Leigh's Fiber Journal: Crackle Manners of Weaving: Honeycomb

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Honeycomb

Sample #33 of my 4-shaft crackle manners of weaving sampler.

Like swivel and petitpoint, honeycomb is a treadling system, and therefore applicable to a variety of threadings: typically overshot, but also M's & O's, huck, monk's belt, and even twill.

Once upon a time, I wove honeycomb on M's and O's threading (pictures here. This is one where wet finishing makes a dramatic difference to the fabric.) Even so, it's not one I was terribly interested in for this sampler. Like swivel and petitpoint it's an unbalanced weave that creates long floats on the back.

Both Susan Wilson and Lucy Brusic have a section on honeycomb in their crackle books, but in both cases it's more of a description rather than instructions. But I found instructions in Mary Snyder's The Crackle Weave. And what was truly amazing was that I actually understood them! I gave up on this book when I first started experimenting with crackle because I couldn't follow what she was saying. Finally, (after 32 samples!) her book is starting to make sense.

Honeycomb is so called because it weaves honeycomb-like cells in the fabric. A heavy weft curves around cell-like shapes with plain weave in the centers. Long floats form on the back of the cells from the heavy outline weft.

Doesn't exactly look like bees' honeycomb, does it?
More like waves. Probably has to do with the threading.

For the most part, I followed Snyder's project #12, "crackle blocks woven in honeycomb manner," page 32 of the 1989 edition.
My loom was already warped, so there is a difference there in sett

Snyder recommended 10/2 warp with sett of 24 ends per inch
My warp is 10/2 with sett of 20 e.p.i.

Weft yarns are similar to her recommendations

tabby: 3/2 cotton (3 times heavier than the pattern weft)
pattern: 16/2 cotton
This is opposite of how it usually is. Usually, the pattern weft is heaviest.

Tie-up is the same as swivel

Tension should be looser than normal
Beat firmly
4 cells possible with 4 shafts
There are many treadling possibilities (Bress pgs 130-136). The one I used is Snyder's variation A:

1-3 (tabby a)
2-4 (tabby b)
2-3-4 (pattern)
1-3-4 (pattern)
1-3 (tabby a)
2-4 (tabby b)
1-2-4 (pattern)
1-2-3 (pattern)

Creates a one-sided fabric with long floats on the back.

Lucy Brusic states that honeycomb really isn't worth the effort on crackle, and I have to agree with her. I much preferred it on my other sample on M's and O's threading.

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