Turned Twill with a Color Twist

 

The Not 2 Square Weavers have been meeting through the magic of Zoom for several years.  This really bites into our ability to handle all the lovely textiles that members have woven, but  we still have the pleasure of looking at the colors and hearing the stories of how they have been created.

This past month, Karen W. talked to us about her adventures with a color trick on a turned twill design that she she wove.  She was eager to use up bits and pieces of yarns from her stash and fished out four colors she thought might work with a draft that another member (Wendy-Marie) had shared with the group. 

 

 

 There are lots of ways to give this color trick a whole new look.  Wendy-Marie used 8 colors in her towel (see photo below).

 And really pushing the envelope, there are 14 different colors in this towel.  The optical illusion  is that this towel has been turned on its side in case you were wondering how the colors rearranged themselves!

 Just so you can get a really good look at what is happening, here is a close up photo.

This is such a neat trick to make a design look very complex and we wanted to share it with all of you. What a fun way to use up stash odds and ends and get a lot of bang for your buck! 

 

 The draft, shown above, isn't a complete repeat of the design, but the trick is in overlapping colors in both the warp and the weft.  As you can see from the draft above, you don't keep the colors strictly within the blocks.  The little color trick allows you to get more visual blocks in your design.  Karen kept her color sequence in the warp and the weft the same, so that her overall design was symmetrical.  This  is one choice.  You could do a free form design, but warping stripes of various colors in no particular width, then weaving in a similar fashion by either using the same colors as are in the warp, or different colors.  Hint:  Click on the draft photo for a larger  view of the details.

The source for this draft is Handwoven Nov/Dec 2013 pp.38-39 by Yoriko Oki with Vicki Robinson.  Their article shows the draft with separate instructions for the color placement.  With these instructions you can weave the pattern and their article indicates the resource they used was a great article by Alice Schlein in an older Handwoven issue (Mar/Apr 2001). Alice's article starts on page 38 and has a clear draft with the color placement on the draft itself, making the process much clearer to me.  Once you have the concept in mind, you can alter color placement to make many more interesting twill plaid designs.

Another way you might tweek your draft would be to vary your tie up.  Look at this article for ideas https://bannermountaintextiles.blogspot.com/2024/02/two-block-twills-with-multiple-tie-up.html 

Reflections on my Plainweave Boucle Towels by Mardi Naythons

The inspiration for these towels came from an item in Jane Stafford’s studio, using similar colors.  From there, I decided to work on gradation, using Fibonacci sequences and division of space. 

 
The warp was made up of Boucle cotton and 5/2 cotton, which I wound together so that most of the time the boucle threads weren’t adjacent.  I also tried to use gradation in changing colors.

As I wove, I changed the weft colors as I went.  I had a basic plan, but I let the colors be my muse.  There were a few surprises along the way, for example, I had never considered using white in the weft, but it worked well.  Also, at the end of the warp, I decided to just use straight orange rather than putting in stripes.  It turned out that there was enough to make a towel, though it was slightly shorter than the others and I really liked it.

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.  

Inspired by Our County

In the "Wool" Division at the County Fair, there is a section for handwoven or knitted / crocheted, etc. with handspun yarn items that were inspired by the County.  The exhibitor may look at native plants, scenic features, like the local river or other geological features.  In the past, native plant dyes were used to color yarn used in a woven piece. 

Diana's Table Runner

Three members of Not 2 Square submitted woven pieces inspired by plants and nature features of our beautiful County.

Diana's Table Runner was inspired by the Madrone tree.



Dee's scarf got it's look from local colors.




Ingrid's scarf attempted to bring to mind the Manzanita.

Dee's Scarf

Ingrid's Scarf

This has been a fun challenge to inspire us to create interesting items that showcase our County's beauty.



 

Color and Pizazz in Handwoven Shawls

Betsy brought shawls to our latest meeting.  What a flair for color she has.  Look at the iridescence with the bright yellow green and the coral warp underneath.  This shawl is a bit weft faced in a diamond twill pattern.  I believe this shawl is woven in 5/2 cottons and sett at 10epi.

 

This shawl was probably woven on the same warp as the one above and this time Betsy used a bamboo weft. The softness of the lavender along with the burnt orange and coral make for a very striking piece.

 

 

Betsy had enough warp for this little square table runner.  She wove the hems with some great rainbow colored sewing thread and her efforts were supported with an almost immediate sale to one of her customers.

 

Having Fun with Color

Dee has a marvelous touch with color in her handwovens. This shawl was alive with color and since it didn't translate all that well in the photo, I will tell you that the colors are lilac, purple, magenta and sparks of bright spring green. The green really makes this shawl come alive.

Dee combined commercial and handspun yarns in purples and lilacs again in her warp yarns. Then, she added a bright red weft. The color interplay is marvelous.

Here is what happens to the same warp with different wefts. These two pieces of yardage are on the same warp but the left has a white weft. The white yarn suddenly becomes pink in appearance. One of the mysteries of color changes in woven fabric.

Still a couple more things to show from our meeting. The next post will be on items that weren't woven by our members, but are handwoven. Treats from around the world.

Weaving Inspired by a Painting

Gus is participating in a challenge through Foothill Fibers Guild in which members of the guild take some aspect of the painting "Large Pond" by Wayne Thiebaud and interpret it in a fiber project. Gus concentrated on the little checked red and blue triangle that depicts a cultivated field (see arrow) and wove a whole series of towels with each one edging closer and closer to what she saw in the picture.

Her structure of choice was Swedish lace. This particular draft was found in Marguerite Davison's book A Handweaver's Pattern Book on page 94.

Gus decided that the blue and red towels needed additional color to give them more interest, so she got out her knitting machine and knitted up white cotton in stockinette stitch. Then, she dyed the knitted blank in similar colors to the one shown above, unraveled the yarn and used it for weft. You can see that the addition of more color really brings depth and richness to the textiles.

There was only enough warp for one more towel, when Gus rethreaded her loom in a new Swedish lace pattern adapted from Mary Snyder's book Lace and Lacey Weaves.

One of Gus' towels will be on display at the Nevada County Fair this August along with other artisan interpretations of the painting. We wish Gus the very best of luck with the judges.