Weaverly

Complexity

The virtual Complexity exhibit is now up and it is definitely worth a look. The quality of the work is very high, and the presentation is so well done. Congratulations to all who took part and put in so many hours to make this a "reality." 

It's been wonderful to hear from so many old friends this past week. Your response to my new publication has meant that I get to "chat" with weavers all over the world. Some of you have even pointed out corrections to be made in my monograph, and for that I am especially grateful. I'm keeping an errata sheet, which is downloadable here. You can also check in the sidebar, under "Other Stuff" for current errata sheets. 

And just because I hate to post without a picture, here is a draft I'm messing with this morning for my 8-shaft loom. The poor loom has been naked for over a week, a sad state of affairs.

Click to enlarge.

Cut Off

Three more towels cut off and laundered. Amalgamation, hemp & linen warp. In the black towel the weft is actually two strands of 20/2 cotton, one black and one dark blue, but it reads as black. The blue towel has a weft of blue 10/2 cotton.

In the bright sun, the pattern in the lightest towel doesn't show up well, but instead of making a mess of things in Photoshop, I just moved them to the shade and now you can see the pattern better.

It is the lightest towel I am liking the best! The warp is a deep beigey natural shade, and I crossed it with a bleached white mercerized cotton 10/2. Click to enlarge. In addition to a graphic pattern, I am seeing areas of lace. This particular tie-up is a 1/3/3/1/2/2/2/2 twill, and it generated the lace areas. The lace would be more lacey in an opener sett; here it presents as a highly textured area. 

There's not enough warp left for another towel, but plenty for tying on to. I wasn't planning to repeat this warp, but this white towel has left me with a desire for more. The hemp was troublesome in the weaving—no breaks but lots of sticky sheds—so I may replace it with cotton this time and experiment with other tie-ups.

Thank You

Yesterday's rollout of Amalgamation: Double Your Dobby (see Monographs in sidebar) was a great success. Thanks to all who responded by email and expressed your support. I am overjoyed! I'm looking forward to seeing your amalgamated drafts and woven fabrics.  

And I appreciate your patience during the inevitable glitches and failures of communication. I think we've got things (mostly) under control now. Back to the loom!

Meanwhile, I wanted to share with you some of my impressions of life during Stay-at-Home. Not surprisingly they include fiber-related themes, because, hey, that's me. 

Everything's tangled, nothing's in a straight line.

It's hard to figure out the way forward.

Who is that scary person in the mirror first thing in the morning? She hasn't had a haircut since February...

It's nice to have a purpose. It adds focus. My main task is to feed the turtles this week while their humans are out of town. There's a bonus here. They have the most incredible patterning. You think you know stripes? Think again.

While waiting for a traffic light to change, I couldn't help noticing this cyclist. This guy is pattern-aware. Check it out: three, three different sizes of houndstooth checks in his raiment. And the socks! 

(I kinda wish he'd had a facemask at the ready).

Announcing New Monograph

After two years of off-again, on-again work on this project, including two moves and a pandemic, it is finally time to fish or cut bait. I can keep tinkering with this monograph and make it more elegant, perfectly aligned, etc., ensure there are no more inconsistencies or puzzling references, and in general drive myself crazy. 

Or I can make it available to you, Dear Reader, and let it sink or swim on its own merits. 

What have we here? What is amalgamation?

Amalgamation is a technique used in the creation of weaving drafts for shaft looms; it is related to network drafting; it enables the weaver to create designs which at first glance would seem to require twice as many shafts. It is useful for looms of eight or more shafts. It will be helpful for weavers who already have a working knowledge of network drafting. It is not for beginners, although as long as you know how to read a draft and have a basic knowledge of how to use weaving software, you'll be good to go. Amalgamated fabrics can be woven with the same yarns and setts as twills, and you will love them for household fabrics and wearables.

Amalgamation: Double Your Dobby is a digital-only monograph of 24 pages. For $21 USD sent to me via PayPal I will provide a download link, and you will then have permission to print one copy for your own use. The monograph contains instructions for designing your own amalgamated drafts, numerous black & white diagrams, color photos of woven samples, over 20 downloadable drafts in WIF format for eight and sixteen shaft looms. and an appendix with specific amalgamation routines for three different weaving programs.

Rays

If I get out really early, I catch the ray effect of the morning sun. In these fraught days it seems as if a message is being sent. 

Maybe that's a little fanciful, but when it's just me and the trees and the birds, I tend to think that way. 

This evening the solstice will be here, and then we'll tilt the other way.

These views are brief, but so joy-inducing when they come.

Back in the studio, I put a new warp on the dobby loom. The amalgamation samples told me what I needed to know regarding sett; I put on a wider piece this time. It meant shuffling around some heddles, not a pleasant task, but necessary. There were a couple of sleying errors, but eventually everything got sorted out. The border leads gradually into the main motif.

I decided to use two strands of 20/2 cotton in this double shuttle as the weft. I wanted a dark weft, but not dead black. This is a bobbin each of dark blue and black. Click to enlarge. In the picture you can't see the blue, but it's there. Well, maybe you can see it.

Managing the double weft is a bit tricky, as it tends to leave little loops at the selvedge. So you have to keep an eagle eye on the web as you weave. Yes, like a bird of prey. And I'm using a temple. It has sharp teeth.

________

Just finished reading The Untouchable, by John Banville (one of my faves). It's a novel loosely based on the true story of an art historian turned spy, and his unraveling. 

Choices

In all, I wove seven samples on the hemp/linen warp. They differed only in the tie--ups used. After washing & ironing, I picked the three I liked the best and scanned them (samples # 2, 4, and 7). Here they are shown alongside their drafts. The center column shows the face of the cloth and the right column shows the reverse. Click to enlarge.

As the warp drawdowns presuppose a black warp and white weft, and the actual cloth has a light warp and dark weft, the reverse of the cloth more closely resembles the draft. The face of the cloth is what was uppermost as the cloth was on the loom. There is no right or wrong side.

The jury is still out, but I'm thinking I prefer sample #7 the best. It has the most contrast and clarity of design. 

Book Sale, and Two More Samples

Lulu's having a 15% off sale today. The code is FIFTEEN and it expires at 11:59 PM today (I assume that means EST), June 19th. So if you've been thinking of ordering a copy of Network Drafting or The Liftplan Connection (see BOOKS in sidebar), this might be a good day to do it. Just sayin'. 

Two more samples are completed on the hemp & linen warp. The differences are subtle, but interesting. It's all about tonal values, which come about with changes in the tie-up. The natural warp and red weft are constant, but the structural changes shift the tonal balance.

Where lighter areas bump up against darker, the design outlines are crisp, but where they shade gradually from dark to light, the lines are less distinct. 

Minute changes in the tie-up change the patterns dramatically because of this dark/light push/pull. These are visible in the computer drafts, but come to life so much more in the woven cloth. 

Hemp and Linen

There are two cones that have been waiting on my yarn shelves for years. They are really annoying. "When are you going to use us already?" they call, pathetically. Today they caught me in a weak moment, as I was facing a naked loom.

The yarns are hemp 18/2 and cottolin 14/2, full of texture. I wanted to combine them in a warp for some towels in an amalgamated twill, but I wasn't sure if they would hold up as a warp. They are quite hairy. Sample time. I wound a short warp 6" wide, holding both yarns together in the cross. I picked the ends randomly as I threaded the heddles. The sley is at 36 epi in a 12 dent reed. I started weaving with red 16/2 cottolin. Click to enlarge.

By quitting time I hadn't yet experienced any broken warps, a good sign. The fabric is wonderfully scrunchy and rough, yet the pattern is not obliterated. I think I'll have to beat just a tad harder, as the pattern isn't weaving up square, then again there won't be as much draw-in on a wider warp. I'll wait on the final decision until I have an opportunity to wash a sample. 

 

Jeans Twill: Warp Cut-Off Day

The warp was only four yards long, but is seems like it took forever to weave. 

Today I got to the end. 

The light was really good in the studio this morning, so I wanted to show you this bird's-eye view of the shed before I cut the whole warp off. You can see here the really wide shed, with the risers going way up, the sinkers going way down, and the floating selvedge (there's one on the other side, too) staying right smack in the middle, in neutral position. Enter the shuttle over the floating selvedge, exit under. I love it when things behave the way they ought. It makes weaving so pleasurable!

OK, no more dilly-dallying. Here's all 3 1/2 yards of cut-off finished cloth in a cloth puddle on the floor. If you click to enlarge, you can see both sides of the cloth, orange circles on gold, and gold circles on orange. The structure is jeans twill on 16 shafts: 1/2 twill on the face and 2/1 twill on the reverse, designed with network drafting.

Here's another picture after washing, drying, and steam pressing. The colors are a little different, as the lighting conditions vary widely.

And yet another pic, this time near my desk lamp. Same cloth.

Corners

Yesterday I cut off the completed shadow weave shawl, gave it a bath, and hung it in the garage to dry. Here you can see it with an enticing backdrop of circuit breakers, vacuum cleaner, battery chargers and whatnot. Hang in there.

This morning I am reminded of my continuing fascination with blocks, rectangles, and corners in general. Case in point:

Back home, the shawl, now dry, got a good steam press and then submitted to a selfie. I love the way it came out. The pattern blocks are well delineated.

The wool/silk combination with proper sett (14 epi and ppi) have perfect drape. Those yarns have been waiting in my stash forever. Now I can cross them off the bucket list. 

I have produced so many weaving disasters in my life as a yarnie; my style is often to charge ahead with little forethought, but this time I sampled carefully and the finished product is worth it, I think. Old dog, new tricks, etc.