One More Shadow Weave Sample

Well, after these samples, I thought I had set shadow weave aside as I prepare for next month's lace weaving workshop. But I had just enough success with this one, so that my brain switched itself to its problem solving gear.

I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps a darker color to contrast with the loopy rayon would look better.

I found some black 2000 ypp acyrlic chenille (which I'm not very fond of, but hey, it only cost a buck) in my stash and decided to give it a try.

I re-threaded the heddles for a different shadow weave pattern, this time using Powell's profile number 4-2-1 on page 67 of 1000+ Patterns. I used the same sett of 16 ends per inch. Close up it looks like this:

And when you step back:

So I'm pleased. I think this fabric would make a nice stole or scarf, or even vest fronts. Perhaps if I ever buy some black rayon chenille I'll give it a try.

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Next - Last Shadow Weave - shadow weave with texture

Related Posts:
Shadow Weave: Doing The Triple S - My introduction
Shadow Weave Profiles - How to interpret
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins a series of samples

Weekend Weaving.....

......has consisted of experimenting with some ideas. I've been wanting to try shadow weave utilizing different yarn sizes or textures instead of color. This yarn was what caught my attention:

It is a 2950 ypp rayon filament loop. I thought to try it with rayon chenille for both size and texture contrast, so I tied a yard of these two yarns onto a section of this warp.

My first sample used a dard red, 1450 ypp rayon chenille, sett at 16 epi.

I wanted to check sett and see if the shadow weave pattern was visible. As you can see, the is subtle, but still visible (even with a sleying error and a treadling error.)

But.......not especially impressive, although encouraging enough to try another sample. So I got out some 1000 ypp rayon chenille in a different color and tried that with the same sett.

I quit when several warp threads broke (this is only a sample after all, so I'm not too interested in struggling with the warp just to get a few more inches. ) Plus, it did give me the information I needed. As you can see, the shadow weave pattern is lost at this sett, and possibly not helped by this color combination.

Here they are from a distance.....

Neither sample motivates me to try another. In fact, I'm already beginning to switch gears, mentally. The Online Guild will be offering a lace weaving workshop in November and I would like to participate in that. So perhaps its a good time to clean off the loom, do a little vacuuming, put away my odds & ends, and tidy up my stash a bit.

Even so, I can't say that the weekend was a waste, weaving-wise. I'm just glad I decided to do the samples instead of throwing all caution to the wind and warping the loom for an entire project!

Now see the one that worked by clicking here.

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:
Shadow Weave: Doing The Triple S - My introduction
Shadow Weave Profiles - How to interpret
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins a series of samples

Undulating Shadow Weave 3 - Finishing

After my somewhat successful hemstitching experience, I have cut my undulating shadow weave off the loom.

I wet finished it in cold water. I let it soak for about half an hour in the washing machine, agitated briefly, and then put it on the spin cycle. I ironed it while still damp. This softened the fabric beautifully.

To cut the fringe, I finally broke down and bought one of these....

..... a rotary cutter which I found in the quilting department at the local big box store. It made trimming the fringe a breeze.

I think this is the first time I actually got even, straight fringe. No more eyeballing with scissors for me!

So here it is:

In looking at it I'm now thinking more of a shawl than a table runner. Either way I am very pleased with it and interested in exploring undulating shadow weave a little more. I have a few ideas to vary it somewhat, so hopefully I'll have another project on the loom soon.

Next - Weekend Weaving - Shadow weave with novelty yarn

© 6 Oct. 2006 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:

Shadow Weave Profiles
Undulating Shadow Weave 1 - Weaving
Undulating Shadow Weave 2 - Hemstitching
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins the series of samples

Undulating Shadow Weave 2 - Hemstitching

By Leigh

Well, since I don't have three hands, I will have to wait until I can get someone to take some photos before I give a progress report on woolcombing my Leicester Longwool.

In the meantime, I have finished weaving my undulating shadow weave. As you may recall, my original plan was to use it for jacket front panels, but during the course of weaving I changed my mind and decided to make it a table runner.

Hemstitching the completed fell before removing it from the loom was no problem.

I really like to use these blunt, bent point needles for hemstitching. They make it so easy to work the needle through taut fabric. I purchased them about five years ago at the Naked Sheep Yarn Shop in Black Mountain, NC.

The other end was a little more challenging to hemstitch since it was after the fact. Cheryl had suggested weighting the fabric, and I did give this some serious consideration.

One cat volunteered to help (the other was too busy taking a nap.)

From a distance, the color becomes quite softened. The effect is pretty much lost in the lighting and jpg optimization.

I pulled the fabric over the breast beam and tried to weight it on the floor to give it a little tautness. First I tried using a heavy book as a weight, then a heavy book plus a cast iron iron, and finally a heavy book plus cast iron iron plus cat. None of these proved to be very helpful.

I really couldn't get it taut enough with this system. In the end, I managed the hemstitching rather awkwardly with no weight and then cut the fabric off the loom. All that remains now is to weave in the ends (which are sticking out of the selvedges since I first intended it to be yardage), and then wash and press.

© 29 Sept. 2006 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:
Shadow Weave Profiles
Undulating Shadow Weave 1 - Weaving
Undulating Shadow Weave 3 - Finishing
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins the series of samples

Undulating Shadow Weave 1- Weaving

By Leigh

Weaving on the undulating shadow weave has been progressing nicely. It has a fairly long treadling sequence which has the potential to be confusing. But actually it's been easy to catch on to, and fun to weave. The colors I'm using are quite dark, but I hopefully the subtle pattern can be seen in this photo:


I'm especially happy that the warp tension is even and the fell is straight. I have struggled for years with tension problems, but it hasn't been until I started experimenting with warping back-to-front that I actually made progress in conquering them.

My first plan was to use this fabric for front panels for a jacket. However the more I weave, the more I see a table runner appearing before my eyes. I didn't hemstitch it at the beginning, but perhaps I can do this before the whole thing is cut completely off the loom(?)

My other news is that I have had a slight set back in accumulating more half gallon milk jugs to fill with water for warping weights. Since this warp, my goal has been to have more weights so that I can have smaller bouts as I beam the warp. With the help of my almost-no-longer-a-teenage son who still likes milk on his cereal, I've been able to save a few more. Then I saw this:

Yes, she's trotting down the hall with it in her mouth. Here's a close-up of what she did to it:

I can't fathom what is so attractive about it unless her super kitty smeller detected the faint odor of milk, which certainly must be rather sour by now. To me it just smells like plastic. Or maybe 5 months is an age when kittens teethe. I don't know. I just know that I'll have to find a safer place for the next ones.

© 20 Sept. 2006 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

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Shadow Weave Profiles
Undulating Shadow Weave 2 - Hemstitching
Undulating Shadow Weave 3 - Finishing
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins the series of samples

Shadow Weave Profiles

By Leigh

It has been said that the best way to learn something is to teach it. One of the challenges I had in preparing this warp, is that the shadow weave pattern was not written as a draft or even a profile, but rather a description in paragraph form. It is the undulating 4 shaft shadow weave found on page 80 of Margaret B. Windeknecht's Color-and-Weave II.

The description goes something like this:
Blocks A, B, & C are threaded 4 times for a total of 8 ends per block
Blocks D, A, & B are threaded 3 times for a total of 6 ends per block
Blocks C, D, & A are threaded twice, for a total of 4 ends per block
Blocks B, C, D, & A are threaded once, for a total of 2 ends per block
Blocks B, C, & D are threaded twice, for a total of 4 ends per block
Blocks A, B, & C are threaded 3 times for a total of 6 ends per block
Block D is threaded 4 times for a total of 8 ends
Repeat

I couldn't follow this to thread my heddles, so I opened up WinWeave and tried to create a draft from these directions. I still got confused. Then I wondered if I tried to write it as a profile first, then perhaps it would make more sense to me. So I came up with this:


For some reason this looked easier to follow than the text description. Each small blue square on the graph paper represents one unit, i.e. one dark and one light thread. The number of squares in each rectangle represent how many times that unit is repeated in that block.

This profile is read right to left, the blocks on the bottom being the A blocks, the next line up being the B blocks, etc. So the first A block on the right is 4 units (1 dark thread and 1 light thread for a total of 8 threads), the next block, B, is 4 units (8 threads), etc.

After that I had to figure out how to translate all that into a heddle threading pattern. This was a bit more challenging as the profiles Ms. Windeknecht uses are different from the profiles I had become familiar with in Marian Powell's 1000+ Patterns.

Ms. Powell uses adjacent shafts for threading the blocks, while Ms. Windeknecht uses opposite shafts as developed by Mary Meigs Atwater. So:
Block A - Atwater, shafts 1 & 3 - Powell, shafts 1 & 2
Block B - Atwater, shafts 2 & 4 - Powell, shafts 3 & 4
Block C - Atwater, shafts 3 & 1 - Powell, shafts 2 & 1
Block D - Atwater, shafts 4 & 2 - Powell, shafts 4 & 3

I wrote out the 2 shafts for each square of the profile using the Atwater system, and came up with this (these are the first 4 blocks with A, which uses shafts 1 and 3 on the right, all the way to D, using shafts 4 and 2 on the left):

A standard tie-up is used and it is to be treadled as drawn in. After I finally got it onto WinWeave, the draft and drawdown something like this:


Of course, this isn't the entire pattern. WinWeave wanted to print in out on 5 pages, which I decided not to do.

If anyone has actually read through this, congratulations! If anyone actually understands it, stand up and take a bow! I would love to ask for feedback as to whether or not it makes any sense, but I think that would be asking a bit much of my readers. So thank you for bearing with me. I think I understand it better for trying to explain it, though I don't know if I could do a repeat performance in a month or two.

© 18 Sept. 2006 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

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Undulating Shadow Weave 1 - Weaving
Undulating Shadow Weave 2 - Hemstitching
Undulating Shadow Weave 3 - Finishing
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Shadow Weave - The Next Warp

This warp is ready to weave. I was happy with the way the weights and over-the-castle winding on technique worked. It beamed on without difficulty and I'm hoping that it will be my tightest and most evenly tensioned warp so far. Time will tell.

One thing which I definitely want to do next time, is add more weights. I used two half gallon milk jugs because two is all I have, the reason being that we don't use much milk. But, with DS living at home this semester, we will use more milk, so I foresee plenty of jugs for weights next time.

I have to admit that the particulars of beaming on this warp were not my only challenges. I had previously decided on the undulating shadow weave pattern on page 80 of Margaret Windeknecht's Color-and-Weave II, and there was the challenge of translating this into a draft (more on that later.)

Determining the sett for my yarns was another challenge. I considered several types of yarns and was leaning toward chenille, but finally decided to use the yarns pictured on the left, from a previous sample session. I had the idea that they would make a nice jacket front to match a skirt I recently made from the background fabric in this picture.

My problem was that they were different size yarns: the green is a 16/2s cotton, and the black is 8/2s cotton. I wasn't sure how to decide what sett to use. For that first sample, I had somehow chosen a sett of 24 epi (don't ask me how I decided that. I'm sure I had a reason at the time but I didn't record it so I can't remember. On the other hand, at least I recorded something!)

I thought the fabric at 24 epi was a little stiffer than I wanted however. I mulled over the various formulae available for calculating a more appropriate sett, but wasn't too thrilled about doing any math. Then, I remembered my new Peggy Osterkamp book, Winding a Warp and Using a Paddle. It has an appendix loaded with sett charts, among other things. I took the average of the two setts and calculated 22 epi.

So that's what I have on the loom now. The header is woven and my bobbins are filled.


Hopefully all the challenges for this warp are behind me.

Next - Undulating Shadow Weave 1 - Weaving

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

 Related Posts:

Shadow Weave: Doing the Triple S - my introduction
Shadow Weave Profiles- how to interpret
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins the series of samples

Shadow Weave Sample Strip Off the Loom

My shadow weave sampler strip is finally off the loom. I say finally, because it seemed to take an awfully long time to weave.

I wasn’t sure of the best way to photograph all ten yards, so it ended up in a pile. Close ups plus yarn and weaving details can be found in this post.

My weaving width was a fraction shy of 3 inches (46 ends sett at 16 epi). Fresh off the loom the strip measured 2 & 5/8 inches wide by 9 yards 5 inches in long. I might have been able to eek out a few more inches, but I finally had one thread break close to the end of the warp, and so just wove it off. The yarn, Knit Picks lace weight merino at 4141 yards per pound, proved to make a sturdy warp.

After wet finishing and steaming, it measured 2 & 1/2 inches by 8 & 2/3 yards.

Next will come some experimenting with lengths of this. And even though I’m curious to see how they will look sewn together lengthwise, I have to admit that mostly, I'm just glad to have it off the loom!

Next - Shadow Weave - The Next Warp

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:

Shadow Weave: Doing the Triple S - my introduction

Shadow Weave Profiles- how to interpret

Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins the series of samples

Sample Strip Bag Completed

The challenge has been “What do I do with all my handwoven sample strips.“ I presented an idea in my last post, and I completed it over the weekend. In contemplating the suggestions from the comments for this post, I was able to work though several things I had questions about.

My first question was about the bottom. I had vaguely thought to simply use one of my handwoven strips for the bottom, but Valerie’s suggestion to use commercial fabric made more sense as it addressed a couple of things: waste (as in, who’s going to see the bottom anyway), and wear (as in, why wear out handwoven fabric when commercial fabric will do), not to mention possibly getting the bottom of the bag dirty.










First I braided the i-cord. It took about 7 yards for a two yard braid. I really liked Tricia’s idea of fulled i-cord, as it would have prevented any stretching of the handle. But since I wasn’t working with wool, I’ll have to save this suggestion for another time.

The handwoven side panels were whip stitched together and the i-cord was stitched to the outside in the same manner. Next, the end panels were placed wrong side together with the sides. I used a running stitch to sew them together, leaving the selvedges exposed on the outside of the bag to make a nice edge. Lastly, I sewed the bottom panel on by hand.

Another problem I had contemplated was that I didn’t want the bag to have a soft, droopy bottom. Initially I had wondered about putting cardboard in the bottom, but Charleen came through with the suggestion to use plastic canvas. Perfect!

I tucked the plastic in under the seam allowance around the bottom. This took care of the possibility of the corners of the plastic poking through my handwoven fabric. I tacked it down in a couple of places to prevent slippage. The result was a beautiful, firm bottom to the bag.

I made the lining from a simple rectangle of the same fabric I used for the bottom. After sewing up the side seams I measured for the corner seams. Using a ruler to keep the liner’s side seam centered, I measured and marked a line as long as the bag’s width.










Stitching across this line made a nice squared corner








I sewed the lining to the bag with right sides together, leaving an opening on one end. I pulled the bag right side out and hand stitched the opening closed. I added a couple of reinforcing stitches for the hand straps and that was it!















My plan is to use this for my Winter Knitting Project. I love to use baskets for yarns and knitting, but find that they are often awkward to transport. So this bag will be used for that.

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Post:
Bag Idea for Sample Strips
Gallery Photos: Bags

Shadow Weave Samples - 4

After I took the last shadow weave samples off the loom, I warped a 3 inch width of 10 yards (which the impatient side of me thinks was an insane decision) of Knit Picks Shadow , their lace weight merino. I warped back to front, which I am finally getting comfortable with. I've been using almost full half gallon milk jugs as weights and am very happy with my warp tension.

My idea for this warp has been to weave a long sample strip which I can cut and sew together into a vest? cardigan? pullover? handbag? ?????

The warp alternates blue and white, while the weft colors of blue and purple with white alternate for each variation. These are an opposite development of shadow weave from Marian Powell's 1000+ Patterns in 4, 6, and 8 Harness Shadow Weaves, page 103. The yarn weighs in at 4141 yards per pound and my sett is 16 epi. (The individual photos weren’t all the same size, but you get the idea.)

Here is a sampling of the variations I’ve been trying:

One good thing about small samples like this is that it doesn’t matter if I make a few treadling errors. Who’s gonna know? There is also a lot of freedom to experiment; if I don’t like it, that’s okay because it’s only a small part of the entire strip.

This sampling/journaling/exploring/learning activity with weaving is a crucial step for me as a weaver. However, when I’m in a sampling mode, I struggle with the tension of the usefulness vs. uselessness of my end product. Oh sure, the samples are valuable to me personally, but somehow they don’t satisfy my inner desire to produce beautiful and useful things. Sometimes I weave scarves as samples, but how many scarves does one need?

This sample strip is an attempt to resolve that tension. How well it works will probably depend on whether I actually use it for anything. ;)

Next - Shadow Weave Sample Strip Off the Loom

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:
Shadow Weave: Doing the Triple S - my introduction
Shadow Weave Profiles- how to interpret
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins the series of samples

Shadow Weave Samples - 3

Two more samples.

The first (on the left) is another scarf actually. The pattern is the four block 2 by 2 shadow weave draft from Madelyn van der Hoogt’s “Color-and-Weave Basics” article in the March/April ‘05 issue of Handwoven. I did adjust the number of ends per block according to my desired project width. I followed the treadling order for the scarf (as drawn in), but can imagine a lot of treadling fun with it.

The yarn is the same Yarn Bee Icelandic Jewels that I used for the green and orange scarf. Red and black was the other color combination that I couldn't resist buying. I think what attracted me to these yarns was the ribbon plied into it:

My other experiment with this draft was to tie on some sock yarn leftovers. I used orange (obviously) and one of those Fair Isle space dyed sock yarns.

So this is the same pattern as the scarf but, as you can see, the effect is very different. I found the results intriguing, not only for the ikat-like pattern in the lower sample, but also because of the textured look added by the overshots. More design possibilities!

A couple of close-ups which I scanned in are below.

Next - Shadow Weave Samples - 4

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:
Shadow Weave: Doing the Triple S - my introduction
Shadow Weave Profiles- how to interpret
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins a series of samples

Shadow Weave Samples - 2

For my second set of shadow weave samples I used one pattern with different types and colors of yarn. I chose figure 30 from page 43 of Powell’s 1000 (+) Patterns. The main reason I chose it was because the pattern repeat had only 16 ends. This was desirable as I wanted a fairly narrow sample on which I could experiment. All the samples were treadled the same.

Upfront I have to say that I’m not especially happy with the pix, specifically the color representation. I like to photograph in natural light but wasn’t able to do so with these. So I’m making do! And of course I had supervision:


The first samples (on left) are shadow weave and a switch drawdown. In the (regular) shadow weave sample, the weft colors follow the warp sequence of dark, light. In the switch sample, the sequence is switched. Looking at them now I couldn’t tell you which was which, so I'll leave you to guess on your own.

I used green and purple yarns of similar value, so the patterns are not especially easy to see. In fact, while weaving, I couldn’t see the pattern at all! It wasn’t until I took it off the loom and stepped back that the pattern emerged.

With this same warp I next wove the samples on the right, replacing the green weft first with a light brown and then with a dark. I really like the look of these, especially the light one. I also tried a couple of variegated wefts, which you can see in Rascal’s picture above. However I didn't care for these.

This first warp was an acrylic worsted weight knitting yarn. I'm not sure why I like to use this for weaving samples. I know I definitely don't like to knit with it. But it's thick so it warps and weaves quickly. Plus it's inexpensive, readily available, comes in lots of colors, and gives me a chance to decide if I want to weave the same thing in a serious yarn.

Continuing with this same threading, I next tied on some cotton yarns next, using an 8/2 black and a 16/2 green. I chose these because they are the only cottons in my stash which match some large scraps of store bought fabric I have on hand. I thought perhaps I could weave fronts for a jacket or vest and wanted to see if I could use these two sized yarns together.

Again I couldn’t see the pattern until I stepped back. Happily, the two yarns worked well together, though I will choose a different pattern if I ever do weave anything with them.

Lastly I tried some bulky designer type yarn I found on sale at Hobby Lobby; Yarn Bee’s Icelandic Jewels. I’m not sure why I chose these colors, the orange is very unlike me. I tied on again, this time with enough to weave a scarf.

The close up shows what I’ve meant about not being able to see the pattern:

Stepping back doesn't help a whole lot:

And here’s the scarf which I’m not much impressed with. From a distance the colors (which aren't very accurate here) muddy each other out, though someone who likes brown might not mind.

So far I like my first shadow weave samples from the previous post best. Partly because of the colors and partly because I like the drafts better. Even so, these samples are valuable to me. Perhaps not so much for what works, as for what doesn't work. I've learned some things about color and I've learned a little more about shadow weave patterns. Hopefully, I can utilize this new knowledge as I decide which patterns and yarns to use next.

Next - Shadow Weave Samples - 3

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:
Shadow Weave: Doing the Triple S - my introduction
Shadow Weave Profiles- how to interpret
Shadow Weave Samples 1 - Begins a series of samples

Shadow Weave Samples - 1

By Leigh

My first set of shadow weave samples is off the loom. I don't have anything profound to report, but weaving these has given me an opportunity to do some experimenting as well as get a feel for it and an idea of what to consider next.

I wove three identical strips of five samples each, choosing different sizes of yarn for each sample strip. In my stash, I found the following of similar color: 8/2 cotton, sock yarn, worsted weight knitting yarn. This gave me an opportunity to experiment with sett as well as yarn size.

The draft (profile actually) was taken from Marian Powell’s 1000+ Patterns. I started with the 4-1 threading on page 66. This is a 4 shaft shadow weave in point twill development. I chose five different treadling sequences to weave the strips, using the same sequences for each strip.

It was the first time I'd worked profiles and since I was unfamiliar with them, they are quite puzzling at first. Here is an excerpt from the page I worked from:

I found that the best way to interpret these was to work them out as a more familiar drawdown on my simple weaving software program, WinWeave.

The next pic compares 3 inch segments of the same pattern from the different sample strips:

And here are a few more examples:

I also discovered how easy it is to make treadling errors! Can you see it?

In re-reading Powell's "this and that" (page 5), I learned to use a shot of sewing thread after completing each treadling sequence, thus giving me a starting point to count from in case I got lost (which more often than I care to admit. :)

Now, on to weaving more samples.

© 11 July 2006 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:
Shadow Weave Profiles
Profile Drafts