Crackle Manners of Weaving: Swivel

 Sample #29 of my 4-shaft crackle manners of weaving sampler.

 

A heads-up: This (and the next in this series) will be long, technical, and likely boring, except for the pictures (hopefully). This is because I really struggled to understand this one. I had to piece together bits of information from five different books plus experiment a bit. I'm hoping that by being thorough, I won't be completely lost should I decide to revisit it again someday.

 

Originally, this post was going to cover two related manners of weaving, swivel and petitpoint, of which petitpoint is a subcategory of swivel (although, apparently, some say it's the other way around). Why it's called swivel, I have no idea.

Harriet Tidball classifies swivel as a weaving method rather than a threading system. This means it can be treadled on a variety of threadings. Swivel treadling with crackle threading is one of the variations.

Similarities between swivel and petitpoint

• Weaves as small dots on plain weave on the front of the fabric, with long floats on the back. 
  
• Two shuttles and two colors (pattern and background)
  
• Uses a 3/1 twill tie-up, instead of a 2/2 twill tie-up (see "tie-up" in my sampler introduction.)

• 

  1-3-4, 1-2-4, 1-2-3, 2-3-4 & tabby
  

• With a table loom, I must lift the sets of shafts myself to make the shed.
  
• This unbalanced tie-up is what weaves the design on the front of the cloth and leaves long floats on the back. 
• Usually woven on twill threadings, which is why it works with crackle. (See "threading" in my sampler introduction.)

Differences between swivel and petitpoint

• The difference (that I can tell) between swivel and petitpoint, is that swivel uses only pattern and background wefts. Petitpoint uses uses the same, with the addition of tabby.

Swivel

#29, crackle threading  treadled as swivel

• alternates 3 shafts with 3 shafts 
• one shed for pattern (p), the other for background (b, called “binder” by Bress)
• treadled as drawn in (treadling follows the threading draft). From Bress:
  
• Block A is threaded on shafts 1-2-3-2 and treadled
• 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4
• 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
• 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
• 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
• Block B is threaded on shafts 2-3-4-3 and treadled
• 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
• 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
• 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4 
• 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
• Block C is threaded on shafts 3-4-1-4 and treadled
• 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
• 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4
• 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4 
• 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4
• Block D is threaded on shafts 4-1-2-1 and treadled
• 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4
• 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4
• 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
• 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4
• no tabby
• Yarns
• background weft is the same weight and color as the warp
• pattern weft is same weight as warp but a contrasting color

Notes & Observations

• To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to include this in my sampler at first. The sticking point for me was the long floats in the back. If crackle doesn’t have floats longer than three ends, is this really crackle??? None of the authors questioned it, and it does look intriguing, so I gave it a tr.
• I think some interesting things could be done with color. Maybe thread each block in different colors and ditto with the weaving.
  
• I like the look of it, but found it complicated to weave. With a table loom, I’m lifting three shafts for each throw of the shuttle and I found it difficult to keep track of. I worked out a system for keeping my place, but it was slow going.
• The long floats on back limit the use of the fabric. It would best serve for things that either could be lined, like vests and jackets, or which displayed only one side of the fabric, such as throw pillows or upholstery.

With a hand mirror, you can see the long floats on the back.

Resources

• Helene Bress, The Weaving Book, pages 98-99
• Harriet Tidball, The Weaver's Book, pages 73, 164

 

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Swivel

© Nov 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related posts

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Petitpoint

Crackle Weave Study Part 1: Manners of Weaving on 4 Shafts

Crackle Weave: Manners of Weaving (an index)