Thursday, January 22, 2009

Scarf and a half

So it turns out there was only half a scarf left on Joey, which means I now have about 40" of narrow sample fabric to turn into ... something, and 6 yards of crackle warp on the loom!

Since I'm thinking of using crackle for the rocking chair fabric, I figured I might as well make some samples that will give me an idea of what that'd be like. I chose four colours that are reminiscent of the colours in our drapes (natural, blue, green and yellow) and rotated them through the warp stripes: NB, BG, GY, YN. I'll change threading blocks at the colour boundaries but will rotate through them in a way that will keep the same colours from appearing in the same blocks every time. Or something - I'm making this up as I go along.

Still trying to decide whether to stick to a 4 shaft threading to begin with or try an 8 shaft threading. Will probably go with the 4 and try some of the traditional tie ups and treadlings (overshot, summer & winter) as well as the style I'm thinking of for the chair - the point of the exercise is to learn about crackle in all (well, many) of its permutations. I can always do an 8 shaft threading on the next warp.

Ooo, the dryer's buzzing. Time to go see how my scarf and a half turned out!

3 comments:

Peg in South Carolina said...

Making it up as you go along is one of the things I like about crackle. If this is your first real experimenting with crackle, I'd stick with 4 shaft. Or, do a straight draw crackle threading on 8 shafts. Tie it up on 1 through 4 the same as 5 through 8. This will give you the same results four shaft would give you, but it would give you the opportunity to then try 8-shaft crackle tie-ups when you are done or bored with 4-shaft.

Janet said...

I had a careful look at your posts about 8 shaft tie ups and threadings yesterday and I think you're right about starting with four shafts. For one thing, I want to test out a number of four shaft treadling variations anyway and, for another, I think some other members of my guild might drop in to try out some basic crackle on my loom. Between us all, I think we'll whip right through the 6 yards I put on without even getting to the 8 shaft versions. I'll warp again later for that.

Peg in South Carolina said...

Janet, remember the 8-shaft crackle I am working with is not "normal" 8-shaft crackle. You can find drafts for them in Shelp's "Eight Shafts: A Place to Begin" or Strickler's "A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns." On the whole, I don't care for them. Zielinski's 8-blcoks on 4 shafts crackle ideas are very different. You'll find them in Volume 8 of Zielinski's "Master Weaver's Library."