WOOL CRACKLE FOR CRACKLE EXCHANGE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I have had several problems with this Crackle Exchange piece. 

1. THREADING ERROR

About half way through I discovered that I had a mistake in the threading.  I discovered this when I saw that an earlier tabby shot had missed an important pattern thread.  I decided to fix it on the spot rather than after I took it off the loom.  No, I didn’t unweave.  I simply threaded a tabby yarn onto my needle and wove it through and pulled out the offending thread.  As I wove that yarn through, I discovered one point where it could not weave tabby.  I treadled the tabbies.  Sure enough, there was one place where the threading was incorrect.

Since I had designed the threading, and rather quickly, I assumed I had made a mistake in the designing.  I checked the threading draft.  No, there should have been tabbies all across.  Now I need to check the actual threading to find out where I went wrong.

2. DOUBLED WEFTS

The next problem is a problem for me whenever I weave crackle in twill order.  Changing to the next block gives me a doubled thread. The black arrow 1 (in the middle) points to this doubling. True, there is a tabby in between, but the visual effect is still that of a doubled weft thread.

Block 1, for example is treadled 1,2 repeat x times.  Block 2 is then treadled 2,3 x times.  As you can see, a 2 follows a 2. 

After all this time the very simple solution emerges from my apparently thick brain.  On the second block, begin with 3 and then treadle 2, 3 x times.  And do the same kind of thing with each consecutive block.  This of course means that the very first block I treadle at the beginning of the weaving, I need to begin with a 2.  Simple.

3. SELVEDGES

The last problem is one of selvedges.  I am using a floating selvedge.  But I notice that there is one block that I weave that, on the right side, I should really send the shuttle under the floating selvedge instead of over.  With this thick thread, the need to do that is very noticeable.  Arrow 2 at the right selvedge points to this problem.

I get so frustrated, sometimes, because it takes so long for me to see some problems.  My ability to pay acute attention to everything that is happening still needs work.  It is so frustrating because I think I actually am paying very careful attention.  Clearly not careful enough.

Related Posts:   
Four-Shaft Crackle
Threading Four-Shaft Crackle
Trouble in Paradise
Crackle Exchange Samples

"Wool Crackle for Crackle Exchange" was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on February 4, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina