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 shot)
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
 |
| Sample 21 close-up |
For the next sample, I used heavier pattern weight wefts.
|
| Sample #22, Lyon Italian style with pattern weight weft yarns |
I reversed the treadling for sample 22 to weave an X instead of a flower.
 |
| Sample 22 close-up |
I think these are the yarn weights intended, but doing both samples gives me a broader perspective and a path for more ideas.
Bibliography
- Atwater, Mary Meigs, The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-weaving (1951 edition)
- Brusic, Lucy, A Crackle Weave Companion
- Snyder, Mary, The Crackle Weave (1989 edition)
- Tidball, Harriet, The Weaver's Book
- Tod, Osma Gallinger, The Joy of Handweaving (2nd edition)
- Wilson, Susan, Weave Classic Crackle & More
© Nov 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal
4 comments:
I really like the fabrics of #21 and #22! Still devoting my crafting time to knitting my sweater and have an Advent spin for December, so don't know when I'll get back to weaving....
To my eyes, I prefer the "left" side of the Italian weave. More definition of the smaller blocks.
My husband's old laptop just ate my comment! Drat! Anyway (trying again), thanks for the feedback. #21 and #22 came from an old source that I'd love to get my hands on. I found another of her ideas in my crackle book, which I'll post next time.
I love seeing the progress on your sweater. This is such a busy time of year for crafting. I'll never get my Christmas project list finished. :)
TB, thank you for that! I was thinking the same thing and that I like the cleaner lines of the sample on the left. Funny that the only difference is which yarn is shot through first.
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