Sample #34 of my 4-shaft crackle manners of weaving sampler.
Like swivel and petitpoint, honeycomb is a treadling system, and therefore applicable to a variety of threadings: typically overshot, but also M's & O's, huck, monk's belt, and even twill.
Once upon a time, I wove honeycomb on M's and O's threading (pictures here. This is one where wet finishing makes a dramatic difference to the fabric.) Even so, it's not one I was terribly interested in for this sampler. Like swivel and petitpoint it's an unbalanced weave that creates long floats on the back.
Both Susan Wilson and Lucy Brusic have a section on honeycomb in their crackle
books, but in both cases it's more of a description rather than instructions.
But I found instructions in Mary Snyder's
The Crackle Weave. And what was truly amazing was that I actually understood them! I gave up on
this book when I first started experimenting with crackle because I couldn't
follow what she was saying. Finally, (after 32 samples!) her book is starting
to make sense.
Honeycomb is so called because it weaves honeycomb-like cells in the fabric. A heavy weft curves around cell-like shapes with plain weave in the centers. Long floats form on the back of the cells from the heavy outline weft.
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Doesn't exactly look like bees' honeycomb, does it? More like waves. Probably has to do with the threading. |
- For the most part, I followed Snyder's project #12, "crackle blocks woven in honeycomb manner," page 32 of the 1989 edition.
- My loom was already warped, so there is a difference there in sett
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Snyder recommended 10/2 warp with sett of 24 ends per inch
- My warp is 10/2 with sett of 20 e.p.i.
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Weft yarns are similar to her recommendations
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tabby: 3/2 cotton (3 times heavier than the pattern weft)
- pattern: 16/2 cotton
- This is opposite of how it usually is. Usually, the pattern weft is heaviest.
- Tie-up is the same as swivel
- Tension should be looser than normal
- Beat firmly
- 4 cells possible with 4 shafts
- There are many treadling possibilities (Bress pgs 130-136). The one I used is Snyder's variation A:
- 1-3 (tabby a)
- 2-4 (tabby b)
- 2-3-4 (pattern)
- 1-3-4 (pattern)
- 1-3 (tabby a)
- 2-4 (tabby b)
- 1-2-4 (pattern)
- 1-2-3 (pattern)
- Creates a one-sided fabric with long floats on the back.
Lucy Brusic states that honeycomb really isn't worth the effort on crackle,
and I have to agree with her. I much preferred it on my
other sample on M's and O's threading.
Resources
- Helene Bress, The Weaving Book, pages 129-130
- Harriet Tidball, The Weaver's Book, pages 163
- Mary Snyder, The Crackle Weave pages 14, 32
- Lucy M. Brusic, A Crackle Weave Companion, page 34
- Susan Wilson, Weave Classic Crackle & More, page 49
