Weaverly

Start of Another Woven Book

A few weeks ago, I was playing around with cut paper & folded books, and I made this little sample:

It sat around for a while, then yesterday I scanned the pages and started working them into weave files for the TC-1:

I added a few drawings I had been saving on my iPad (I was determined to prove to the skeptics among my acquaintance that the iPad was good for more than just playing Angry Birds and JellyCar). These drawings were done with an app called (appropriately) Brushes. I thought they all worked well together. I plan to weave them in double weave so they will be readable on both sides, then cut them into folios and bind them into a book. This is the way I did the Botanical Garden book.

Network Drafting Class Offered Online

I'm happy to announce a new class I'll be teaching online at Weavolution. Dates are September 13, 20 and 27, from 8-9 pm EST. For more information go here or click on link in the sidebar, under New Classes.

It's been seventeen years since the first publication of Network Drafting: an Introduction, and several years since I've offered a beginning class in network drafting. If you've been wondering what this fascinating design technique is all about, or if you just need a quick refresher, this class is for you. 

Weave curved designs in twill, satin, double weave, and many other structures on a multishaft (8 or above) loom, dobby preferred.

Class size is limited to 10 participants.

Girls' Day Out

Thursdays in the summertime are great fun. Yesterday we went for another visit to Freehaven Farm, where I replenished my supply of carded alpaca. That was my ostensible reason, but really we mostly enjoyed seeing the animals.

Afterwards we enjoyed chicken noodle soup in a bread bowl at Panera. 

Another Crepe Sample

Today's sample (this is the one you saw on the loom here) is shown before and after wet finishing. This cloth combines an 8-shaft crepe with stripes of broken 1/3 and 3/1 twill blocks, and stripes and selvedges of straight 2/2 twill.

The first scan is before washing…

…and the second scan after washing, tumble drying, and a light steam pressing.

The bright pink area is especially nice, I think, in terms of how the wet finishing brings out the weave structure. The 8-shaft weave draft for that section alone is shown here.

A Matter of Right & Wrong

I have a bad habit of referring to the right and wrong sides of the cloth. I should say "face" and "reverse", or better yet, "public side" and "private side". (And as for where I should put the punctuation marks, inside or outside the quotes, I give up! When I do it right, it looks funny.) Sometimes we weave cloth reverse side up because the shaft lifting combinations are lighter. And sometimes we weave cloth face up and decide we actually like the reverse side better. And sometimes there really is a right side (fewer long floats for upholstery, for instance), and the reverse side is more attractive even though it is not technically "right."

In my most recent batch of crepe samples, I have one that looks much prettier on the reverse side. Here it is before and after wet finishing. As usual, click to enlarge. It is composed of stripes of 8-end crepe, 8-end granite (a satin derivative) and 2/2 twill selvedges.

Swan Song of the Striped Warp

At last! It's come to the end. I think it knew this was the last gasp, and it put forth an absolutely dazzling final sample. Like the last rose on the last rosebush before the first frost—a true beauty.

Excuse us while we show off. A combination of 8-shaft crepe, blocks of 3/1 and 1/3 broken twill, and 2/2 straight twill selvedges.

Back at the desktop, it's time to clean up the files. And outside, it's about to rain—can you tell? Just as it has every afternoon for the past week.

Screen Door Effect

Yes, this will look ever so much better after it's released from tension and washed. But meanwhile here is today's 8-shaft crepe simulation on 40 shafts. The selvedge is 2/2 twill. Max float 4 for this one. Here is the draft for the 8-shaft portion:

All the draft illustrations in recent days have been generated in pixeLoom.

Almost to the end of the striped warp. I am so tired of it. Next warp will be solid.

*************************

A note for my journal, under the heading "Good Names for Male Characters in My Next Novel":

•Max Float

More 8s Crepe Samples

It's amazing how much more work I am getting done now that the Tour de France is over. Who would have thought?

Today's sampling features more 8-shaft crepe simulations on my 40 shaft loom. Four shafts are reserved for the selvedges, and the block threading is available for 8 shaft drafts. The following draft (which will look much better if you click on it to enlarge) carries two different 8-shaft crepes in the blocks.

Here's the draft being woven on my (endless) striped warp:

The reverse side looks pretty much the same, so I won't show it to you. Now here's another draft with a single 8-shaft threading in the body of the cloth. This particular threading has max floats of 3, so I tried it with a slightly finer weft. This mysterious weft was a mill-end special, well-aged in my stash. It's of unknown content, a singles yarn the color of dryer lint or dust bunnies. I'm really liking the way it looks on the loom. Washday will be interesting.

By the way, here's the draft (click to enlarge):

An interesting thing about this draft is that it could be optimized for weaving on 10 shafts (including the twill selvedge):

Not that anyone would care to use such a weird threading, but you never know…

Crepe Stripes Again

Returning to crepe—still working on this block threading, click to enlarge:

The liftplan is a combination of 8-shaft crepe and granite weave, with 2/2 twill selvedges. In addition, the warp is striped. Here it is on the loom with a dark red weft. Some of the stripes coincide with the blocks, some do not.

I'm finding that the reverse side of this one is much more interesting. Here it is on its way to the cloth storage beam.

And by now you know that it will be much nicer after wet finishing. 

For some terrific examples of crepe weave, be sure to check out Sandra's recent work.

On Deck

This morning was the Y League game, which means I still don't know the results of today's stage in the T de F. Don't tell me! Please! I will watch the recap tonight. Meanwhile, here's our guy waiting for his turn at bat. 

The morning started out pleasantly warm with a cool breeze, but by the time the game was over it was blisteringly hot and humid. The rest of my day will be spent in my nice cool basement studio. I'm going back to dobby work for a while, and I'll let you know how it goes. 

And to all you spinners (I mean the bicycling kind): allez, allez!