Creating Cloth: twills

swatch for jacket-weight cloth

handwritten draft

Here is an 11 shaft fancy twill draft: my notes and the WeaveDesign file- I really prefer to use the "Mary Atwater" style drawdown of a top-down drawing because in my head I see it as an above view of the loom, treadles and cloth, but WeaveDesign uses bottom-up. I have had to readjust my thought process and I am still working out the kinks. This can be seen in a comparison of the handwritten and computer written drafts. The twill is going in the opposite direction- which is probably the fault of the treadling, as I keep translating parts of the patterns inversely, instead of just rotating them. I also left out the variation in yarn thickness- there are very thin tabby threads stabilizing the cloth- this does come from a swatch for jackets after all. And I also didn't mark the color variations- this is a black and white warp with blue weft. Despite all these inconsistencies, I like the draft that came out of all of this. It would create an entirely different look, but I think it could be very nice.

face of cloth

back of cloth

edy helps twist fringes

pardon the "look at my cat" picture- she loves helping.

finished shawl on the mannequin at work- what else is the fire escape for?





now onto prepping a line of neckware for fall/winter 2010- wool, silk, cotton, linen it will be. colors to come. sketching with summer and winter: dukagang - will post sketches soon!

twill shawl off the loom

The shawl is finished! Wove it off in one night- maybe 3 hours? Not bad for weaving with a sticky shaft 8 that I had to manually push back down to keep a clean shed. It is a loose weave, but washing should full it out. Going to send it unannounced to my aunt, because unannounced packages are really the best ones.
I took photos today on my lunch break at Bryant park while on the way to the library for more weaving books- I am so lucky to work so close to the main branch. Oh look at those London Plane Trees! So beautiful. Can't wait for springtime.


oh, also a flat to see the strong twill line! I tried my best to blend the colors, but a few of the yarn blotches got the best of me.

maiden warp on the baby wolf

After a two and a half year hiatus on weaving, a soul-sucking job in the fashion industry, a long adjustment to city life and several apartments later, I find myself with a studio and an 8 shaft Schacht baby wolf. When one of my aunts found out that a loom was in the works, she came to our July family reunion armed with a two-pound cone of blue/green/turq yarn and a request for a shawl. After a lot of life organization, the test warp is on the loom!

I am happy to start with this shawl, as I need to start out simply and slowly so as not to throw myself into an insanely complicated project (which is quite typical) that will only end in frustration and multiple starts. The yarn is unmarked, but it seems to be a mohair blend: it is a three-color space dyed yarn. It has a great hand and weight, but I am not sold on the space dye. I am afraid of ending up with one of those striated patterns dictated by the color sequence, so I will try to use structure to evenly break up any chunks of color pattern that will result from the yarn. Thus, the test warp for choosing a construction: I will probably go with a straight draw twill or herringbone twill, but will keep experimenting to get to know the yarn in case I end up with leftovers.