Collapse Fabric in Twill Blocks with 60/2 Silk and... Mystery Yarn

I am very happy with this sample! However, there were plenty of obstacles in beaming this warp. And then there's the question of the mystery yarn....

Here it is (next photo, below) on the loom -- about 12" wide in the reed with two different wefts. The weft in the bottom sample is from Giovanna Imperia. It's an Italian 100% cotton crepe in a terra cotta color. At 24,000 yards per pound, it's perfect for a collapse weft on a 60/2 silk warp.

The weft on the top is a silk tram, purchased from John Marshall at Convergence in 2014. Gorgeous pale olive color! Slippery as anything, but about the grist of 120/2 silk -- which is also great for a collapse effect on this warp.

And here's the draft. Simple enough.

I wound a warp of 9.5 yards, 756 ends, with alternating stripes of 12 ends each using 60/2 silk in orange and a variegated hand-dyed yarn I purchased from Randall Darwall -- also at Convergence in 2014.

Darwall is a brilliant weaver and dyer. I loved the yarn. Looked like silk to me. Trouble is, I could not, for the life of me, figure out what the grist was. I think, based on the inaccurate measurements of my McMorran Balance, that it's somewhere around 18,000 yards per pound. I sent it to Michael Cook, dedicated lover of all things silk and creator of Wormspit.com, to test it to see whether it was fine silk still in the gum. He sent back the disappointing answer that it was rayon or some kind of cellulose fiber.

Still, it was gorgeous and I started beaming the warp. Long story short, rayon -- and more specifically, Lyocell -- have a strong tendency to pill (or as the experts call it, fibrillate). This means that the yarns will often get stuck together, bound by these tiny and incredibly annoying fibrous pills. I spent an inordinate amount of time breaking them up, sometimes resorting to using a seam ripper.

Still, eventually, I was able to beam the entire warp. And the yarn is gorgeous, in the subtle colors that Darwall uses so well. 60 ends per inch, and no breaking whatsoever.

Here's the sample just off the loom.

You can see that it already tends to create vertical pleats, even before washing. And after washing in hot water and mild soap, with a bit of coaxing by pulling on the fabric vertically, the fabric collapses nicely.

All's well that ends well! Or begins, as I'm starting to weave a set of samples for the next Collapse Weave Study Group sample exchange (a study group of the Complex Weavers). Thanks for reading!

Deflected Double Weave/Collapse Cloth: Exploring Different Treadlings

One year after taking a collapse-technique 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. Cloqué (lye shrinkage using cellulose fibers) is another wonderful 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, and on the bottom, after washing.

In this case, I definitely like the first sample better! It shows all the patterns clearly. The second photo gives you an idea of how differently the patterns shrink up, with some drawing in more than others. Not a good idea for a handwoven fabric. Also, the silk selvages (in white) were bumpy and uneven and did nothing to enhance the piece.

Still, I learned a lot. So, for the second sample, I tried a technique I had seen other weavers use with differential shrinkage: Add a fairly wide selvage in plain weave using yarns that don't shrink (in this case, silk). For this sample, I used the third treadling on the above samples, the one that creates a "W" shape in the pattern.

The idea is that, when the wool shrinks up, the selvages will pucker and ruffle. I liked these results quite a bit. Again, the first photo shows the sample before washing (shrinking) and the second shows it afterwards.

This sample has lots of potential, I think, as a fulled fabric. The downside is that it's very firm and thick, which would not work well at all for a scarf. Great for a coat or jacket, however, with the ruffled edge used as an accent at the neck, placket, or wrist.

Another try. (Thank goodness for my Leclerc Voyager table loom, which allows for easy adjustments on a short, narrow warp.) For the third sample, I wanted to see what happened when the wool was the selvage, so that you had a much firmer, fulled edge. I also wanted to make sure that the width of the fabric didn't vary with the pattern after shrinking. So I used only two different treadlings, both of which I figured would draw in at pretty much the same percentage. (Top and bottom photos are before and after washing, respectively.)

Another good sample, in my opinion. I particularly like the way the first treadling (the pattern on the bottom part of the sample) shrinks up, so that it looks like vertical rows of beads and chains, to my eye. These are the results I'm looking for, where the appearance of the pattern after washing is unique and eye-catching -- giving you shapes that you wouldn't achieve with "regular" weaving.

I guess that's what we all look for: the surprise, the "aha" moment, the serendipitous results. Those are the invaluable rewards. Thanks for reading!