Weaverly

True Love

Why do I love double twill so much? Let me count the ways. 

 

First of all, it's a relatively simple setup: a black and white warp, end-and-end. 

Second of all, with four wefts, the color palette is absolutely astounding. This is the first couple of inches of a weave blanket on my new warp.

 

And third of all, I like the sharp, crisp look of the straight twills; they are so—well—weaverly! This particular sample blanket is included on the CD that comes with The Woven Pixel (see sidebar). I've woven this blanket before, with coarser yarns and sett (10/2 cotton at 30 epi), and done several wall hangings with the weaves. But now that the loom is configured with a finer sett, I'm reweaving the blanket with 20/2 cottons at 60 epi and approximately 120 ppi, and the look is totally different, more jewel-like. I'm in love.

 

Going Through the Mail, and a Placemat

One of the less fun things about travel is dealing with the accumulated mail when you get back. This is the stack that awaited my attention today:

 

But these days I enjoy the process a little more, as I've been rescuing recyclable paper, mostly from the backs of envelopes. This is the paper I culled; it will be used in one or more handbound books at some point. The patterns on the backs of the security envelopes are especially interesting.

 

The placemats that are peeking out from behind the paper are from the early 1990's, have been laundered multiple times, and still look pretty good. They are a networked twill for 8 shafts and no dobby, and the draft can be found on page 92 of Network Drafting: an Introduction.

I find it amusing (and frustrating) that some people assume that Network Drafting is out of print. It is not out of print! After three printings I no longer publish it myself, but have handed the job over to www.lulu.com. Anyone going to the Lulu website and searching on Network Drafting will find it. Actually, anyone googling Network Drafting will find it. It's now only a few dollars more than it was when first published in 1994. Occasionally I see it offered on eBay and described as out of print (I saw it just this week). Once I even saw it offered as a "rare gem" with a reserve price of $300. I often wonder whether the seller got his price. I hope not, for the sake of the poor buyer. 

Back On the Mainland

The ferry ride from Okracoke to Cedar Island lasts barely three hours, but it really has made a huge difference to me psychologically. I feel as if this trip is nearly over. In going over my Okracoke pictures, I've picked two that may become weavings. The first is reflections in the water at a marina, and the second is a photo of dune vegetation that I've indexed to four colors. My head is getting back into weaving mode.

 

Double Plain Weave Cut Off

The double weave yardage was cut off yesterday, washed, tumble dried, and scanned. You saw it on the loom here. Now here it is after finishing. The pink rayon weft cooperated well with my original plan, and shrank a lot more than the cotton and bamboo, and I've got a nice crinkly fabric. Front and back views follow (or is it back and front? It really doesn't matter with true double weave).

 

 

And here's a scan at about 12x magnification, so you can see all the little fibers and the structure (click to enlarge).

To summarize: the white warp is bamboo, the white weft mercerized cotton, the red weft unmercerized cotton, and the pink weft rayon. All yarns in the 20/2 to 16/2 range, and sett 40 epi. Networked plain double weave on an 8-end initial, hence the extreme sawtoothing (is that a word?). 

Weaverly's about to set off on a journey, so you may not hear much from this station for a while. I'll try to post whenever possible; but until then, happy weaving all!

A Vegetable, a Collage & Another Book

An interesting design activity is to find patterns in sliced fruits and vegetables. The direction of the slice makes a big difference. I've used apples sliced crosswise as a source of imagery for jacquard weaving.

 

A few nights ago I sliced a red cabbage while preparing dinner, and the lengthwise slice produced this tree image (click to enlarge):

 

Switching gears—here's a collaged photo from my trip to the Transportation Museum:

 

…and finally, yesterday's book:

Old Sock Monkey (AKA Minkie) turned up in the background and kinda stole the show. He's a story for another day.

Paper-Based Image Editor

You know how partial I am to Photoshop. Well, the unimaginable has happened. I've come across a program that is in every way superior to Photoshop. Take a look here.

Random Weaves

A recent thread on WeaveTech about accidental weaves got me thinking in a Photoshop direction. Converting an RGB or grayscale image to a bitmap image produces a random-appearing array of black and white pixels that appears weavable under certain circumstances.

I created a new 40x96 pixel RGB file, with an eye to making a liftplan for my 40-shaft loom;  I filled it with 50% gray. I then converted it to Grayscale, then to Bitmap with Diffusion Dither method. Here are the before and after results:

Oddly enough, if you start with a grayscale image instead of RGB, the results are not satisfactory; but if you start with RGB, then convert down, it works! Try it.

You will notice that this image, if applied as a liftplan for a straight threading, has some very long floats. The file needs a bit of touching up if it is to be usable. Adding an overlay consisting of risers and sinkers appropriately spaced is the ticket. Here is the file after converting back to RGB and an 8-end satin overlay applied as a layer style. Notice that now there are no floats longer than 7 in either direction. It is a weavable crepe weave on a straight draw.

Here's a drawdown, with four threading repeats and two liftplan repeats. No float longer than 7. Click to enlarge.

I'll be talking about overlays at Complex Weavers Seminars this summer. Come join the fun!

Apples & Honey

To all my friends out there in Cyberland, I send New Year's greetings.

• May all your relationships be round
• May all your pixels be square
• May all your colors be fast
• May all your warps be strong

And may you have a year filled with joy and sweetness.

Work Accepted At The Bascom

My weft-backed jacquard satin piece, Arboreal, was accepted for the 2009 Juried Exhibition at The Bascom in Highlands, NC. The exhibition opens October 24th. 

The warp in this 13" wide weaving is black Tencel, and the four wefts are cotton and Tencel in cream, green, red, and cocoa. Click to enlarge. 

Pouch in Samitum

Today's wrist pouch is in the samitum weave structure. This picture of the front has the zipper partly open to show the lining…

 

…and here's the back.