Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Last Sample!

Sample #34 of my 4-shaft crackle manners of weaving sampler.

Finally, the end of my 5-yard sampler warp!


I had enough to eek out one more sample. For this one I decided to revisit my crackle stripes, this time with a lacy treadling as suggested by Susan Wilson. You can see my previous lace weave crackle samples here. This one is the 2-block lace. 

#34, lace lengthwise stripes

 It's kinda hard to see them though, isn't it? Here's another shot at an angle. 

Does that help?

I think I will add this to my lengthwise stripes sample post, to have all the information in one place.

The next step was to take the sampler off the loom and sew the ends to prevent unraveling. 
 
 
On the loom, the fabric was stretched tight, so it was hard to tell how well my yarn  choices were working. Off the loom, it's relaxed and softer, and I have a better idea. Next I'll wash it, which will make it look even better. I'm curious as to how the samples will look after that.

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Monday, November 25, 2024

Lap Robe Off the Loom

I haven't mentioned the lap robe lately, for a couple of reasons. One is that weaving has been off-again-on-again due to a messy, dusty building/renovation project. I've had the loom covered with bedsheets much of the time to protect it from the dust. Unfortunately, I lost momentum.

The other problem was that, as much as I love the colors, this just hasn't been all that interesting to weave. I definitely like the pattern, but it's been repetitious (60 inches worth) and, even all the color, wasn't able to hold my interest. It was duty weaving (and why I'd never make a good production weaver.) Still, it's off the loom and ready for the next steps.

I've got fringe to finish twisting and ends to weave in. After that, it's ready to send off to its recipient.

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Saturday, November 23, 2024

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Honeycomb

 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.

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
    • Snyder recommended 10/2 warp with sett of 24 ends per inch
    • My warp is 10/2 with sett of 20 e.p.i.
  • Weft yarns are similar to her recommendations
    • 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


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Thursday, November 21, 2024

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Petitpoint

 
Originally, I was going to make one long post covering two related manners of weaving, swivel and petitpoint (which is a subcategory of swivel). It was a lot to wrap my head around, however, so I broke it down into two posts. You can read about swivel, including the similarities and differences, here.
 
 Petitpoint
  • A subcategory of swivel.
  • So called because it resembles petitpoint embroidery.
  • Uses the same 3/1 twill tie-up as swivel (here)
  • Unlike swivel, petitpoint adds tabby to the pattern and background wefts
  • Two shuttles and two colors 
    • pattern is one color and can be heavier
    • background and tabby are the same as the warp
  • Also like swivel, petitpoint has long floats on the back
  • In The Weaving Book, Helene Bress offers three ways to treadle it 
 
Petitpoint I. This treadle pattern is the one found in Wilson and Brusic (see "Resources" below).

#30 Petitpoint swivel I.
  • Block A
    • P: 2-3-4
    • B: 1-2-4
    • T: 1-3
  • Block B
    • P: 1-3-4                
    • B: 1-2-3
    • T: 2-4
  • Block C
    • P: 1-2-4
    • B: 2-3-4
    • T: 1-3
  • Block D
    • P: 1-2-3
    • B: 1-3-4
    • T: 2-4
  • My block order is D, A, B, C

Weaving Observations

  • Like swivel, this is somewhat complicated to weave on a table loom, because each shed requires manually lifting three shafts. 
  • Makes an interesting design.
 
Petitpoint II. From Bress page 99. The pattern treadling is still used, but the background treadling is replaced with tabby a (1-3) and b (2-4), with both following each pattern shot.
 
#31, petitpoint swivel II
  •  Block A
    • P: 2-3-4
    • Ta: 1-3
    • Tb: 2-4
  • Block B
    • P: 1-3-4                
    • Ta: 1-3
    • Tb: 2-4
  • Block C
    • P: 1-2-4
    • Ta: 1-3
    • Tb: 2-4
  • Block D
    • P: 1-2-3
    • Ta: 1-3
    • Tb: 2-4
Weaving Observations
  • As far as I can tell, it looks identical to variant I
  • Easier to weave that variant I
 
Petitpoint III. Easiest and quickest yet. Alternates pattern shots with tabby. 

At first I thought I would weave each block to square, but after one block decided it wasn't interesting enough to continue.
 

Instead, I rotated the pattern shots, one after the other, with tabby in between.
 
#32, petitpoint swivel III
  • Block A
    • P: 2-3-4
    • T: 1-3
  • Block B
    • P: 1-3-4                
    • T: 2-4
  • Block C
    • P: 1-2-4
    • T: 1-3
  • Block D
    • P: 1-2-3
    • T: 2-4
 
And one more. This one is a "what if I . . ." sample. Petitpoint I has pattern, background, and tabby wefts. What if I left the tabby the same as the warp, but used different contrasting colors for the background and pattern wefts?
 
#33. Pattern weft in pink, background in blue, and tabby in natural.
 
close up

It was definitely the most interesting sample to weave, and one I wouldn't mind playing around with more. Someday.

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Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Crackle Manners of Weaving: Swivel

 
A heads-up: This (and the next in this series) will be long, technical, and likely boring, except for the pictures (hopefully). This is because I really struggled to understand this one. I had to piece together bits of information from five different books plus experiment a bit. I'm hoping that by being thorough, I won't be completely lost should I decide to revisit it again someday.
 
Originally, this post was going to cover two related manners of weaving, swivel and petitpoint, of which petitpoint is a subcategory of swivel (although, apparently, some say it's the other way around). Why it's called swivel, I have no idea.

Harriet Tidball classifies swivel as a weaving method rather than a threading system. This means it can be treadled on a variety of threadings. Swivel treadling with crackle threading is one of the variations.

Similarities between swivel and petitpoint

  • Weaves as small dots on plain weave on the front of the fabric, with long floats on the back. 
  • Two shuttles and two colors (pattern and background)
  • Uses a 3/1 twill tie-up, instead of a 2/2 twill tie-up (see "tie-up" in my sampler introduction.)
  • 1-3-4, 1-2-4, 1-2-3, 2-3-4 & tabby
  • With a table loom, I must lift the sets of shafts myself to make the shed.
  • This unbalanced tie-up is what weaves the design on the front of the cloth and leaves long floats on the back. 
  • Usually woven on twill threadings, which is why it works with crackle. (See "threading" in my sampler introduction.)

Differences between swivel and petitpoint

  • The difference (that I can tell) between swivel and petitpoint, is that swivel uses only pattern and background wefts. Petitpoint uses uses the same, with the addition of tabby.

Swivel

#29, crackle threading  treadled as swivel
  • alternates 3 shafts with 3 shafts 
  • one shed for pattern (p), the other for background (b, called “binder” by Bress)
  • treadled as drawn in (treadling follows the threading draft). From Bress:
    • Block A is threaded on shafts 1-2-3-2 and treadled
      • 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4
      • 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
      • 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
      • 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
    • Block B is threaded on shafts 2-3-4-3 and treadled
      • 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
      • 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
      • 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4 
      • 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
    • Block C is threaded on shafts 3-4-1-4 and treadled
      • 3. p: 1-2-4, b: 2-3-4
      • 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4
      • 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4 
      • 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4
    • Block D is threaded on shafts 4-1-2-1 and treadled
      • 4. p: 1-2-3, b: 1-3-4
      • 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4
      • 2. p: 1-3-4, b: 1-2-3
      • 1. p: 2-3-4, b: 1-2-4
    • no tabby
  • Yarns
    • background weft is the same weight and color as the warp
    • pattern weft is same weight as warp but a contrasting color

Notes & Observations

  • To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to include this in my sampler at first. The sticking point for me was the long floats in the back. If crackle doesn’t have floats longer than three ends, is this really crackle??? None of the authors questioned it, and it does look intriguing, so I gave it a tr.
  • I think some interesting things could be done with color. Maybe thread each block in different colors and ditto with the weaving.
  • I like the look of it, but found it complicated to weave. With a table loom, I’m lifting three shafts for each throw of the shuttle and I found it difficult to keep track of. I worked out a system for keeping my place, but it was slow going.
  • The long floats on back limit the use of the fabric. It would best serve for things that either could be lined, like vests and jackets, or which displayed only one side of the fabric, such as throw pillows or upholstery.
With a hand mirror, you can see the long floats on the back.

Resources

 

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