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
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....
ReplyDeleteMy 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.
DeleteI 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. :)
To my eyes, I prefer the "left" side of the Italian weave. More definition of the smaller blocks.
ReplyDeleteTB, 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.
Delete