Friday, May 10, 2024

Bathroom Rag Rug: The Hold-Up is Brown T-Shirts

As in, I need more brown t-shirts for the bathroom rag rug I have planned. 

I have a little over half of the brown t-shirt yarn required for the rug.

I've been plugging away at turning them into t-shirt yarn, but tt's been a slow go because they aren't that easy to come by. In thrift shops, that is. Brown t-shirts just don't seem to be all that popular. Or else, people want to keep them. Plus, I'm preferring solid colors for this project, but T-shirts in thrift shops are rarely solid colors. People mostly seem to pass on the ones with writing and logos on them. So there's a double challenge to fin enough brown t-shirts to make at least 207 yards of t-shirt yarn.

I'm still pondering the yellow t-shirts too. I have quite an array!



I bring scraps with me to compare for shade, but am finding that the lighting in the shops can be deceptive. What appears to match under fluorescent lights at the back of the store, doesn't match in daylight. Maybe I'll start with light yellow at one end and work my way to dark yellow at the other. 

So, I'm still plugging away at this. It's just taking longer than I thought it would.

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Tuesday, May 07, 2024

Crackle Sampler in the Italian Manner: Finished


I had a false start (which probably would have been okay if I'd kept going) and trouble at the end when the warp knots (from tying on) began to grab each other. But as an experiment, it was a good learning piece.


I think there's a lot of room for improvement in the consistency of my weaving, but Italian manner crackle is definitely something I want to explore more in the future.




Project Particulars
  • Loom: 4-shaft table loom
  • Pattern in this post: Crackle Sampler in the Italian Manner: Planning 
  • Yarn: cotton 10/2s,
    • single for background wefts
    • doubled for pattern weft
  • Sett: 24 e.p.i.
  • Sley: 2 per dent in a 12-dent reed
  • PPI: I didn't count, I just beat based on how it looked
  • Width in reed: 15.75 inches
  • Width on loom: 14.5 inches
  • Width after wet finishing & pressing: 14 inches
  • Length off loom: 21 inches
  • Length after wet finishing & pressing: 19 inches

Weaving Notes
  • The windows motifs are elongated, which suggest I could have beaten it harder, but I didn't care for the fabric as much when the weft was really packed in. This would be something to experiment with.
  • I questioned the sett, thinking the fabric was too open, but after wet finishing and drying, I like the drape and feel of the fabric, so I think my choice was okay. This would be something else to experiment with.
  • Choosing two background wefts in a similar hue wasn't the best idea. More color contrast would have been better, I think.
  • The colors I chose are atypical for me. So while I can't say I got really excited about them, I'm glad I chose them. Color is something else to experiment with in the future. I'm thinking a chromatic gamp would be  helpful. 
  • I had trouble with the tension at the edges. I think this is because I used mini-blind slats as warp and cloth separators. The slats aren't firm enough to hug the beam and flared out beyond the warp. I'm guessing this was the source of my trouble. 
  • The liftplan plus managing three shuttles was complicated. It got quicker as I progressed, but as I mentioned in my Weaving At Last post, I think it would be more enjoyable on a treadle loom.

Next, I should be getting started on my bathroom rag rug, but there's been a hold-up. More on that next time.

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Thursday, May 02, 2024

Crackle Sampler in the Italian Manner: Weaving (at last)

I shared my plan last time, and since then, I've been dressing the loom (slowly because it's garden planting season). I made one color swap with the brown warp. I wasn't quite satisfied with my original choice and wanted something darker, for better contrast for the motif. So I pulled out the other brown on my 10/2 shelf and like it better for this project.

Warp color swap: my original choice on the left, substitution on the right.
Note to self: I like these 2 colors together & must plan a project for them.

Here's how it's coming along.


Even after all my reading and note taking about crackle in the Italian manner (here), I was still confused when it came time to figure out my actual liftplan. The gist of it is that the pattern weft (P) alternates with the background wefts (a and b). If the background wefts were woven in tabby, it would be no problem. But somehow my mind couldn't simply substitute different treadlings for tabby without an effort of brain power. Finally, I used the chart on page 26 of Lucy Brusic's A Crackle Weave Companion and plugged in the suggested opposites treadling for my background wefts. 

Liftplan for Cottage Windows sampler in the Italian Manner

Notes:
  • Draft here →Crackle On Opposites
  • Background wefts are a) and b)
  • All blocks begin and end with background a.
  • The window motifs alternate, so I have 1) and 2), opposites of one another. 

1) 

  • 2-3 x 10
    • a) 1-2
    • b) 3-4
  • 1-2 x 5
    • a) 1-4
    • b) 2-3
  • 2-3 x 5
    • a) 1-2
    • b) 3-4
  • 1-2 x 17
    • a) 1-4
    • b) 2-3
  • 2-3 x 5
    • a) 1-2
    • b) 3-4
2)
  • 1-4 x 10
    • a) 3-4
    • b) 1-2
  • 3-4 x 5
    • a) 2-3
    • b) 1-4
  • 1-4 x 5
    • a) 3-4
    • b) 1-2
  • 3-4 x 17
    • a) 2-3
    • b) 1-4
  • 1-4 x 5
    • a) 3-4
    • b) 1-2

Here's how I notate and follow it at the loom. You can click the image below for a better view.


The pattern shed is first with the number of repeats. The alternating background sheds for that block are indented. The beads help me keep track of which block I'm on (above, it's block 8). I just have to count the pattern picks to make sure I get the right number of them.

Weaving Notes:
  • So far, it's slow going and requires paying attention. Having to keep track of three shuttles is part of the challenge.
  • I suspect it would be easier with a treadle loom. With a table loom, I must keep track of and manually lift the shafts required to make each shed. If I could tie all the appropriate shafts to a treadle, I'd only have to keep track of which treadle. 
  • Similar background colors (turquoise and light blue of similar value) don't help. I finally figured out how to set my shuttles down to know which background to use next.
  • I find beating the weft in its open shed works best.
  • Colors? Not sure yet! Not quite as fascinating to weave as the Cottage Windows table runner. The gray warp section is more interesting than I thought it would be. For now, it's an experiment and I'm just working with what I've got. No complaints in that department.
  • Would be a great tool for color experimentation. I can see how color weavers would love it.

Hopefully, this post isn't as boring and confusing as I suspect it is. I just hope I've documented it well enough to make sense when I come back to it sometime in the future.

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Friday, April 26, 2024

Crackle Sampler in the Italian Manner: Planning

The plan is to tie a new warp onto the previous warp on my table loom and use the cottage windows threading from my table runner for a sampler (dishtowel?) in an alternate variation of the pattern. 
The pattern is from Practical Weaving Suggestions, Vol. V, No. 2. Click to enlarge

The treadling will be in the Italian Manner, which I think I've figured out (in this blog post here.)

Before I can get started, however, I had to make some decisions. 
  • Yarn size: 10/2s, since it's already on the loom and I'll be tying this on as the new warp. 
  • Width: I started off thinking of this as a dishtowel because dishtowels are a great sampler size. So I'm planning accordingly. The table runner had five warp sections and ended up being 18.5 inches wide. This is wider than my other dishtowels, but I calculated that four warp sections would be about right.
  • Length: dishtowel length. It's a sampler, so size is arbitrary. But I'm hoping to get all of my t-shirt yarn done soon, and am looking forward to starting on my bathroom rag rug. 
  • Colors: I really had fun experimenting with my table runner. I liked having each warp section a different color, while alternating different color wefts. I'll do something similar here, using dark colors for the warp and lighter colors for the weft. This worked really well with the window motif. The difference is, I won't rotate the weft colors in each weft section.
So, I just got my warp measured . . .


And here are my proposed weft colors . . .

Turquoise & light blue for background weft
Golden yellow for pattern weft

I confess I'm a little doubtful about that yellow, especially against the brown. It's so not me. But I might as well be brave and give it a go. Who knows? I may even like it. 

Next step, getting the warp on the loom, assuming I don't change my mind about those colors.

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Tuesday, April 23, 2024

The Italian Manner

A note at the bottom of Mary Meigs Atwater's Cottage Windows pattern states

"Pattern (h) may also be woven in the Italian manner."

This is the variation (pattern h, called "A Modern Arrangement") that I used for my Cottage Windows table runner. Before I pulled off the waste warp from the loom, I wanted to tie on a different color warp and give this a try. But first, I needed to research "The Italian Manner," also referred to as the Italian style or Italian method. 

The simplest definition I found was in Susan Wilson's Weave Classic Crackle & More. On page 53 she states,

"In the weaving literature, Italian manner or Italian style
refers to polychrome treadling with three colors."

Lucy Brusic is a little more specific. On page 26 of her A Crackle Weave Companion she explains, 

"Italian Manner in which a repeating thread alternates with the appropriate opposite blocks."

In examining her treadling chart on the same page, I see that this means that instead of tabby (using one color for both the 1-3 and 2-4 shots), Italian manner treadling uses two different colors for the background wefts using opposite sheds between the pattern shots. For example:

pattern
3-4
pattern
1-2

or

pattern
4-1
pattern
2-3

or

pattern
1-2
pattern
3-4

or 

pattern
2-3
pattern
4-1

Compare that to traditional crackle, which is

pattern
1-3
pattern
2-4

In other words, Italian manner replaces tabby with a different set of opposite sheds.

Other details: 
  • Traditional crackle uses one pattern color and one tabby color. 
  • Italian manner uses one pattern color and two background colors. The color sequence remains consistent throughout, it is the treadling that progresses with each block. 
  • Pattern treadling is 3-pick straight twill repeats.
    • 1-2-3
    • 2-3-4
    • 3-4-1
    • 4-1-2
  • Typically, a heavier pattern weft is used for both.

Harriet Tidball calls the Italian method, "classic crackle" (page 125 of The Weaver's Book), but on page 54 of Wilson's book, she points out a difference based on studying historical drafts. What Atwater, Thorpe, Snyder, and Tod call Italian manner begins the treadling sequence with the pattern weft. Classic crackle begins the treadling sequence with the background weft. Nit-picky? Perhaps. It's just interesting to note these differences of observation and interpretation.

Finally, here are some variations for the Italian manner according to Brusic (page 27):
  • 2-shuttle Italian Manner
    • heavier pattern weft in one color
    • warp-weight background weft in another color
    • treadled as for 3-shuttle Italian manner
  • 1-shuttle Italian Manner
    • weft similar in weight to warp
    • treadled as for 3-shuttle Italian manner
    • fabric is said to have a nice drape

I can't say that I've got it all figured out, but I do have a better grasp on Italian manner weaving than when I started this post.

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