Sunday, October 29, 2023

Crackle Weave: Manners of Weaving

Change is in the air! I'm revamping this page, so it's changing frequently.

Initially, I was going to call this blog post "Crackle Weave: Treadling," because treadling seemed like the next topic in a logical progression of notes:
Except with crackle, there's so much more to it. Treadling is where the fun begins because this is when the patterns reveal themselves on the loom. But also part of the equation are yarn choices (colors, number, and types of weft, etc.) plus the way it's threaded. So I changed the name of the post to better reflect that. 

This page has evolved over time to become an index of sorts. Each example is (i.e. will be, as I update the page) linked to pages discussing the particulars of each manner of weaving, plus more examples of the variations.

Classic Crackle

Bathmat in 4-ply cotton

Summery: Classic crackle is woven with 3-shuttles, using a pattern and two background wefts instead of tabby. It's popular for color weaving as different colors can be used on each shuttle. Details and more examples here.

Overshot Manner (also called traditional crackle)

threading - Scandinavian Favorite

Summary: Overshot manner crackle is woven with 2 shuttles, alternating pattern and tabby wefts. This is probably the most popular form of crackle. Details and more examples here.

As-Drawn-In (also called tromp-as-writ)
  • treadling simply follows the threading draft
  • uses two shuttles
  • alternates pattern and tabby wefts
    • pattern weft - contrasting color to warp and tabby wefts and heavier
    • tabby weft - same as warp (but may be different color)
Plain Weave

threading - Scandinavian Favorite
  • one shuttle weave (no tabby)
  • alternates plain weave sheds: 1 & 3 and 2 & 4
  • typically used to start or finish off a warp
  • threading pattern is pretty much lost with plain weave treadling
As Twill

Twill treadling without tabby (here, a birds eye variation)

Summery: Crackle is a twill based structure, so any of the balanced (2/2) twill treadlings will work. It can be woven with or without tabby. More examples and details here.

Polychrome (poly= many, chrome = color)


Summary: Methods of treadling that produce blocks of color side by side. More examples and information here.

On Opposites

"Cottage Windows." An on-opposites pattern produced from opposite pattern blocks.

Summary: "On opposites" can refer to alternating opposite sheds or weaving opposite pattern blocks. More examples and details here.
Italian Manner (also called Italian style or Italian method)
  • three shuttles
    • one pattern weft (often the heaviest yarn)
    • two background wefts (called "a" and "b," and typically similar in size to the warp)
    • often a three-color weave
      • pattern is typically one color
      • background wefts can be two different colors or the same
  • various methods of treadling
  • can be applied to a variety of weave structures
  • treadling sequence is four shots
    • Pattern
    • Background A
    • Pattern
    • Background b
  • background wefts use opposite sheds between the pattern shots, either
    • 1-2 and 3-4
    • 1-4 and 2-3
  • no tabby. The Italian manner replaces tabby with a different set of opposite sheds.
  • emphasis is on color
  • The color sequence remains consistent throughout, it is the treadling that progresses with each block. Eg. 
    • A alternates 1-2 and 3-4
    • B alternates 2-3 and 4-1
    • C alternates 3-4 and 1-2
    • D alternates 4-1 and 2-3
  • can also be woven with one or two shuttles
  • See The Italian Manner for more details


There are others, but I'm going to stop here for now, as this will give me plenty to work on.  Hopefully, I can add more in the future. Also, I plan to add photos of each as I work my way through them. 

Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Friday, October 27, 2023

Table Runner 1 Is Done


Project Particulars:

  • Pattern: Fibonacci stripes in a 2/2 twill and reverse
  • Yarn: 8/2 cotton
  • Sett: 24 e.p.i.
  • Width on loom: 17.5 inches
  • Woven length on loom: 30 inches
  • Finished width: 15.75 inches
  • Finished length: 28 inches



Weaving Notes

Noteworthy 1: When I was just getting started and weaving the plain weave header, I noticed that there were warp stripes appearing. They're especially noticeable in the dark gray warp sections.

Upon a closer look, I discovered that these are the result of the way the reed is threaded. I only have one size reed, which is 10 dents per inch. So far, I've woven my samplers and dishtowels at 20 ends per inch, or two per dent. The sett for the table runner needed to be 24 per inch. That meant I had to thread the reed in a 2 - 2 - 3 sequence. The result is that where there are three threads in a dent, they are bunched up and formed stripes in the plain weave header. 

Thankfully, this wasn't a problem when I wove the twill.

Still, it's something to keep in mind and perhaps consider purchasing a 12 dent reed in the future.

Noteworthy 2: As I measured the project length on the loom while weaving, I allowed a couple of extra inches beyond my targeted project length for take-up. When I got it off the loom it was no longer under tension and so was shorter than I expected! Thankfully, length is arbitrary, and so this is one of those "don't point out the mistakes and no one will notice" thingys!
To compensate, I used the plain weave headers like borders for the hems. 


I was able to get my targeted length and I'm satisfied with how the plain borders highlight the twill pattern, Who's to know it wasn't planned? 

Now on to plan table runner number two.


Related Posts:

Posted by at 7 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Crackle Weave: Tie-Up

I'm currently using a table loom, so I have no treadles to tie up. With each shaft permanently attached to a single lever, I have what is known as a direct tie-up loom. These use a liftplan, and I have to manually lift the required shafts with their levers. Because crackle is a twill derivative, a standard 2/2 twill tie-up is typically used, so my liftplans will follow that sequence. 

1 - 2
2 - 3
3 - 4
1 - 4

Also, plain (tabby) weave for two treadles.

1 - 3
2 - 4

Rising versus sinking shed looms

I mention this because Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book drafts patterns for a sinking shed loom. I plan to use her book, but my table loom has a rising shed. (That just means that when the levers are engaged or treadles are pressed, the designated shafts are lifted. With a sinking shed loom, the designated shafts are pulled down. Both create a shed, i.e. opening though which to pass the shuttle, but the pattern may not appear on top of the fabric. It may appear on the bottom!)

So for Davison's patterns, the answer is to tie up the opposite of what the draft shows. (Unless one doesn't mind the pattern being on the underside!)

I confess that I have done projects in the past where I had to use a mirror to see how the pattern was progressing. Not ideal, so it's better to address it in the tie-up.

 
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: ,

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Crackle Weave: Threading

Threading is what makes crackle weave crackle. The number of shuttles and treadling patterns can vary, but all are threaded with the same basic elements. That threading is a 3-shaft point twill.

A point twill is when the shafts are threaded 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 3 - 2 (repeat). On a graph, (starting from the bottom right) it looks like this for a four shaft loom:

basic unit of a 4-shaft point twill

When repeated (right to left), the draft looks like a series of points. Point twill is one of the threadings I used for my twill gamp dishtowels. 

On a four shaft loom, a 3-shaft point twill can be threaded four different ways.

Any one of them can be repeated as desired. The tricky part comes when transitioning from one block to the next. For example, from A to B. As you can see in the above image, Block A ends on shaft 2, and Block B begins on shaft 2. Because crackle is a twill variation, the succession of threads must alternate odd and even shafts. The solution is to place transition threads between the blocks.

These transition threads are called "incidentals." You may recall from Crackle Weave: Somewhat of a History, that Harriet Tidball is credited as the first to standardize crackle draft writing. Her system repeats the first thread of the block as the incidental. In this example, Block A starts on shaft 1, so the incidental is threaded on shaft 1.

This follows standard point twill threading and works well when transitioning from A to B, B to C, C to D, and D to A. Berta Frey (Designing and Drafting for Handweavers, 1958) went on to address incidentals when blocks are skipped, for example C to A or B to D. In these cases, two incidentals are added to maintain the twill structure.

Mind you, this is all still head knowledge for me at this point. I don't plan to do any designing at present, but for now, understanding all of this helps me make sense of crackle drafts that I look it. 

Other threading notes

  • Crackle uses a tabby sett.
  • Berta Frey recommends threading the selvedges in a straight 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 twill, repeating as desired.

I don't know if that makes sense to anybody else, but having to write it out in my own words with my own diagrams has certainly helped me! 

 
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: ,

Monday, October 23, 2023

Crackle Weave: Resources

Before I get any further into this series, I thought it would be good to list resources. This will serve as both a bibliography, as well as a centralized location for online resources I've found. It's a work in progress, and I will add to it as I find more. If you know of any good ones on crackle that I don't mention here, I'd appreciate your pointing me to them in the comments.

Books

I think I now have most of the recommended books on the subject. Except for one, the older sources are about weaving in general, but have a good chapter or section on crackle. Three (one old and two new) are specifically about crackle. Those are:

Books with chapters or sections on crackle:
  • Designing and Drafting for Handweavers by Berta Frey (1958) chapter 10, "Crackle Weave"
  • The Key to Weaving by Mary E. Black (1945) chapter 8, "Crackle Weave or Jämtlandsväv"
  • A Handweaver's Pattern Book by Marguerite Porter Davison (1944) chapter XXI, "Crackle Weave"
  • The Handweaver's Pattern Directory by Anne Dixon (2007) "Block Drafts. Crackle" 
  • The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving by Mary Meigs Atwater (*1951 revised edition), "Chapter 12, "Additional Four-Harness Weaves: The Crackle Weave"
  • The Weaver's Book by Harriet Tidball (1961) "The Twill Derivative Class: The Crackle System"
Notes on books
  • *I have two editions of the Shuttle-Craft book: one of the original 1928 edition and also the revised 1951 edition. Crackle was added when the book was revised; it isn't mention in the original edition. A more detailed comparison of these two here.
  • Most of the old books are out of print. Some are easy to find used, others not.
  • Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book has been republished and you can find it here.
  • The Key to Weaving by Mary Black was revised in 1957 as The New Key to Weaving. I don't have access to that edition so I don't know if the section on crackle has been revised.
  • I'd like to do some book reviews on these in the future.

Periodicals

Shuttle-Craft Guild Bulletins starting in 1928 through the 1930s and 1940s (and beyond) have carried articles about crackle. These are available for PDF download from the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics. I'll make a list of the issues as I identify them.

YouTube Videos

  • The Core of Crackle by Chris at Action Creative is an excellent introduction to the basics. It's geared towards new weavers, so she explains a lot of the weaving terminology too.
To answer my traditional versus classic crackle question, the welfordWEAVES series by Rachel Smith have been very helpful. It's more technical, and she takes awhile to get to the point, but she does a good job of explaining the differences between the two.

Online Articles, Blogs, and Webpages

Of these, the most helpful have been blogs and websites by weavers who are actually exploring this structure. The least helpful are sales sites focused on selling rather than teaching.
  • Talking About Weaving by Peg in South Carolina. That links to all the posts on her blog under the label "crackle." There are dozens of them, and I have yet to read and categorize all of them. She made a serious study of crackle and has lots of interesting ideas and experiments. Sadly, she hasn't blogged in a number of years.
  • Block Substitution by Kerstin Fröberg at Bergdala Spinnhus website. Kerstin is Swedish but the article is in English. Explores the American evolution of Crackle. 
  • The A,B,C's and 1,2,3's of Classic Crackle by Susan at Thrums blog. I need to note that "classic crackle" described here as a two-shuttle weave, whereas, I'm defining it as discussed in the second section of this blog post ("Traditional Crackle versus Classic Crackle")
  • Crackle Weave. A PDF at the University of Arizona.
  • Crackle Weave at gathertextiles.com

So, that's it at the moment. Suggestions welcome.


Related Post:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)