The Toad



















"Sweet are the uses of adversity,
 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head..."

 Shakespeare, As You Like It

 







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The Warp that Keeps on Giving: Echo Weave, Turned Taquete, Double Weave, Shadow Weave, and Warp Rep All on One Threading

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How do you weave a countless number of structures on one warp? With an extended parallel threading, of course! This particular technique offers a lot of "bang for the buck" for weavers. All you have to do is modify your treadling and, in some cases, change the tie-up. If you're REALLY ambitious, you can change the tie-up and re-sley as well to achieve Double Weave or Shadow Weave.
What is an extended parallel threading? For those who follow the work of Marian Stubenitsky and/or Bonnie Inouye, it needs no introduction. For the rest of us, all it means is that, for starters, you use two colors in your warp, so that you can thread them A-B-A-B, etc. (A being your first color and B being your second). Then, instead of threading a straight draw of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (just as an example), you thread your two colors using the same line, but separately, at a set interval. 
For example, if you decide you're going to thread at an interval of 4, for an extended parallel th…
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Deflected Double Weave with Fulling Techniques on 4 Shafts: How to Weave a 'Puzzle Scarf'

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I call this a "Puzzle Scarf" because the two layers intertwine in a puzzling way. But the scarf is simple to weave, requiring just 4 shafts. 
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Collapse techniques -- more accurately, fulling techniques -- add more to the puzzle of this scarf, because without shrinking, it would look like a piece of gauze. The texture is achieved by fulling the yarn, so that the floats create woolen cords (I sometimes call them "dreads") that form interesting patt…
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Deflected Double Weave as a Collapse Weave Structure

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In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "It ain't over till it's over." This phrase is true not just for baseball, but also for collapse-weave fabrics! You plan and warp and weave and cut off -- but the fabric isn't finished until it's finished, because it looks entirely different after washing.

Here's an example. Below, the fabric on the loom.


And after washing -- after "fulling" by agitating and scrubbing by hand with soap in hot water, to be exact.


Now THIS is cloth with character! Lots of wriggling shapes, thanks to "differential shrinkage," in which one fiber (wool) shrinks while the other (cotton) doesn't. And lots of strong color, thanks to deflected double weave.

I wove this fabric on my trusty little 4-harness Structo loom, pictured here.


I have always wanted one and finally purchased one this year. I took it on a trip to Chicago -- and simply packed it in my suitcase! Portable weaving studio!

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