Indholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2020 i Handwoven

WEAVERS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR WAYS to weave more than one pattern on the same warp. Different treadling orders can produce some pattern variation—in twills, overshot, and block weaves, for example. A technique called “blended drafting,” however, can produce different weave structures as well as very different patterns—in the same cloth. In a blended draft, two different threading drafts are integrated so that the blended draft can produce either of the two original interlacements: huck lace and overshot in Diane Pigg’s towels, for example (see pages 34–36). To blend two drafts, adjust them as necessary so that they each have the same total number of ends. To be woven on the same warp, they need to have the same general sett requirements (two different twills, two different overshots, an overshot…

RECENTLY, I READ ABOUT THE TRENDING influence of international textiles on fashion. In both clothing and home textiles, you can find a lot of folk art inspiration from textile traditions including Indian saris, Fair Isle knitting, and Romanian embroidery. Naturally, I started to think about how these sorts of influences might translate to handweaving. The vision in my head was of small, allover prints and textures combined with bold, graphic borders. At first, I couldn’t think of how to achieve my dream design without weaving a small pattern and sewing on a border—not my first choice at all. Blended drafts to the rescue! Two Handwoven articles came to mind: one by Carol Strickler from March/April 1985, and a more recent project by Krista Richey from November/December 2017 about blending two…

TO ACHIEVE THE WARP-FACED, ribbed texture known as rep weave, you need to follow two important rules. The first rule: Choose a dense warp sett. Tightly sett warp ends completely conceal the weft threads creating a warp-faced plain weave. The second rule: Weave with two different weights of weft material. Alternating heavy and fine weft threads produces the ribbed texture of the woven fabric. The heavy weft creates the ribs, while the fine weft—also known as a tie-down thread—secures the ribbed rows. To create this structure, the heavy and fine threads must always be in opposite sheds. A while ago, I decided to experiment to see how far I might bend these two rules while keeping the characteristics of classic rep weave. As I began exploring different ways to work…

WHEN MY HUSBAND AND I MOVED to Lake County, California, in 2000, I was thrilled to find my new weaving studio provided me with enough space to teach. I started a collection of secondhand looms and now have eight floor looms and five table looms that range from 4 to 12 shafts plus my trusty 16-shaft AVL Compu-Dobby. My students range in age from sixty-two to eighty-five, with the exception of a new student who is ten years old. Her mother learned to weave on a tiny Structo table loom from her grandmother when she was ten. (I think the ten-yearold daughter must have inherited the weaving gene from her great-grandmother!) My students challenge me to help them figure out patterns for weaving at home and in my studio. We…

Recently, Ashford made some additions to its cotton yarn offerings with the Yoga Yarn and Caterpillar Cotton lines, both of which were designed with rigid-heddle weavers in mind. The colors of both yarns are vibrant and inviting to weave with. Despite their different textures, these yarns work well together, lending themselves to endless, brilliant color-and-weave combinations. For this Yarn Lab, I wove the samples on a rigidheddle loom, but both yarns are equally suited to weaving on multishaft looms. THE YARNS Yoga Yarn (1,386 yd/7 oz; 82% cotton/18% nylon core), Ashford, 18 colorways. Caterpillar Cotton (743 yd/7 oz; 100% unmercerized cotton), Ashford, 6 colorways. These yarns have wonderful drape—the Yoga Yarn in particular. Both spool from the cones with ease and are a pleasure to weave. Yoga has a smooth,…

WEAVING ABROAD I spent two months in Scotland from mid-September to mid-November and couldn’t face the visit without some sort of weaving project. Even though I have a loom that fits in the overhead luggage compartment, we didn’t have room in our car for the loom. We were being joined for three weeks by two good friends, and we would be moving locations—and there would not be room for a table loom. I decided to pack up my little tapestry loom and two small bags of thrums and tapestry yarn to match my cartoon: a stunning picture of my large bromeliad blooming. I am not far along here, but I am just starting to put the long, spindly petals in. The Handwoven is on my computer. I downloaded the issue,…

A friend of mine asked me to weave her a set of dish towels using four Southwestern-inspired colors I had used in dish towels made for another friend. She also requested the set be woven in a contemporary design. Because Handwoven is my go-to source for inspiration, I grabbed a stack, made a cup of tea, and the search began! I first thumbed through the magazines looking specifically at dish towels. All the projects seemed to use either more than four colors or fewer than four colors or had a more traditional feel about them than what I was seeking. So I started looking at all types of projects and asking myself, “Does this project use four colors that I can adapt to my situation? Could this be a contemporary…

A MANIFOLD TWILL CAN BE THOUGHT OF as two twills combined and interleaved. By combining twills with different repeat lengths or different angles, you can create interesting textures. I recently ran across another approach to developing this type of twill in an older issue of Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot that explained how to transform an overshot pattern into a twill pattern. In the threading, each end is followed by an end on the opposite shaft. The treadling is then developed by looking at each pair of ends in the threading and lifting the two corresponding shafts. For example, in this project, the first pair of ends are on shafts 1 and 3, so the first treadle lifts shafts 1 and 3. Moving over one end, the next pair is 3…

MY INSPIRATION FOR THIS SHAWL came from an article titled “Nature as Colorist” that featured a beautiful Herb Garden Stole by Kim Marie Bunke (Handwoven, March/April 2000). Kim used very fine threads and based her color choices on the colors of her herb garden observed over a long period of time. She crossed her rainbow of colors in the warp with a navy weft to create a soft, misty appearance. Using weaving software, I recolored the draft with my own nine colors, centering the main color and then positioning the other colors out toward the ends evenly. I chose jewel tones in two color schemes: red shades suggesting fire, and blue shades suggesting water, with a black weft to make my bright colors pop. Rather than the sewing thread that…

WHEN A CUSTOMER ASKS ME TO WEAVE a piece with a specific pattern in mind, I start to wonder about the possibilities of that pattern. For my last consignment, the customer wanted a scarf using Bertha Gray Hayes’s miniature overshot pattern Fascination. As I wove the scarf, I pondered other ways to weave the same pattern. I finished weaving and then tied on a new warp to see how changing the original treadling would change the appearance of the first scarf. While looking at the new warp and the original treadling of Fascination, I decided that the title for this scarf should be “Open the Gates.” Representing the mind in a restful state, I began with the original treadling for the pattern. Then for the next section, I altered the…

PROJECT DIRECTORY Levels indicate weaving skills, not sewing skills. AB = Advanced Beginner, I = Intermediate, A = Advanced. “All levels” includes very new weavers. SUPPLIERS Brassard, Maurice, et Fils, 1573 Savoie, C.P. 4, Plessisville, QC, Canada G6L 2Y6, (819) 362-2408, www.mbrassard.com (Agius 26–28; Pigg 34–36). Camilla Valley Farm Weavers’ Supply, PO Box 341, Orangeville, ON, Canada L9W 2Z7, (519) 941-0736, Fax: (519) 941-0804, www.camillavalleyfarm.com, nmanners@camillavalleyfarm.com (Heyman 60–62). Halcyon Yarn, 12 School St., Bath, ME 04530, (800) 341-0282, www.halcyonyarn.com (Knisely 41–43; O’Hara 54–56). Lone Star Loom Room, (888) 562-7012, www.lonestarloomroom.com (Gettmann 30–32). Lunatic Fringe Yarns, 2008 E. Indianhead Dr., Tallahassee, FL 32301, (800) 483-8749, www.lunaticfringeyarns.com (Coifman 44–46). WEBS, 75 Service Center Rd., Northampton, MA 01060, (800) 367-9327, www.yarn.com (Deeds 38–40; Gettmann 30–32; Lee 48–50). Yarn Barn of Kansas, 930 Massachusetts,…

A QUICK ONLINE IMAGE SEARCH for “Michele Wipplinger” reveals how many people, groups, businesses, cooperatives, and societies (from all over the world) interacted with and were influenced by this brilliant woman in her too-short life—simply because of her incredible passion for color. As the art of natural dyes began to disappear, thanks in no small part to the ease and lower price tag of synthetic dyes, Michele searched the planet for natural colors and learned the methods to extract them. Most importantly, she figured out how to use these traditional dyes in today’s world. She became an author when her book Color Trends was published in 1990 and also worked as an educator, photographer, master dyer, designer, consultant, and the business owner of Earthues. Her nuanced color sense touched many…

Bengala Mud Dyes Think dyeing your own yarns means using an excessive amount of energy and water? Think again! With Bengala Mud Dyes from Loop of the Loom, you can dye colorful yarns with a minimal amount of water, no heat, and no harsh chemicals. Bengala Mud Dyes are made from mineral pigments mined from the soil and will dye almost any type of fiber including cotton, linen, hemp, silk, wool, and even synthetics such as rayon and polyester. The mud dyes are available individually in 65 ml, 200 ml, and 1,000 ml packages as well as in three-pack sampler sets. The Bengala Dye Pre-Fixer is recommended when using the mud dyes on all fibers except wool and is sold separately. www.loopoftheloom.com Unicorn Fibre Wash Keep your handwoven fabrics nice…

WHEN LOOKING FOR A DRAFT for a table runner, I was immediately drawn to the geometric patterning in Tien Chiu’s silk scarf from the May/June 2014 issue of Handwoven. Using it as my guide, I adjusted Tien’s draft into a pattern that would work with multiple colors of 5/2 pearl cotton. The colorful runner wove up beautifully, and I gave it to a good friend and fellow guild member to celebrate her retirement from the board of the Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds after serving tirelessly for nine years. Since then, I’ve woven several more runners using the same draft. Summer and winter creates a different look on each side of the fabric: one side is weft-faced, the other is warp-faced. In this runner, the brighter warp-faced side was my…

I’VE BEEN TOLD THAT CHANGE IS GOOD for a person, but I would bet that most people find it somewhat difficult to accept. Maybe it’s a job transfer or an unexpected diagnosis from the doctor that is upsetting to some, but for me, the announcement that my wife had bought all white dishes was nearly bone crushing. “What was wrong with the old dishes?” I asked her. She explained that food looks better on plain white dishes and since they are square and a little “edgy,” maybe I would like to weave some new napkins to go along with them. With twinkling eyes, she said, “Maybe we could pick a pattern from your new book on huck lace.” Well, now she had my attention. My ego and I were completely…

I CONSIDER MYSELF A PRETTY GOOD COOK—but not necessarily a “creative” one. I follow recipes; I don’t invent them. My husband often suggests tinkering with ingredients, but my feeling is, if the recipe is already delicious, why change it? I feel very differently about weaving. With food, I just want to eat something that tastes good. With weaving, however, I want to feel the sense of accomplishment and ownership that comes from designing my own project—and it doesn’t take much to make it my own. Tinkering with an already vetted project is a wonderful place to start, and sometimes with just a small change (and a small amount of courage), you can alter a project to infuse your own preferences and personality. As with any fine craft, small differences in…