Book Launch!

Weaving Outside the Box: 12 Projects for Creating Dimensional Cloth is now available for purchase! It's been a long road but at last it's ready to launch.

Front and back covers (right and left respectively) for printing

The book is 122 pages long, in full color, with a soft cover and a coil binding so that you can lay it flat as you read and weave. It's also available as an eBook and in hardcover. You'll find all these options on this blog site under the page titled "Publications for Purchase".

Here's a brief description:

"Color and structure are key elements in weaving, of course. But we often overlook the importance of texture. Dimensional fabrics, with their pleats, puffs, and curves, take us 'off the grid', reflecting the organic forms of nature. We can both see and feel the tactile quality of dimensional cloth, which adds much to the beauty of handwoven fabric.

"This book gives you tools to optimize texture in your weaving. Starting with background on the techniques involved, it then offers step-by-step instructions for 12 projects for four to 16-shaft looms: four for beginning weavers, four for intermediate weavers, and four for advanced weavers. As a bonus, there are two patterns that allow you to weave three different projects on a single warp.

"Weaving Outside the Box provides the tips and resources you need to move beyond the two-dimensional plane and rectilinear patterns of warp and weft."

Here are a few of the projects offered.

Among the four projects for four shafts: woven shibori using fulling techniques

Doubleweave layers and ruffles for eight shafts 

using differential-shrinkage techniques

Deflected doubleweave on 16 shafts 

using differential-shrinkage techniques

There are diagrams and even microscopic photos of yarn throughout the book, to help you understand the mechanics behind these designs, all using some combination of active and inactive yarns, structure, and finishing.

I will teach a workshop straight from the book June 11-16 at the Michigan League of Handweavers Conference in Holland, MI. Participants will choose one of the 12 projects from the book and start by weaving up samples so they can learn how to finish their projects to get just the right textured effects.

Dimensional cloth is a specialized area of weaving, one that is sometimes overlooked but has been woven for centuries. My book begins -- and this blog post concludes -- with this quote from Anni Albers, from her definitive book, On Weaving. 

All progress, it seems, is coupled to regression elsewhere. We have advanced in general, for instance, in regard to verbal articulation -- the reading and writing public of today is enormous. But we certainly have grown increasingly insensitive in our perception by touch, the tactile sense.

I hope my book inspires weavers to explore all three of the wonderful tools we have in our craft: those of structure, color, and the tactile sense.

Thanks for reading!

Detail of Echo threading in four-color doubleweave on 28 shafts, 

using cotton/stainless-steel yarn for one of the wefts 

to achieve crinkled layers

More Collapse-Cloth Samples on 4 Shafts

LOTS more! I have been preparing more than a dozen samples for a workshop I'm teaching this summer at the MAFA Conference at Millersville University in Pennsylvania: "Collapse Fabrics on 4 Shafts." And, without giving away the drafts and all the details, I'd like to share some photos and descriptions of the results.

Pictured above: a 2-block weave on a warp of 60/2 silk, using a weft of 60/2 silk alternating with 18/2 JaggerSpun Superfine Merino. Here's what the sample looked like before washing, just off the loom:

Pretty different, right? That's the beauty of weaving dimensional fabric: What is geometric and two-dimensional on the loom becomes a fabric that is far more organic and three-dimensional after finishing. All it takes is a little bit of warm water, soap, and agitation. In the case of this sample, the wool will full and shrink, drawing the silk in width-wise. The geometric squares of orange, red, and dark blue in the warp become concave ovals. Very interesting and very forgiving for weavers like me who aren't always exact about selvages, picks per inch, even treadlings (but don't tell anyone).

A few more before and after photos below.

18/2 JaggerSpun Superfine Merino warp and weft. Above is the front of the piece before washing, and below is the back.

 And here's what the sample looks like after washing, front and back.

 Fun, I think! Much more quirky and natural-looking.

Above, a pretty ho-hum piece of fabric woven in plain weave -- red, gold, and lavender 16/2 bamboo in warp and weft -- with a supplemental-weft pattern using embroidery cotton in natural. I pulled the embroidery cotton tight to create a woven-shibori resist. (Looks like some kind of sea creature to me.)

Wash and scrub and agitate, check to make sure everything is working, repeat -- then take out all the embroidery cotton and...

Here's a close-up:

So for me, the weaving advice of "sample, sample, sample" has helped immensely -- to learn and to share with others who love this technique. After MAFA, I will be teaching how to weave dimensional fabrics on 4 and 8 harnesses at the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center in Hartford, CT. And in September I will lecture on the subject at the New York Guild of Handweavers. More sampling to come!

Collapse Designs on 4 Shafts: a Sneak Peek at Upcoming Workshops

There are SO MANY ways to produce textured fabrics! And it's relatively easy to weave complex-looking fabric on just 4 shafts. Which is the subject of a workshop I will be teaching this summer at the MAFA (Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association) conference at Millersville University in Pennsylvania.

The sample pictured above, for example, looked like this before washing and fulling.

The warp is 20/2 pearl cotton and the weft is 18/2 merino. You'll see that the weft floats in alternating blocks on the top of the fabric, but not on the back. After washing and agitating in hot, soapy water, the weft floats will full and shrink, pulling in the cotton warps in a checkerboard pattern. The image at the top of the page shows what was the back of the fabric on the loom -- which is the far more interesting surface due to the checkerboard pattern.

Here is the draft.

I did 3 other samples on this 20/2 cotton warp. Here are the images of the samples after washing.

20/2 pearl cotton alternating with 18/2 merino weft stripes in plain weave

18/2 merino weft floats alternating with 20/2 pearl cotton weft in plain weave 

Same as above sample, but with merino weft floats on one side only

I particularly love the texture of the middle sample, as it looks the same on both sides and it shrank up the most (width-wise) of all the samples -- making it spongy and lofty. I think it would work well as a lightweight jacket or coat fabric. With lots of color in the warp and weft, of course.

Here are some more photos of samples I've woven up and washed in preparation for this workshop.

Deflected Double Weave

Double Weave (two layers woven simultaneously)

Differential shrinkage using merino and superwash wool

Collapse fabric using a wool/latex weft (warp is on the horizontal)

 Fulling with woven-shibori technique

 Weft floats fulled and cut to create an eyelash effect

So many techniques, so much to learn. I will be teaching another collapse-cloth workshop -- this time on both 4 and 8 shafts -- at the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center at the end of the summer. In September, I'll give a Power Point presentation on the subject to the New York Guild of Handweavers -- hopefully with lots of new photos to show from the summer workshops.