Weaverly

A 3-Shaft Twill Adventure

A few days ago I came across a reference to an article about 3-shaft twills which led me down an interesting rabbit hole (click on the link, and then click on the link DOWNLOAD THIS PDF FILE). In it, mathematician Shelley Rasmussen discusses the 30 possible weaves of size 3x3 through 6x3 possible on 3 shafts. Although I am no mathematician, I gleaned enough from the article to make me wonder about applying these weaves to a draft in which the threading is based on a network of 3-end twill. By a serendipitous chance, my 8-shaft loom is threaded with such a networked twill, and I set to work. Here is the draft for weaving polkadots in networked 3-end twill on 8 shafts.

Here is one of Rasmussen's 30 weaves and its insertion into the liftplan of the previous draft (one repeat shown):

 

And here is the result, combining the two effects in one draft, to produce a highly textured (might I say crepey?) weave with a flatter, graphically patterned border. First the draft, then the actual cloth on the loom.

For the truly curious, in case you're wondering about the logic of weaving 3-end twills on an 8-shaft loom, this would be considered a "turtle" type pattern line. More about turtles and network drafting in Network Drafting: An Introduction (see sidebar).

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An Addition

End of Warp Decisions

End of the Warp

There comes a time, in any weaving, when you just can't go any further. This warp had reached that point.

Even with a warp extender (that little orange cord at the far end), no more decent sheds were possible. The table has now been cleared for other projects.

Convention Weaving

While Convention viewing I did a lot of this:

Zillions of squares of handspun.

But when Obama spoke, my hands were still and I watched and listened. It was a moment to savor.

A View From the Ironing Board

After weaving a yard and a half of samples, it was time to cut them off and wet finish them. Then I could make some decisions about what to do with the rest of the warp. Some of them were good, others not so. Here's the view from the ironing board.

The very best one was the sample with brocade weft of white stranded silk. The silk literally bloomed out and made its presence known. After pressing, it glowed.

The ones with bamboo as the brocade weft were likewise "blooming."  The ones with mercerized cotton as the brocade weft were too sketchy, with the lines going every which way.

I thought this might be because the float length was too long. So I reworked the drafts and made the float lengths max 5 instead of 7. Here is the result on the loom.

And close up...

The final vote won't be in until after wet finishing. Meanwhile, the finished jacquard sample looks great. The sett is 60 epi, so the floats, even though they are max 7, are quite a bit shorter than the dobby samples (@ 30 epi) and well behaved.

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A Bigger Piece

Plain

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Breathing Room

Still looking for a more airy feel in my brocade experiments, I decided to add another pick of plain weave after each brocade pick; now there are three picks of plain weave after each brocade pick.

This opens out the cloth and gives more breathing room to the brocaded elements. The warp is still 20/2 cotton @ 30 epi. Ground weft this time is a very fine silk noil singles. Brocade weft is a lustrous silk floss, six ends of silk about the size of 60/2, loosely stranded together.

Click to enlarge. On the loom it looks about as appealing as a piece of screen door, but I'm expecting that after washing it will come into its own.

 

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Introducing Linen

New Brocade Experiments

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Composite

Taking previous brocade design elements and recomposing them:

The ground weft is a fine gray polyester, about the size of sewing thread, and the brocade weft is 8/2 unmercerized cotton.

Here's a leftover picture from our trip to Virginia. Bill was making breakfast. I forgot to include this with yesterday's post, but somehow the eggshells with the light coming through work better with today's weaving.

 

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Adding Another Weft

New Brocade Experiments

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A Day in the Country

Well, a few days, actually. We drove up to visit Elizabeth & company at Airy Knoll, near Middlebrook, Virginia. The cornflowers spread their blue everywhere.

We walked.

Checked out the spring.

We celebrated Elizabeth's birthday.

Visited her studio in the barn.

In another barn we saw some baby barn owls. Met new people and enjoyed conversation with old friends. Heard some talented young string players performing at the Heifetz Institute.

And now back to a heatwave at home, but still remembering our day in the country.

 

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And Now For Something Completely Diff'rent

Back to a single brocade weft, this time a neon orange mercerized cotton. Same warp. Liftplan designed with bits and blobs of pattern, no curves as such.

The colors in these pictures look vastly different, depending on the angle of attack.

 

Adding a Second Brocade Weft

The additional weft increases the "busy factor". I'm not sure if it's an improvement. Wet finishing will tell.

Trying Other Colorways

Here's the latest draft in another pair of weft colors.

And another pair.

The quality of the yarn differs, too. The gray is bamboo, and the red is wool/silk. They cover in different ways, providing more or less opacity.

Wet finishing will tell yet another story.

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Adding a Second Secondary Weft

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