Random Acts of Color

One year after taking a collapse-weave workshop with Ann Richards at the Handweavers Studio and Gallery in London -- I continue to try new structures, sampling and sampling to learn what works. And what doesn't work.

Deflected double weave has lots of possibilities as a dimensional weave structure when you use two different kinds of yarns -- wool and silk, for example -- so that one layer shrinks and the other doesn't. Cloque (lye shrinkage using cellulose fibers) is another wonderful collapse-weave technique to use with deflected double weave. More on that in the year to come, I hope!

With these samples, I used an 8-harness structure of my own design, derived from other patterns I've seen and lots of reading. My yarns were 18/2 Superfine Merino from JaggerSpun and 20/2 spun silk, both sett at 36 ends per inch. I tried five different treadlings. Pictured above are comparative photos of the first sample: on the top, before washing and agitating with mild soap in warm water…

Weavers love painting warps: You can't buy the beauty of the ever-changing colors. For me, painting two warps brings even greater rewards: When you combine them into one warp and weave a warp-dominant structure, you get a fabric with two continually shifting color palettes.

I'm on a mission to discover the best structures for this technique. To my eye, Turned Taquete is the most magical, as is Echo Weave. Then there's the magic of twill stripes, woven in 3/1 and 1/3 structures.... And double weave. And deflected double weave. And turned overshot. Turned Honeycomb, not so much. The warp-wise tension makes for straight lines, not honeycomb waves.

But why not Turned Monk's Belt? Effectively, you're weaving a supplemental-warp structure, which would allow for all kinds of improvising, using different yarns, random-width blocks, you name it. But for this project, I wanted to stick with a simple, traditional 4-harness Monk's Belt pattern, just to see what happened.

…

Song of a Man Who Has Come Through
Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me! A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time. If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me! If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift! If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed By the fine, fine wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted; If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge Driven by invisible blows, The rock will split, we shall come at the wonder, we shall find the Hesperides.
Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,  I would be a good fountain, a good well-head, Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.
What is the knocking? What is the knocking at the door in the night? It is somebody wants to do us harm.
No, no, it is the three angels. Admit them, admit them
Thanks to Andrew O'Hehir for publishing this in Salon.