Sunday, October 20, 2024

A Second Classic Crackle Sample

This sample was woven with pattern weft the same weight as the warp and background wefts. 

Classic crackle with warp and both wefts (pattern & background) the same weight.

The pattern is more subtle than the first sample, which used a heavier pattern yarn.

Classic crackle with a heavier pattern yarn.

But it's still quite visible because the pattern yarn is thrown every other shot, making it 50% of the treadling sequence. 

Pattern weft is dark green, background wefts are gold
and mustard yellow. Warp is natural. All in 10/2 cotton.

The heavier pattern weft makes a more textured fabric, of course, and that's another design element  I can easily control. It's another example of crackle's versatility.

Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels:

Friday, October 18, 2024

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Classic Crackle


#1. Classic crackle sample woven in 10/2 cotton, pattern weft doubled

#2. Classic crackle woven in 10/2 cotton, all yarns the same weight

Classic Crackle Characteristics
  • 3-shuttles, each carrying a different color
    • pattern weft (typically a heavier yarn, but can be the same weight)
    • ground x (typically same weight as warp)
    • ground y (typically same weight as warp)
  • 2/2 twill tie-up (which, since I'm using a table loom, this will be my lift plan)
    • 3-4
    • 1-4
    • 1-2
    • 2-3 
  • no tabby
  • treadled as drawn in, i.e. treadling draft follows the threading draft (see threading keys in this post)
    • Block A
      • 1 (ground x)
      • 2 (pattern)
      • 3 (ground y)
      • 2 (pattern)
    • Block B
      • 2 (ground x)
      • 3 (pattern)
      • 4 (ground y)
      • 3 (pattern)
    • Block C
      • 3 (ground x)
      • 4 (pattern)
      • 1 (ground y)
      • 4 (pattern)
    • Block D
      • 4 (ground x)
      • 1 (pattern)
      • 2 (ground y)
      • 1 (pattern)
    • incidentals use ground x
  • color order remains the same in all the blocks
  • particularly useful for color weaving
Weaving Notes
  • I've decided  to experiment with color with each sample, i.e. choose color combinations that are untypical for me.
  • I have a bunch of bobbins with 10/2s, leftover from my Cottage Windows table runner. I'll start with those for my weft colors.
  • I was uncertain about using natural for the warp, but I think it's going to be okay.
  • Pattern weft for this sample is 10/2s on my double bobbin shuttle.
  • I'm used to weaving with that bulky t-shirt yarn, so this is quite a change! A nice change. 
  • I was wondering why my sample didn't look like the picture in the book. Then I realized that I wasn't treadling as drawn in (which would have been block A, D, C, B, D, A, B, C, D, A.) I treadled A, B, C, D. In some ways it doesn't matter, because this is just an example of classic crackle. On the other hand, I'm curious how it's supposed to look. Maybe I'll try it again later.

Another Example

Classic crackle bath mat woven in 4-ply cotton. Pattern
weft is the same size as warp and background wefts.
Resources
  • Wilson, Susan, Weave Classic Crackle & More, pages 17-18
  • Tidball, Harriet, The Weaver's Book, pages 125-126
Posted by at 4 comments:
Labels:

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

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

I mentioned in my last post that crackle is primarily defined by its threading, which follows a set of specific characteristics. As a review, I'll start by listing those.

Characteristics of Crackle
  • Crackle is a twill based block weave.
  • The blocks are composed of 3-shaft point-twill threading units,
  • but it isn't a unit weave. In a unit weave, the blocks weave independently of one another.
  • Crackle blocks do not weave independently of one another because each block shares pattern shafts with one of its neighbors. (See threading key below)
    • Blocks A and B share shafts 2 and 3
    • Blocks B and C share shafts 3 and 4
    • Blocks C and D share shafts 1 and 4
    • Blocks D and A share shafts 1 and 2
  • Exception: by omitting one block in the sequence, it's possible to weave rows of only one block.
  • The number of blocks is determined by the number of shafts. 4 shafts can weave 4 blocks.
  • In 4-shaft crackle, blocks weave as either pattern blocks and background blocks.
  • As a twill derivative, treadling follows the odd/even shed order of twill.
  • To maintain that order, transitional thread ends (incidentals) are used between blocks.
  • Floats are no longer than three ends or picks. 

When I first started looking at crackle, I struggled to understand all of that. Now, I can pull most of that out of my memory, although I did double check myself to make sure I didn't miss anything.

So, those are the ground rules, with variety found in the choice of yarns and colors, and the size and arrangement of the blocks. Crackle's true versatility, however, is found in the numerous ways in which it can be treadled, called "manners of weaving". The first part of my study plan is to explore those ways by weaving a sampler on my 4-shaft table loom.

4-shaft Crackle Sampler
  • Based on the sampler idea from Susan Wilson's Weave Classic Crackle & More, page 30.
  • warp
    • 10/2 cotton
    • 160 ends
    • 20 e.p.i.
    • 10-dent reed threaded 2 per dent
    • width: 8-inches 
    • length: 5-yards
  • weft
    • 5/2 (or 10/2 doubled) cotton pattern weft
    • 10/2 cotton ground weft
  • threading
    • Susan recommended something with diagonals, points, or zigzags
    • I used her diamond motif threading (page 34) because it includes both consecutive and non-consecutive blocks. That way, I'm hoping to get a better idea of what's going on.
    • threading key:

      Threaded right to left. O = incidentals, threaded at the end of the block only.
    • profile draft:


Right now, my plan is to weave several crackle samplers, each with a different emphasis.
  • Part 1: manners of weaving on 4 shafts
  • Part 2: color and crackle
  • Part 3: manners of weaving on 8 shafts

Also, I need to figure out how to organize my samples so that I can refer to them easily. For all the benefits of using a computer and a blog, information does have the amazing ability to become buried who knows where. I started a Manners of Weaving blog page last year, but I think it will need to be revamped. I'm thinking to make each sample it's own blog post, so that I can use the Manners of Weaving page as a index, with pictures of the samples and links to details and more examples. 

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Crackle Weave : Resources For a Proper Study

When I decided to delve into crackle weave last year, I started by taking a look at my 1961 edition of Mary Snyder's The Crackle Weave. The book is set up as a study plan to accompany a workshop in crackle, with lessons instead of chapters and projects based on those lessons. My idea was to weave a sampler by working my way through the lessons. 

I confess it was over my head. So, I bought two more books: Weave Classic Crackle & More by Susan Wilson and A Crackle Weave Companion by Lucy M. Brusic. I chose these because of the way they explore crackle. They are resource books rather than project books. I gave them a prominent place on my weaving bookshelf, and these became my primary crackle reference books.
 
At first, I tackled crackle with a hit-and-miss approach, choosing whatever struck my fancy. I had some successes and some failures. I learned a lot, but found I still couldn't wrap my head around crackle as a whole. That's when I decided to read Susan Wilson's book from cover to cover, start to finish. After that, I started on Lucy Brusic's book the same way. With a little crackle weaving experience under my belt. what I read was beginning to make sense.

The core of crackle is in the threading. That's what makes crackle, crackle. But it can be treadled in numerous ways, each with it's own attractive effect. Both of these books explore those ways. Does that mean there's a lot of overlap in content? Not as much as you'd think.

The basic explanations are similar, of course. But I have to say I really like getting the basics worded differently by the two authors. That helped clarify the concepts, plus I gleaned some unique and helpful tidbits from each one.

Wilson prefers classic crackle and Brusic prefers traditional (overshot manner) crackle, although both books extensively explore other possibilities. Wilson's samples come from her own designs, while Brusic utilizes the early crackle literature: Mary Snyder's The Crackle Weave, Mary Meigs Atwater's Recipe Book, and Marguerite Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book. To her credit, she does a good job of not requiring the reader to have these books, although it really adds a lot to have them. What I appreciate about this, is that I've been inspired by some of the patterns in these resources, and find the modern interpretation and application very helpful. Lucy's book is helping me understand them.

Part of the "& More" of Susan's book is 8-shaft crackle. In studying her samples, I see that 8 shafts opens up whole new design possibilities by creating plain-weave-like blocks in addition to the pattern and background blocks of 4-shaft crackle. She also discusses turned crackle and has an extensive section on crackle in color-and-weave. Lucy's book sticks with 4-shaft, but she explores interesting ideas such as block arrangement and swapping treadling drafts with different threadings. She also has more ideas on unique ways of using color in crackle.

Would I recommend one book over the other? EDIT: No. They both have a lot to offer and between the two of them, offer a well-rounded look at what crackle is and can do.  That statement is still true, but if I could only buy one book, I would recommend Weave Classic Crackle & More to start. I found it a little bit easier to read through, and it's set up better as an introduction to crackle. Lucy's book is an excellent second resource because it adds more ideas and possibilities. So, I'd still recommend both, but in that buying order. 

After reading these books, I've come up with a plan. In Susan's Weave Classic Crackle & More, she recommends making a sampler to work through many treadling variations. My plan is to use Susan's book to work through these, while referring to both Brusic's and Snyder's works as supplementary material for each of these treadlings. Hopefully, I will end up with my own reference book, with all pertinent information plus the woven samples. That should keep me busy this winter. 

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Saturday, October 12, 2024

Of T-shirt Yarns & Twill: Wet Finishing the Sampler

Wet finishing was the test. It's a process of soaking and washing newly woven fabric, which serves to relax, settle, soften, full, and shrink the yarns according to fiber content and weave structure. My first two t-shirt yarn fabrics (wanna-be bathroom rug and wanna-be upholstery fabric) did not turn out as hoped after wet finishing. What I learned led to this last sampler. 

Fresh off the loom, unwashed, 5.75" by 24.25"

Wet finishing consisted of machine washing in tepid water and hot machine drying. Ordinarily, I line dry everything, but the dryer serves to help test the fabric to its limits.

After machine washing only. 5" by 21.25"

Most notable is the plain weave section on the right. It did not shrink as much as the remaining twill samples, with a width of 5.75 inches. This is characteristic of combining plain weave with twill.

After machine washing and drying. 4.75" by 20.375" (twills)

I was much happier with how these held up than with the crackle samples. The plain weave sample was, well, plain. But the twill samples were interesting because of the patterns the warp yarn made. 

From the left: twill & reverse, balanced 2/2 twill, and plain weave

From the left: crepe weave, vertical skip twill, and vertical herringbone

The longer warp float in the twill & reverse sample (left) wasn't as much of a problem as it was in the previous samples. Even though I like the zig zags, I think this twill is better suited for finer yarns. The vertical herringbone (yellow sample) resolved that with crisp neat lines. 

Overall, I liked the density and thickness of the fabric. I think it would work well for a throw rug.

I'm happy to have come up with a good structure for this yarn! I'm happy with what I learned and have to thank the problems for that. I learn so much better through experience that by just reading a book. 

So, a t-shirt bathroom rag rug is still on the planning board. I'll just need to collect more t-shirts first. 

Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)