A Tale of Three Looms

 

They're all dressed up (well, almost) but not ready to go! Pictured above: At top, my 16-shaft Toika Eeva, threaded for a differential-shrinkage pattern in double weave; in the middle, my 16-shaft Germaine table loom threaded with gossamer-weight silk still in the gum (which I wrote about at length in my previous post); and on the bottom, my 32-shaft Louet Megado only partially threaded (I have to thread the second back beam) for an 8-shaft differential-shrinkage pattern.

So why are they all sitting idle? Well, as you know, weaving is hard because there's lots of preparation. And sometimes you don't even know how much preparation it takes until you're in the thick of dressing your loom. (And sometimes you change your mind -- halfway through dressing your loom -- about which pattern you're going to weave. Does anyone else do this?)

Some details about what's on these three looms...

On the Toika compu-dobby (first photo), I have an 8-shaft double-weave pattern threaded and ready to weave. The only problem is that two shafts were rising when they shouldn't, so I couldn't get the proper sheds for my design. I sent a quick email to Claudia Spaulding (thanks, Claudia!), who is CFO of the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center and happens to be a Toika rep -- and also happens to be a physician. I thought the problem was humidity but her diagnosis was that the posts inside the box on top of the loom had to be adjusted. She also cc'd Bran Gardner in on her reply, the weaving manager for Webs and the chief U.S. support for Toika. Bran has put together very detailed instructions on how to adjust the posts so that the magnets assigned to each shaft are connecting properly.... My electrical-engineering in-house consultant (and husband) did the rest. He's a weaving angel, really.

The pattern uses two layers -- one layer being a yarn that is active and one being a yarn that is inactive. (The red layer is on top and the black layer is on the bottom, while the long black rectangles represent where the two layers weave together in a tied double weave.) After fulling, the active yarn draws in and causes the inactive yarn to buckle, with the tied double weave giving the fabric some stability. Here is the drawdown.

It's threaded as a double-two-tie-unit weave, which can be tied up and treadled to create a range of designs, including double weave. I learned the technique in a workshop I took with Ann Richards in London in 2014, based on her book, Weaving Textiles That Shape Themselves. The two warps are 18/2 superfine merino from Jaggerspun (no longer in business but still available from Jane Stafford Textiles) and 20/2 Mora yarn (which, unlike the 18/2 merino, doesn't full), a Swedish yarn available from Vävstuga. 

The two wefts are 20/2 Mora (in red, below) and a black wool overtwisted yarn, 52/2 nm Z-twist, from the Handweavers Studio and Gallery in London, an excellent source for energized yarns.

Here's an idea of how the design should look after finishing -- although the sample in this photo differs somewhat, using 30/2 silk and 52/2 nm Z-twist wool in both warp and weft.

So, for all intents and purposes, the Toika is dressed and ready to weave!

On to the Germaine: ah, the Germaine. It's a Purrington copy, really. And this particular iteration was pretty badly made. I'm just saying it straight. But the latest generation of Purrington Looms is very well made, back up to the traditional Purrington standards, by the Bannerman family in West Virginia. I bought the Germaine because it has 16 shafts and, at the time, our guild had a very skilled "loom doctor" who fixed it all up so it works well for me.

What's the warp on that loom? Undegummed silk, very fine, that I will also use as weft to weave a 16-shaft twill pattern with added threads for tying the fabric up warp-wise in order to create a shibori resist. My thinking is that, if I de-gum the silk when the fabric is tied up in a tight shibori "package," I should get some really interesting horizontal pleats in the cloth. I will report back on this experiment.... Here's the pattern. (The red threads in both warp and weft represent potential positioning of threads for shibori ties.)

Lastly, what's on the Megado? Only half a warp, again using 20/2 Mora. The second warp, going on my second warp beam, will be a silk noil purchased from a now-defunct mill in England many years ago. I plan on weaving the piece all in beige to emphasize the texture, using differential-shrinkage techniques.

Trouble is, because the yarns are so fine, calling for a sett of 60 epi (or something close to that) -- predictably, I didn't have enough heddles. It took me two orders from Jane Stafford Textiles to get it right!

Did you know that, when you purchase Texsolv heddles, those four little blue twist-ties on every bunch of 50 heddles allow you to place the loops directly onto the shaft bars? They're tied completely in order, so once you've got them on the shaft bars, you simply undo the twist ties and you're good to go. (I must say, with great humility, that it took me a while to figure this out.)

My second challenge with this loom has to do with my second warp of silk noil. It's typically not used as warp because it breaks easily (silk noil being made of the waste products from producing all the other kinds of silk yarn). I sprayed it with spray starch to make it stiffer, which should help avoid breakage.

Above, my warp chain of silk noil after it's been sprayed with starch and dried. 

That's my story of three looms, just one of them ready to go. Hopefully you'll see photos and read updates in upcoming posts. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed....) Until then, may the weaving goddesses be with you -- and me!

Thanks for reading.

A New Book from Ann Richards: 'Weaving Structure and Substance'

This is a case where you can judge a book by its cover: One, it's written by Ann Richards, a weaver who for decades has achieved a singular beauty in her work. And two, the photo itself captures you, presenting a detailed image of her elegantly constructed "origami" cloth.

The text and photos do not disappoint. Richards, who trained as a biologist before studying weaving at the West Surrey College of Art and Design (now the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham), brings her skills of scientific analysis and her love of nature to bear on her art. In Chapter 1, "Endless Forms Most Beautiful," next to sketches of a dragonfly wing detail and a cross section of its edge, she shares a photo of one of her pleated fabrics. (All photos and images are provided courtesy of Ann Richards.)

Sketch, detail of a dragonfly wing

Cross-section, the front part of the wing

Detail of a pleated fabric woven by Richards, with the caption:

"Warp: Linen. Weft: Crepe silk and hard silk, 

with picks of linen at intervals 

serving as 'struts' to stiffen the pleating."

If you were to look at a cross-section of the woven fabric, you would delight in seeing that the pleats are quite similar to those of the dragonfly wing. 

"Weaving Structure and Substance" is not a how-to book, although it does offer instructions for designing, materials, and finishing. Foremost, it's a discussion and analysis of how Richards and other weavers she admires create their work. The book has four parts: "Nature as Designer," "Resources for Design," "Designing for Fabric Qualities," and "Designing Through Making." There are chapters devoted to fibers and yarns, structures, the quest for textural qualities and forms, sampling, and the notion of "reflective practice." Further, there is an extensive bibliography as well as a list of online resources and suppliers.

The photos are inspirational. Below is a piece she calls "Soft Pleat Scarf," showing both the front and the back. She offers these details: "This silk and linen scarf has a striped effect created by the reversal of the pleats. The weft colour remains the same throughout so this is a 'structural' stripe that disappears when the fabric is stretched to its full width. Warp; Linen 77 lea, 72 epi and spun silk 60/2 Nm, 54 epi. Weft: Spun silk 210/2Nm, 48 ppi."

The delicacy, refinement, and simplicity of this piece represents the highest level of planning, design, and resolution. And yet the concept is easy to grasp: The shifting blocks -- seen in the thin horizontal white and black stripes -- are achieved by reversing the structure from the back to the front, requiring two blocks in the threading.

It is her depth of understanding and ability to exploit the unique potential of her materials that produce such inimitable designs. Appropriately, she quotes Darwin: "Whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."

Richards's signature pieces are necklaces, collars, and bracelets with origami folds.

Her caption: "These triple spiral bracelets are assembled 

from offset sections of pleated fabric. Warp: Silk/steel 82/2 Nm (pleats) 

and spun silk 60/2 Nm cords). Weft: Crepe silk and polyester reflective yarn."

This is Richards's second book from Crowood Press, her first being the best-selling Weaving Textiles that Shape Themselves. As with the first, her new book includes lavish photos of her work and that of Wendy Morris, Stacey Harvey-Brown, the late Junichi Arai (founder of Nuno), and many others (including me, I'm proud to say). 

Note: I think by now you can guess I'm a huge fan -- to the point that about six years ago I traveled to London to study with her at the Handweavers Studio and Gallery. Her cordiality and relaxed demeanor belied the energy, observation, and creativity she brings to her work.

Dimensional, tactile weaving is a sub-category of weaving that spans broadly, from fulled fabrics to Leno gauze to exploiting the properties of specialized yarns such as crepe, overtwist, and elastic, to name a few. I highly recommend this book to weavers who are interested in what can broadly be termed "dimensional weaving" -- and also to those who are keen to learn more about how attention to materials and structure can improve their work.

WEAVING STRUCTURE AND SUBSTANCE by Ann Richards. The Crowood Press, Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 2HR, United Kingdom. Hardcover. 175 pages. $32.45.

Oh yes, and if you happen to be in London between now and February 2, 2022, be sure to stop by the Handweavers Studio and Gallery at 140 Seven Sisters Road. There, you'll be able to see first-hand what these techniques can achieve. 

More Collapse-Fabric Samples: This Time, Double Weave with 30/2 Silk and 30/1 S and Z Twist Wool

To me, that looks like happy cloth: All crinkled and intricate with blocks in black that remind me of fish swimming upstream.

So often, collapse fabrics mimic nature, with its organic forms and energy. Nothing flat or two dimensional about it, which is why I love it.

The samples I'm sharing in this blog post hark back to a workshop I took in London with Ann Richards, author of Weaving Textiles That Shape Themselves. That workshop was in 2014 and it continues to inspire me.

One of the drafts Ann shared with us was a double-weave structure on 8 shafts using a warp of 30/2 silk and 30/1 Z twist or S twist wool -- your choice -- to create alternating layers of silk and wool. The weft was the same -- and you could again choose either 30/1 S twist or 30/1 Z twist wool for the second layer. (If you chose the same twist for both warp and weft, you would get a more subtle collapse effect after washing. If you used yarns with twist in opposite directions for warp and weft, you would get a greater collapse effect. I used 30/1 Z twist in the warp and 30/1 S twist in the weft.)

Here's Ann's original structure.

Here are my samples.

Front before washing

Back before washing

Front after washing

Back after washing

Pretty cool, huh? As always, I stand in awe of the laser-sharp focus that Ann brings to her designing. I tried my hand at modifying the tie-up and treadling, so see if there were some new forms I could create from this. First I decided to weave linear stripes.

Here's the drawdown, same threading.

And here are my results. In order of appearance: front and back before washing and front and back after washing.

The vertical pleats on the front are crisp, which I like very much -- but the back also has some visual appeal. There's potential here, perhaps to develop a draft that turns the stripes into boxes. More playing with Fiberworks, which I don't mind at all.

(As I write this, I realize that this post is mostly photos. But that's what we do, right? Create visual art that is often hard to describe verbally, although we do the best we can.)

So here's the last drawdown, this time with interrupted lines of black on the front. The finished fabric can be seen in the image I started with in this blog post.

And here's the fabric, again showing front and back before washing and after washing, in that order.

So often for me, weaving samples prompts as many questions as it answers. What can I do next? What kind of garment would this make? Would it work with painted warps? How can I alter this structure to make it appealing in a new way? I never considered myself to be a weaver who follows the code of "Sample, sample, sample" -- but I'm beginning to see the benefits of doing so.

And so, dear reader, beam on! And thanks for visiting.

Still More Collapse Cloth -- This Time on 8 Shafts

This summer, for me, will be all about collapse fabrics: I'm teaching a workshop at MAFA and a workshop at the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center, plus I will give a lecture on the topic to the New York Guild of Handweavers.

To prepare, I have been weaving up lots of samples and learning A LOT from the results. (Re-learning a lot, too -- for example, that sett can make the difference between a good fabric and a wonderful fabric. We all know this, but we need to be reminded, particularly if a project should be re-sleyed at a different sett and we get -- well, lazy....)

Anyhow, the samples I've blogged about to date have all been on 4 shafts, because that's the focus of my first workshop at MAFA. In Hartford, we'll be working on both 4 and 8 shafts, so now I've begun sampling on 8. Here are some photos. 

I call these "Before" and "After" shots. The photo above is a "Before" shot of fabric just off the loom. I got the draft from a workshop I took a few years ago in London with Ann Richards, author of Weaving Textiles that Shape Themselves. The warp in this case uses both wool/stainless-steel yarn (the taupe-colored warp, available from Lion Brand and from Habu) and 16/2 bamboo (in red and orange). The weft is 72/2 linen (to give the fabric stiffness) alternating with the wool/stainless yarn.

Here is the "After" photo:

In this case, you have two elements that make this a dimensional fabric: structure and energized yarns. The structure is plain weave with floats alternating weft-wise and warp-wise, so that the floats make room for the fabric to pleat in and out. The wool/stainless draws in and twists when washed, which encourages the pleats to form. Finally, the stability of the linen weft adds crispness to the fabric. Pretty clever, huh? All thanks to Ann, who approaches her art with the mind of a scientist.

Another fabric, this one an 8-shaft double weave, pictured in its "Before" state, showing both front and back views:

The red sections are 18/2 superfine merino from JaggerSpun, which fulls beautifully when hand-washed. The black is 24/2 superlamb from JaggerSpun, which resists fulling because it's a superwash wool. Here's what it looks like, front and back, after hand washing in warm water and agitating with dishwashing soap:

To be honest, the black squares on the front of the fabric don't "pop" the way I had hoped. I was looking for a real dimensional "pouf" in the cloth -- but still I think it works.

Here's another structure from the same warp, before washing, front and back, same yarns.

And after washing:

This sample had a lot more texture, thanks mostly to the floats on the back. It's very thick, suitable for a warm jacket or coat.

If you're interested in any drafts, let me know. It's great add texture to your fabric! And here's one parting shot, of another sample just completed, using the same warp and weft as the first sample in this post but with a different treadling. (This is the sample that you see in the close-up photo that begins this post.)

Happy shape-shifting, y'all!

How Do You Weave This Collapse Scarf? There's a Surprise at the End....

Sometimes when you see something beautiful, you can't get it out of your mind. Which is the case for me with this silk scarf woven by British weaver Sally Weatherill (shown above in detail). I came upon it maybe 3 years ago when I took a workshop with Ann Richards at the Handweavers Studio and Gallery in London.

Here's what I gathered from the photo. Simple fact: It's silk, probably 60/2 silk, in double weave. With two different blocks -- one threading for the blue/green horizontal stripes and one threading for the red/purple. A twill threading, probably a 3/1 tieup.

Too many shafts for my loom, as I have only 12 (a large Macomber and a Leclerc Voyageur table loom). So, for starters, I can't weave a sample in 3/1 twill blocks. Fine with me; I will weave plain weave instead.

Second problem: There is no way I can achieve that small blue/green block in the center of the fabric without adding another block of threading. (That's because the wefts in the red/purple block are discontinuous, right? That weft would have to go in between the middle blue/green block.)

So here's what I came up with.

I used 20/2 cotton on shafts 1 through 4 and 9 through 12 and then 18/2 merino on shafts 5 through 8. I did not like the sample at all (so I won't even post a photo). The weft was 20/2 cotton. The sett was too loose -- so loose that, even after fulling in soap and hot water, the cotton looked like cheesecloth underneath the section where the wool shrank.

Next sample. I decided to tighten up the sett and eliminate the middle block of the warp -- thereby reducing the sample to 8 shafts.

Getting there! Here's how the sample looked.

Still not working well, however. Too messy where the wool warp floats over the merino weft. So I tried weaving the wool block in plain weave right along with the blocks of cotton. Here's the altered draft.

Here are the results. Much better.

I still didn't like the way the cotton plain weave cloth looked after finishing. Maybe it was the matte finish (even though it's pearl cotton). I decided to try superwash wool along with the 18/2 merino, so that the merino would shrink while the superwash wouldn't. I looked at my JaggerSpun color samples and found a red that looked the same in both superwash and merino. The blacks in both yarns matched fine, as you might expect. Here's what the sample looked like before and after finishing.

I like this, but some tweaking is still in order. In any event, I promised a surprise at the end of this post. So, going back to the source of inspiration: the gorgeous silk scarf in blue/green and red/purple double weave stripes.

Remember how I set out to figure out the structure? And it took me three different samples to find something even remotely pleasing -- not to mention the fact that I didn't really figure out the original structure?

Well, through the Complex Weavers Collapse Weave Study Group I have been in touch with Wendy Morris -- a gifted weaver who, at the time I visited the Handweavers Studio and Gallery in London, owned and managed the place. I wrote an article for our study group newsletter discussing the scarf and my efforts to copy it and she wrote me back with this surprise: The scarf was woven SIDEWAYS. Those beautiful red/purple layers are woven horizontally. THAT'S how the weaver achieved the gap in the middle.

Thinking out of the box. I will try always to remember to look at something from a different angle! Thank you, Wendy -- and thanks to Sally Weatherill for designing and weaving the gorgeous piece that got me started on this quest. Here's the draft, for your weaving wonderment.