CRACKLE IN PARALLEL SHADOW WEAVE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

I decided to begin with applying the shadow weave concept to crackle. Shadow weave, after all, can be considered a kind of interleaving in the sense that two drafts are interleaved.  In this case of parallel shadow weave the two drafts are the same, not different.

I knew this had already been done, and I knew I had a book with some drafts.  But whenever I looked at those drafts in the past, I had just scratched my head in puzzlement.  So I decided to take one of those drafts and see if I could understand it.

 

This is a long draft, so only the first quarter of the draft is shown.  But here is an image of what the whole thing looks like, reduced.  Here the design resulting from the color and weave effect is apparent.

This draft I found in A Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns edited by Carol Strickler (the copyright notice is for the image, not for the actual draft).  It is #502 by Dorothy N. Smith (page 138).  It is defined as crackle in parallel shadow weave.  The reason for the name can be seen in both the threading and the treadling.  A 4 shaft crackle threading is placed on the first four shadows.  Reading right to left:

1,2,3,4,4,3,2,2,3,4,1,2,2,1,4,3,3,4,1,1,4,3,2,2,3,4,4,3,2,1,1,2,3,3,2

Forget for a moment that this is the strangest crackle threading I have ever seen…..

The threading on the first four shafts is done on every other opening.  These openings are filled in on shafts four through eight.  The threading on shafts four through eight is precisely the same as that on the first four shafts.  Each thread on the first four shafts is followed by another thread on what would be the same shaft on the second four shafts.  Thus the threading on the top four shafts parallels (and shadows)the threading on the first four shafts.

And the same thing happens with the treadling.  And I find the treadling also quite strange as a crackle treadling.

One of the things I had trouble figuring out was the tieup.  It took me quite a while to realize what was happening.

The lower left quadrant of the tieup is standard tie-up for 4 shaft crackle. 1,2;  2,3;  3,4;  1,4.   The upper right quadrant is standard tie-up for 4 shaft crackle for threading on shafts 5-8,

The upper left and the lower right ties up the shafts not tied up by the lower left and the upper right respectively.

Now what I need to figure out is the threading.  I simply do not understand it.  I am pretty much clear about the shadowing of the first set of 4 shafts with the second set of 4 shafts.  What I simply do not understand is that threading, isolated on the one set of shafts.  How does that come from a crackle threading?

As I am groggy on prescription analgesics and muscle relaxants, and will be for awhile, understanding this threading may take awhile……….

Related Post:  Shadow Weave Continued

“Crackle in Parallel Shadow Weave”  was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 2, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina