A Challenge for 2023 Part 2

You don't need a challenge for a weaver to want to "shake things up".  What follows are interpretations of the same threading draft and the weaver's comments about their take on the challenge. As expected, no two experiments are the same.

I've taken some of the text posted on the display board from the fair and added a few thoughts of my own.

The Basics of Weaving
The patterns for weaving come from three components: the threading, tie-up and treadling.  Any combination of those three items will affect the outcome of the woven item.  In each example, the threading was kept the same or enlarged for the project, but the tie up and sometimes the treadling was changed.  In the five works, see if you can pick out what is the same and what is different. 

Mardi Naythons
Since this was the first time that I worked with advancing and point twill together, I decided to use the original threading as noted.  It is a smaller sample because of that.  It has only 396 threads.  The treadling is tromp-as-writ.  The one thing that I did do to make it somewhat mine was to make an ice dyed warp in sections.  I tried to make the outer areas the same and I jogged the middle section in the dye bath so that it would be different.

Ingrid Knox
I took the original threading and extended it to the width I needed for a towel.  I created two different random stripe patterns for the two areas with different threading designs.  The tie-up is a 1-1-1-1-2-2 pattern.  This towel used a tromp-as-writ treadling – that means I used treadles that mirrored the threading.  The towel was woven using 10/2 cotton for the warp and weft.  The sett is 30 epi.

Jeanne Doty
There were so many weaving possibilities in this weaving draft.  Beryl Moody provided us with 37 different tie ups.  Since it was difficult to choose just one, I chose 5 and made a scarf instead of 5 towels.  It was fun to see these different drafts right next to each other.  The warp was maroon 8/2 tencel with a lemon green 8/2 tencel weft.  Each draft made changes to the color play, some bringing the warp color forward while another draft would bring the weft color forward.

Wendy-Marie Teichert
What was fun about this project was seeing how much variety could be achieved simply by changing the tie-up. I experimented with different weft colors – light purple, light yellow, blue and rose – to contrast with the dark purple warp. In retrospect, I think the weavings would have been more successful if I’d kept the weft color constant and varied the warp colors instead.

Beryl Moody
Weavers are always looking for a way to express their own ideas in the items they choose to weave.  This weaving draft was ripe for an adventure.  Having woven it nineteen years ago in a rather straightforward manner, I was thinking about what changes I could make this time around.  

I decided that if I were to alternate colors in certain sections of the warp and then weave that warp with alternating colors this could change the appearance of the final textile, yet have it retain some of the original design.  This method (in weaver's vernacular) is called color-and-weave. Where there are alternating color changes they tend to obscure the original design and give you something with an entirely new look.  The towel I wove is a combination of the original draft showing through, along with sections of color interplay that distort that original pattern. 

Here is a photo of one of the original towels woven 19 years ago.  It is tromp-as-writ and resembles a ripe banana - thus the addition of the fruit!

 

The Last Weaver's Poker Hand?

As you may know, the group decided to take on a challenge last year called Weaver's Poker.  In our version of the game, we came up with options for five different attributes of a handwoven project:  Structure, Yarn Fiber Type, Color, Color Relationship and Design Element.  All of the Not 2 Squares who participated drew cards from grab bags containing the five different aspects.  Each person had the flexibility of discarding one of the attribute cards.

Last spring most of those who chose to participate finished their projects.  Ingrid finally finished hers.

Here's her hand:  Color – Orange; Color Relationship – Split Complement; Yarn – Linen; Structure – M's and O's; Design Element Large Checks.

Being rather competitive, Ingrid decided she needed to use all of the cards even though the rules allowed participants to throw out one card.  She selected 22/2 cottolin in Autumn red, Light Green and Aqua.  Three cards down.  Two to go.

After thinking about M's and O's, she developed a three block design with the help of Fiberworks-PCW.  The software allows you to draw a profile draft and then convert it to a threading.  This design used the three colors in the warp to differentiate the different blocks.  Those colors (and blocks) would then be used in the weft to create the large checks. That took care of all five cards.  (The area between the black "threads" was repeated a total of three times.)

The resulting fabric was a towel.

The color and texture of the final piece was nice but there was some puckering and draw in because of the M's and O's.

Towel Detail

Based on that, Ingrid decided to just do the one towel and is rethreading the warp to something different.

We thought this was the last challenge piece to be finished but it sounds like there is at least one more to be done.  We'll give details if it is finished.  

Eileen Plays Her Cards Correctly

Eileen is our next weaver to finish the Weaver's Poker Challenge.  She also chose to weave a scarf as part of the challenge.  

Eileen's poker cards were:  Red, Swedish lace, Novelty, Beads, Analogus Colors​.  She decided to discard the Analogus Colors card.  

The scarf is red, 8/2 spun rayon, the weave is allover Swedish lace, the fringe incorporates beads, and the novelty is two picks at each end of eros yarn. 

Eileen's Scarf

Novelty Yarn at Fringe

The one thing Eileen thought was a surprise was how using the novelty yarn in a small way, it added a lot to the scarf.  She says she will continue to do this in future projects.  ​

Nice project Eileen!

Mardi Draws a Winning Hand

Mardi is the next Not 2 Square to finish her Weaver's Poker Challenge.  Here's her description of how she approached the project. 

"My challenge cards were Stripes, Warp-faced, Analogous Colors, Yellow and Overshot.

I decided to make a scarf because it was a small enough project to try out some of my ideas on.  The one card I chose to delete was Overshot.

I used a stripe generator and then edited it for the values that I thought would work in the design.

In a way, I cheated because I changed the warp-face to warp-dominant.  I did not want to make a plain weave scarf because I am working on finding a fabric that drapes well. The structure I chose was a 3/1 point twill. 

The yarn is 10/2 mercerized cotton.  The sett is 30 epi. The weaving length was 72 inches with a finished length of 64 inches plus fringe.  The width in the reed was 8 inches with a finished width of 7 inches.

Actually, the project satisfied the parameters but the fabric was still stiff.  If I did this again, I would change the sett to 24."  

The scarf is very nice.  The yellow color turned out nicely.

How Marcy Played Her Weaver's Poker Hand

Marcy chose to weave a scarf using her hand of Weaver's Poker.  She was dealt the following "cards":

Structure:  Spot Bronson

Color:  Blue

Yarn:  Thick & Thin (one yarn)

Design Element:  Incorporate a shape (e.g., square, circle, etc.)

Color Relationship:  Mix warp color by doubling thread in heddle, sley as one

She used a 3.5/1 periwinkle blue cotton flake for the weft which covered the color and the requirement for a thick and thin yarn.  The warp was 10/2 white cotton.  She created a design using Spot Bronson that included five diamond shapes across the 229 warp threads.  These were repeated nineteen times in the length of the scarf.  The warp color mixing card was discarded.

Marcy created the scarf design using Weaver's Craft Issue #23 pages 6&7 as a guide to understanding "Spot Bronson" also known as "Barleycorn".

The 10/2 cotton warp was sett at 24 eps using a 12 dent reed (two threads per dent).  The width in the loom was 8 3/4" and Marcy wove the scarf to 57.75".  The finished scarf was 8 1/2" x 46 1/2".

Here are some detailed pictures to show off the lace patterns.

Scarf front and reverse sides

This turned out to be a very nice scarf with a good hand.  Nice job Marcy!

Weaver's Poker - How Wendy-Marie Used Her Cards

Wendy Marie wove a set of stunning purple towels for her challenge.  The cards she drew were as follows:  

--Color: Purple

--Color relation: Monochromatic contrast

--Pattern/Structure: Summer & Winter

--Yarn: Ribbon

--Design element: Border

Here's her description of the project: 

Sarah H. Jackson’s design for “Four Blocks on Four Shafts: Summer & Winter Towels” (Handwoven, May/June 2013) was the inspiration for this piece. Some unusual things about her design are:

1) Both the pattern and the tabby weft are the same grist. Normally, pattern yarn is slightly thicker in Summer & Winter.

2) The pattern and tabby colors change every inch or so, together with the treadling. The effect is a complex interaction of three colors (warp, pattern, tabby) as well as the interaction of the different blocks.

3) She {Sarah} manages to obtain 4 pattern blocks on 4 shafts, and still preserve the tabby ground.

It is a complex design, and at moments I felt like a pianist trying to play 3/4 time with my right hand and 4/4 time with my left – a real mind boggle.

   

Threading

 

Like Diana, I did not want to buy more yarn. I had a drawer full of various 10/2 purple cotton, but no 8/2 purples. So I reconfigured Jackson’s design, which calls for 8/2 cotton sett at 18 epi, into 10/2 cotton sett at 24 epi. To restore width lost by the denser sett, I added 12 ends to each of the six warp colors, and repeated each of the 4-thread units six times rather than five.

It was hard to predict how the colors would work together, so I just grouped the rosier purples on one side and the bluer purples on the other side. In retrospect, I wonder if the white warp would look better on an edge rather in the center, where it tends to bisect the towel. 

 

Purple Summer & Winter Towels

 

How was I going to add ribbon and border? At this point, I considered dropping those, and just showing up with a “three of a kind” poker hand. But eventually it dawned on me to use the ribbon as a loop to hang the towel on a drawer knob. The ribbon also provided a border. The loop added a little zing.

 

Towel Detail

Towel Detail

Towel Detail

Use of Ribbon

 

 

I’m glad the Weaver’s Poker challenged me to stretch beyond my usual thinking.

 

More Scarves

Our weavers were busy in 2015 with the scarf challenge.  (Your busy blogger is behind in posting...)  Marcy selected a bag from Beryl with green Noro, bamboo and ivory rayon yarns.

Marcy's Brown Bag of Yarn

Marcy and Her Yarn

Marcy chose a 4-shaft pattern that combined the thick and thin yarns. 

She added a pink (of unknown fiber content)yarn as an accent in the green hand-dyed bamboo warp.  The weft was 2 shots of ivory rayon and 4 shots of multicolored Noro. 

_

Marcy sett the warp at 20 epi but felt that this was too loose. 

Scarf Detail

Eileen picked a real grab bag of yarns for her challenge.  The yarns are from Diana. 

Eileen's yarns

Eileen chose a 2/2 twill structure on four shafts.  She changed the twill direction whenever she felt like it while weaving.  It's quite a nice scarf - wide and long.

Eileen's scarf

Eileen's scarf - detail

 

 

There is at least one scarf left to share, but it needs to be woven first.

Blue Scarf

Igor is the next weaver to finish his scarf for the challenge.  Being the last to pick a bag of yarns, Igor found he was left with his own. 

 

The yarns used in the warp were one thread of variegated rayon, another thread of thick and thin rayon and one thread of turquoise bamboo.  They were sleyed at 20 epi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Igor wound two threads (used as one) for the pattern weft.  These were slightly different grists and shades of blue.  The tie down thread was another rayon in lighter blue.

Below is the draft of this project.  Igor got the structure idea from Beryl who found a basketweave draft that had a plain weave tie down in finer threads (both warp and weft).  He then added two stripes of 2/2 twill  to the draft and threaded them on shafts 5-8.  There are six picks in a complete repeat.  Tie down, pattern pattern, tie down, pattern pattern - using four treadles.  It was hard to keep hands and feet coordinated - four treadles against three shots.

 

 

Here is his scarf on the loom.

 

 

 

The scarf turned out beautifully, with a nice hand.

 

 

 

 

The edge finish was brought up at a previous meeting by Mardi who used it on a rep weave sample.  It is called Cavandoli knotting.  The beaded fringe was more extensive than Igor normally does.  He used one small copper bead at the base of each twisted pair and one blue bead midway between the scarf and the end knot.

 

 

Finished Scarf Detail

Another beautiful scarf that is probably destined for a foster child this coming holiday season.  There is also another scarf on Igor's loom with this warp.  It will be interesting to compare it to this one.