Leigh's Fiber Journal: Crackle Manners of Weaving: Italian Manner

Samples #19 - 22 of my 4-shaft crackle manners of weaving sampler.

I did a blog post earlier this year on The Italian Manner, when I was working on my Cottage Windows table runner. In reviewing it for my 4-shaft crackle sampler, I also looked through my books again, and found several variations of Italian manner (or Italian style) to try.

Definition: A three-color polychrome treadling that alternates pattern weft with background wefts woven on opposite sheds instead of tabby.

Tabby is plain weave woven between pattern weft shots. It alternates shafts 1 & 3 with 2 & 4 and provides a stable structure to hold the pattern.
On opposite instead of tabby means alternating either shafts

1 & 2 with 3 & 4
2 & 3 with 1 & 4

These are called "background" wefts instead of "tabby" for Italian manner weaving.

In exploring my weaving resources, I found three variations of Italian manner.

3-shuttle
classic crackle
Lyons Italian style

Lucy Brusic includes 2-shuttle and 1-shuttle Italian manner in her book, but since they don't conform with even her own definition, I didn't do them. I think they more properly fit in the on-opposites manners of weaving category.

For my samples below, I'll give page references for where I found the details, with a more complete bibliography at the bottom of the post.

3-shuttle Italian Manner

This is probably the most commonly thought of treadling for Italian manner.

Characteristics

3 shuttles, each carrying a different color yarn

two colors in weights similar to warp to weave on opposites
one heavier weight to weave in pattern

Treadling begins with a pattern shot

pattern
background x
pattern
background y
(end block with pattern)

Sample #19, 3-shuttle crackle in Italian manner

References (see bibliography below)

Snyder, page 13
Atwater, page 145
Tod, pages 249-250

Classic Crackle

The difference between classic crackle and 3-shuttle is which thread starts the treadling sequence.

Characteristics

3 shuttles, each carrying a different color yarn

two colors in weights similar to warp to weave on opposites
one heavier weight to weave in pattern

Treadling begins with a background shot

background x
pattern
background y
pattern
(end block with background x)

Classic crackle already has it's own manners of weaving blog post (here), but I decided to do another sample with the same yarns as my 3-shuttle Italian manner above. I was curious if I would see a difference.

Sample #20, classic crackle

Then I used the Gimp to paste the photos side by side. You can probably detect the seam in the middle, from pasting the two photos together.

Samples #19 and 20 side by side for comparison.
3-shuttle Italian manner of the left, classic crackle on the right.

No one will notice from a galloping horse, as my grandmother used to say. The clue (if one understands the structures and looks closely) is that the classic crackle on the right has a more pronounced line of pink where the blocks change because each block ends and starts with the pink x background weft. In the 3-shuttle sample on the left, each block begins and ends with the gray pattern weft. I have no opinion as to which one is preferable; it's just information for now.

References (see bibliography below)

Wilson, page 53
Brusic, page 26 (although she doesn't call it "classic crackle")
Tidball, pages 125-126

Lyons Italian Style Crackle

Wilson mentions this one on page 53 of Weave Classic Crackle & More. It's taken from articles written in 1987-1988 by Nancy Lyon for Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot magazine.

3 shuttles in different colors
3-pick straight twill repeats. Here as my table loom liftplan:

1-2, 2-3, 3-4
2-3, 3-4, 4-1
3-4, 4-1, 1-2
4-1, 1-2, 2-3

No tabby
Repeat each sequence until block is desired height, then move to the next sequence.
Color order remains the same throughout.

No mention is made of yarn weight, so I wove two samples, one with weft yarns the same weight as the warp, the other with heavier, pattern weft weights.

Sample #21, Lyon Italian style with warp weight weft yarns

The pattern is subtle with the finer yarns, but it's there. I like the idea of subtle patterns in things like upholstery fabric or garments, such as a jacket.
I can really see the inconsistency of my beat! Something I hadn't noticed with any other sample.