts. One weft shot of shafts 1-2 is alternated with 3-4. Tabby weft is optional, but said to make a more stable fabric.

My Cottage Windows table runner is an example of the first definition, opposite pattern blocks. One of these days I'm going to have to rustle up a pattern using the other definition, opposite sheds. It will be fun to experiment.

© 2024 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

Crackle Weave: Manners of Weaving

Crackle On Opposites 

The Italian Manner 

Cottage Windows (Variation H) Crackle Table Runner

Weaving Notes & Observations

• I wasn't able to weave through all 15 rows of the window motif because my blocks were longer than I originally planned. I wove 11 before I ran out of warp, still rotating my pattern and tabby weft colors so that each block varies subtly. (Diagram of my plan in this post).
• I wet finished in warm water and Dawn original. The water turned purple! 1st cool water rinse was pale pink, second was clear. I'm assuming either the purple or burgundy yarn bleeds.
• Overall, color variation between blocks are subtle.
• Even though these aren't colors I ordinarily choose, I really like the way this turned out. 

Cottage Windows (Variation H) Crackle Table Runner 

© March 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

Crackle On Opposites 

Hold-ups on Starting Weaving & A Change of Plan  

Variation on "Cottage Windows": Weaving at Last 

Crackle and Color  

Bathroom Rag Rug: How T-shirt Collecting Is Coming Along

While I'm working on the crackle Cottage Windows table runner on my table loom, I'm still on the hunt for t-shirts to make rag yarn for my bathroom rag rug.

These are all thrift store buys, and what's amazing to me, is how many shades of these colors there are. Yellows, especially, which range from neon to yellow-orange. Dark reds are just off enough to not match perfectly to my eye. Brown t-shirts seem to be more consistent, but harder to find. Either they are not very popular or else get held on to. I seem to have done best collecting orange t-shirts, which, while not perfect color matches, are pretty close. 

My current tallies are:

• Orange, have 4 out of 4 needed
• Red, have  3 out of 3 needed
• Brown, have  7 out of 10 needed
• Yellow, have ? out of 3 needed (depending on which shade of yellow I get the most of.)

Not all of them are X-large, so I may need a few extra. 

Since the t-shirts have been slow to come by, I've been re-thinking using them for the tabby weft. The pattern says the tabby can be the same as the pattern weft, but in a lighter color. Instead, I think I'll use 4-ply cotton for the tabby.

Fortunately, I'm not in a hurry. I'm enjoying the crackle pattern tremendously, and in fact, may do a second in a different color scheme next. Might as well take advantage of the threading while I have it. 

Bathroom Rag Rug: How T-shirt Collecting Is Coming Along

 © April 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

Bathroom Rag Rug: Planning

Bathroom Rag Rug: How Many T-shirts Will I Need? 

Crackle and Color

How the colors of yarns blend and mix in weaving is a fascinating study. It isn't as simple and straightforward as mixing, say, paint on a palette. In weaving, the colors of the individual threads can be detected upon close inspection, but step back, and another story reveals itself. 

The most basic structure, plain weave (tabby) is simply over one, under one, repeat. Twills are also common, typically over two, under two, repeat. I reckon next would be overshot, where the weft can shoot over a prescribed number of warp threads ("floats") to create large patterns. Then there are the "face" weaves, either warp or weft, where one or the other predominates. Each of these blends color differently. The smaller the points of color, the more quickly the eye will blend them in one's perception. So with the paint comparison, how plain weave causes colors to interact is more like pointillism. That makes weaving with various color yarns more challenging, and more interesting.

Crackle weave is especially interesting in the color department, because I can get both distinct sections (shapes) of color as the pattern, where the weft floats over three warp threads. And I get a blending of two or three colors with the "background."

Some examples:

And

I took the background color interactions into consideration when I chose my yarn colors. Tien Chiu has some wonderful articles about color blending, such as this one, Fundamentals of color in weaving: Color Mixing and the Two-Primary Rule. Very helpful.

I have a total of 75 pattern blocks in this piece, each with a different mix of my 5 warp and tabby colors and 3 pattern weft colors. I won't be able to see the overall effect until the piece is off the loom and wet finished. I'm expecting subtle color variations between the pattern blocks. For now, I have to content myself with seeing only 2 pattern sections at a time, because I must advance the warp frequently on my little table loom.

Progress: I'm currently working on weft section 7 out of 15.

Crackle and Color © March 2024

by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

I'm Stuck in a Color Rut 

The Winning Color Combination Is . . . 

Variation on "Cottage Windows": Weaving at Last  

Variation on "Cottage Windows": Weaving at Last

After finding and correcting one more threading error, I was almost ready to start weaving. Because the pattern isn't presented as a modern drawdown, I first needed to determine the liftplan, 

Click to enlarge

The pattern is an old one, finally found in an old weaving pamphlet. I found the plan for treadling in the introduction. 

Treadle 1 lifts shafts 1 & 2

Treadle 2 lifts shafts 2 & 3

Treadle 3 lifts shafts 3 & 4

Treadle 4 lifts shafts 1 & 4

Tabby, of course, alternates 1 & 3 and 2 & 4.

With that I wrote my liftplan on a card and clipped it to my loom after making adjustments to square the "windows."

I found I needed to adjust the number of lifts to square the windows.

I started off slowly, because this was the first time to use my double bobbin shuttle and I could envision making a tangle of the threads. 

I have to say that this shuttle is lovely in hand and positively zips through the shed. I chose this particular brand and model because of it's low profile. It's advertised for rigid heddle looms. but is perfect for my table loom. I like it well enough that I'll likely buy another shuttle or two from her.

Anyway, after a painstakingly slow start, I've made progress.

I can't quite fit two full weft sections in a photo, but this way you get a peek at the 1st three.
You can see my color rotation plan here, Hold-ups on Starting Weaving & A Change of Plan.

As I've become comfortable with the double-bobbin shuttle, I've developed a rhythm and picked up weaving speed. 

Weaving notes

• My yarn choices include a mix of mercerized and unmercerized cottons. Most size 10/2 cottons are sold mercerized, which gives a lovely sheen to the thread, but which aren't as absorbent as unmercerized. However, I was focused on color, and this is what I ended up with. The unmercerized cones I have were bought as commercial mill ends.
• Unweaving is particularly a nuisance with those double bobbins, especially re-winding the thread back onto them.
• This is a good place to notate two color swaps I made from my original plan.
• The first is that I'm using a different navy for the tabby weft than I did for the warp. I have two navies in 10/2, one darker and one lighter. I like the lighter navy better for this project, but doubt I have enough to use it for tabby weft too. I used the lighter navy for the warp and the darker navy for the tabby. The difference isn't noticeable in the fabric.

  

  Tabby navy on the left, warp navy on the right

• The second color change I made was the yellow (which I called goldenrod, but it looked like mustard when I started weaving with it). It was too bright so I swapped it out for the mellower golden orange. You can see the effect of the yellow in the shuttle photo, and of the golden orange in the fabric sample photo.

  

  Goldenrod on left, golden orange on right.

Variation on "Cottage Windows": Weaving at Last              

© March 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts

Crackle On Opposites

I'm Stuck in a Color Rut 

The Winning Color Combination Is . . .   

Hold-ups on Starting Weaving & A Change of Plan

Hold-ups on Starting Weaving & A Change of Plan

Argh! Sloppy mistakes are the hold-up. Firstly, I discovered warp thread counting errors. Of the purple warp section, I only had 86 of the required 96 ends. Of the green I had 10 extra ends, and of the navy, 4 extra. And these were even with marking off my warp in bundles of ten as I measured it on the warping board. I blame cats for this. I have two that are very nagging demanding when it comes to their personal needs. Fortunately, the shortage was in the first section, so I could just added 10 more ends at the edge of the warp. Unfortunately, it meant re-threading the heddles for the entire section. Where I had extra warp ends, I could just set them aside. But I had to re-sley to fill in the gaps. 

Next, I discovered sleying errors as I threaded the heddles. One was a skipped dent, the second was a doubled dent. For these, I'm blaming my glasses. Bifocals are good for some things, but for others they are a nuisance. Better lighting and a different chair helped here.

Then I found a threading error. I was surprised at this because I thread in sections and check the threading before moving on the the next section. It was because of those extra navy warp threads that I discovered this error. I re-checked my threading as I counted ends and discovered the error. This one must have been due to a distraction, although what that was, I can't recall. Either cats or husband, but it was caught and fixed before I started weaving!

All of these were frustrating because they were avoidable, but I managed them anyway. Finally, I'm ready to tie and tension the warp.

Of course, as I work I think. I had to decide about what to use for my tabby weft, and settled on using the warp colors for the tabby too, rotating the color with each motif section. In thinking about how it would look, I tried to conquer the math. I have five warp colors and three pattern weft colors. So five tabby colors would add some interesting color play. When I diagrammed it, it looked like this . . . 

click to enlarge

The nutshell version is that by rotating through my pattern and tabby weft colors, I could get 15 rows of my window motif before the color combinations would repeat. And this got me thinking about weaving dishtowels. I could weave two dishtowels, each with its own color variations. Or, I could weave something else. 

I decided I want to weave through the entire 15 color sections, which means I'll probably start calling this a table runner instead of dishtowels. I have enough warp measured out to do this, and I find this idea much more fascinating that my original plan.

In the end, this project is as much about color exploration as it is trying out crackle on opposites. But then, all my projects boil down to that. Color is always the factor that fascinates me and keeps my interest. How it blends and how it can be manipulated presents the most interesting experimentation. 

Hopefully, there will be no more delays, and I'll have some weaving to show you soon.

Hold-ups on Starting Weaving & A Change of Plan 

© March 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

Crackle On Opposites

I'm Stuck in a Color Rut 

The Winning Color Combination Is . . .   

Variation on "Cottage Windows": Weaving at Last  

The Winning Color Combination Is . . .

Of the seven possible color combinations I showed you in my I'm Stuck in a Color Rut post, the winner is . . . . . . . . . . . . . None of the above! 

Warp: burgundy, royal blue, purple, forest green, navy blue
Weft: light turquoise, goldenrod, and warm pink

I finally settled on five warp colors because when I worked on warp color arrangement in my notebook, I calculated five warp sections for the desired width and decided I wanted each one a different color. The is mostly because whenever I think of color sections, I think of color sequences. Three colors for five warp sections meant two colors would be repeated and one used only once. Rather than try to figure out which is which, I decided on a separate color for each. In keeping with my idea to use darker colors for the warp, what you see in the photo were my best options. 

The three lighter colors will be for pattern weft, and I like the way these rotate. The blocks for the windows alternate, so my exact color repeat for the weft will be every six sections. I know that doesn't make sense, so I'm going to toss this screenshot up, which I doubt will help. 

Click to enlarge. For some reason, screenshots of WeaveDesign
screens are always pale. Darkening them just changes the colors.

That's basically one color repeat. Every repeat of a new weft color alternates the colors of the windows and background. 

Okay. Enough nonsensical rambling. Hopefully, I'll have some weaving to show you soon. I'm slow getting the loom warped because the days are so lovely and there are so many seasonal chores to do. I always get in some time at the loom after dinner though. 

The Winning Color Combination Is . . .  

© Mar 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

Crackle On Opposites

I'm Stuck in a Color Rut 

Hold-ups on Starting Weaving & A Change of Plan

Variation on "Cottage Windows": Weaving at Last  

Crackle and Color 

I'm Stuck in a Color Rut

I ended my last blog post by mentioning that yarn and color selection for my crackle on-opposites dishtowels was the next step. Yesterday was rainy, so I spent it arranging and rearranging cones of yarn in search of an appealing color combination. For yarn size, I'm thinking 10/2 for warp and tabby, and 10/2 doubled for pattern weft. I'm working with this motif . . .

Details for this pattern can be found here.

I'm thinking I can best achieve a consistent contrast by using darker colors for the warp and lighter colors for the pattern weft. The challenge is that I don't have a large selection of 10/2 cotton yarns, so I'm having trouble trying to figure out a good color scheme with what I've got.

The first colors I grabbed were these . . .

navy, dark green, and dark gray for warp
 royal, light turquoise and light blue for weft

As I arranged them on the table I realized that these are always the first colors I go for. I realized that they are almost always my preference. I realized I'm stuck in a color rut. 

So I selected another combination.

warp: purple and royal blue
weft: light blue and pink

Meh. I'd really like to go for three dark and three light, but I don't have much other selection than these for darker blues and purple.

Maybe this . . .

Purple plus royal and navy blue for warp
Two pinks and light blue for weft

Or . . .

Navy and wine for warp, taupe, light, and medium pink for weft

Maybe something a little bolder?

Burgundy, navy and green for warp colors.
Light blue, goldenrod, and gold for weft.

Hmm. Different for me, but I kinda like it. What about swapping out the orangey-gold for taupe?

Burgundy, navy and green for warp
Light blue, goldenrod, and taupe for weft.

Another swap . . .

Burgundy, green, and navy for warp
Light turquoise, goldenrod, and orange-gold for weft

That's pretty much the extent of my 10/2s stash, and I'm still undecided. I guess the question is, how daring do I want to be?

I'm Stuck in a Color Rut © March 2024

by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

Crackle On Opposites

The Winning Color Combination Is . . .  

Hold-ups on Starting Weaving & A Change of Plan

Variation on "Cottage Windows": Weaving at Last  

Crackle and Color 

 

Crackle On Opposites

While I'm working on collecting more t-shirts for my bathroom rag rug, I've been thinking about something to work on in the meantime. I found this idea in Harriet Tidball's The Weaver's Book . . .

. . . and was inspired to try to work out a draft in my weaving software. I couldn't make it work for beans. I started looking through my other crackle weave resources, and eventually found a PDF I'd previously downloaded of Practical Weaving Suggestions, Vol. V, No. 2, "Notes on 'Crackle Weave'" by Mary M. Atwater. (Available here.) It's a variation on her well-known "Cottage Windows" draft. 

Click to enlarge

It is woven "on opposites," which refers to the treadling. The pattern uses opposite sets of treadles for the different blocks. In the above example, the first section is woven with treadles 2 - 3 and 1 - 2. The next section is treadled 1 - 4 (the opposite of 2 - 3) and 3 - 4 (the opposite of 1 - 2). I haven't woven crackle on opposites yet, so I'm looking forward to getting this going. It will be another one to add to my "Crackle Weave: Manners of Weaving" page.

This one I was able to create on WeaveDreamer. 

Click to enlarge

It looks squatty, doesn't it? That's because I made it showing pattern weft only, i.e without tabby wefts. It will be woven with tabby shots, so the motif will look taller and more square on the fabric. 

My plan is to make several dishtowels; yarns and colors to be decided on next. 

Crackle On Opposites © March 2024

by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts:

Crackle Weave: Manners of Weaving

Weaving On Opposites 

The Italian Manner 

Variation on "Cottage Windows": Weaving at Last  

Bathroom Rag Rug: How Many T-shirts Will I Need?

Spring has sprung and although we're a good six weeks away from frost-free days, there have been many beautiful days to enjoy and lots to do outdoors. At last, we have a rainy day, so that I can get down to some of the calculations I need to make for my t-shirt yarn bathroom rug project.

I started by taking a look at my t-shirt inventory, which turned out to be not very many. 

Pattern weft colors, taken from our bathroom stained glass window.

Warp yarn at the top, and potential tabby weft

For some reason, I thought I'd collected more t-shirts that this, which obviously won't be enough. 

The next thing I needed, was idea of where the colors would go. By envisioning the pattern as quilt squares, I came up with this rough sketch.

I'm thinking the black would actually be brown.

According to the pattern instructions, each block is treadled for 16 shots and this sequence repeated 5 times. If I use my 10-dent reed, I'll have a weaving width of approximately 23.25 inches.

Based on this information and my above color diagram, I calculate that I'll need:

• Yellow: 96 shots x 23.25" = 2232" or 62 yards
• Orange: 128 shots x 23.25" = 2976" or 82.66 yards
• Red: 96 shots x 23.25" = 2232" or 62 yards
• Brown (pattern only): 320 shots x 23.25" = 7440" or 206.66 yards
• Brown for borders (still undecided here): another 20.66 yards

That's assuming I make my borders one block width. So the total for the brown would be 228 yards.

Tabby weft will be 228 yards. 

My next step was to determine about how much yarn I can get from one t-shirt. 

There is some waste because the top above the sleeves and hem must be cut off.

A good video tutorial to make t-shirt yarn can be found here.

Cutting the tube into strips like this is what makes it continuous.

Cutting the strips on the diagonal

Grasping the strip in both hands and tugging causes the edges to curl in on themselves.

My ball of finished t-shirt yarn. No fraying edges!

One extra-large t-shirt gave me a tad over 24.5 yards. A larger shirt would yield more, a smaller shirt less. If I'm able to find all extra-large t-shirts, I'm looking at needing the following:

• Yellow, total 3
• Orange, total 4
• Red, total 3
• Brown, total 10
• Tabby weft (if I use t-shirt yarn), total 10

So! I have a ways to go to get enough t-shirts. In the meantime, I'm going to look at getting another project on the loom. More on that soon. 

Bathroom Rag Rug: How Many T-shirts Will I Need?

 © March 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related post:

Bathroom Rag Rug: Planning