THREADING PROBLEMS YET AGAIN

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Before I started winding bobbins I decided I needed to do just a bit more testing of this warp.  I wove two blocks.  Whoops.

PROBLEM ONE
I learned that I cannot do the kind of treadling with six blocks that I had intended. When I get to using treadles five and six as the pattern treadles, I cannot use the same pattern of treadles for the binders that I used on the first four pattern treadles. What I will do is keep the original treadling for the first four blocks and when I start blocks five and six, figure out which treadles will work as the binder treadles.
Why didn’t this show up in the software?  Probably I didn’t know what I was looking for.

PROBLEM TWO
There are, yes there are, threading errors!  I fussed and fumed for a bit.  Well, actually, for quite a bit.  Then I began to wonder if there was a way I could correct these errors by either removing heddles or adding repair heddles, depending on what I found when I started investigating.
These threading problems all occur when, and only when, I change blocks.  This means that I do not quite understand the process of changing blocks in terms of the threading.  It also means that when I check the drawdown for errors in the future on this kind of crackle, I need to watch especially carefully those places between blocks.

THREE THREADING ERRORS
I was glad there were only three!

1. In the case of the first error, the last thread of one block was not on the correct shaft.  I added a repair heddle to that shaft, removed the errant warp end and rethreaded it into the repair heddle, sleyed it and pinned it to the woven fabric.
2. The second error involved simply removing a heddle and removing the warp end.  That solution will cause me to have to resley everything from there to the right side of the loom.  And I will have to tie on the whole warp. Still, that is not as bad as rethreading!
3. And the third error, like the first, involved adding a repair heddle to another shaft, remove the warp end from the incorrect heddle and thread it through the correct one.

Before I made these corrections, by the way, I checked VERY CAREFULLY the drawdown
So now I can cut off a small bit of warp on the left side of the loom and a larger bit on the right side and prepare for some re-sleying.  Again.

Related Posts:  

Re-Threading
Re-threading: Good News and Bad News

“Threading Problems Yet Again” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 26, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

FOUR BLOCKS AND SIX BLOCKS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina



I have treadled the blocks in twill order and in that case, adding the two blocks at the end is really a distraction to any pattern.  That does not mean that I will not use them.  It does mean that I will have to plan what blocks I treadle when, focusing as well on the color interactions that will occur.

To complicate matters still further I have included an Italian manner of treadling this crackle.  It works beautifully with standard 4-shaft crackle.  This, however, is not standard 4-shaft crackle, but rather an innovative threading of crackle explained by Zielinski.  I really like this because it creates a more complex surface effect.  But would Italian treadling work here?



Here I have used blue for the pattern wefts.  The only real difference between the two treadlings is that the first treadling has two (different) binder threads between each shot of pattern weft.  But this second treadling has only one.  the result, in this second treadling, is a greater emphasis on the pattern.  And again, when treadled in twill order, the last two treadles are a bit of a distraction to any pattern.

So, do I want the weft pattern strongly emphasized or not?  Actually it also seems that in this second one, the warp emphasis blocks are also stronger.  So, do I want those patterns emphasized or not?
Why not do both?  I plan, in the weaving, to move from primarily dull and dark colors to brighter colors, and perhaps I could move in a parallel manner with the way the binders are treadled.  We shall see.  I am probably getting far too complicated for my own good.

Still, I think I am ready to try to see if I can substitute the actual colors I plan on using for these rather strident colors and see what happens.  I suspect I will not have the patience, but I will try.  Or perhaps that is a foolish waste of time.  After all, these colors that look so strident in the software are the colors are used in the sampling and there is certainly no stridency there.  Perhaps it is time I shed my fears and get back to the loom.
But first I have to wind bobbins………………

Related Posts: 
8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts
8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts, Continued
Much Ado About Not a Whole Lot

“Four Blocks and Six Blocks” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 20, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

PLAYING WITH THE SOFTWARE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

In the sample weaving that I did at the beginning of the warp, I had tried different treadlings.  The one I saw as having the most possibilities was the last treadling.  Before I start working in earnest on the warp, I decided to work with the software.  And here is the result as displayed in a page from my e-sketchbook.

The image at the top of the page is about half the warp, reduced so as to give a sense of the fabric.

The second image is a blown-up detail to give a sense of what is actually going on.  The red wefts are the pattern wefts and they are twice as large as the other wefts, the orange and the blue, which are the binding wefts. 

The tieup and treadling are to the left.  And finally a photo of the actual fabric.

I used a black warp in the software, but I used the same colors in the weft as I did in the sampling. 

How much more garish the drawdown appears than the actual fabric.  The black warp plays into the garishness, but even so……….   It is really difficult, though probably not impossible, to get the kind of subtlety the fabric displays in the software.  The most obvious problem here is that the impact of the smaller binding wefts is far greater in the fabric than it would appear in the computer drawdown. That is why I would never trust choice of colors to the software.  Only actual sampling will work there.

I realize now that this used only 4 of the possible 6 treadles that I have available in the tieup. Looking at the tieup on the reproduced page will reveal that. So the next thing to do is to create a version with all 6 treadles next.

Related Post:  E-Sketchbook

“Playing with the Software” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 18, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

READY TO WEAVE ONCE AGAIN

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

This has been really really slow going.  My heart has not been in it.  My juices have not been flowing.  There has been no eagerness.

But now all that is beginning to change just a bit.  I feel as though deep inside there is a spring that is beginning to come alive and reveal a bit of its bubbling water.

It is true.  My heart is in singing.  Nearly my entire heart.  I was beginning to think that there was no room there for weaving.  But I think that maybe there is.  The real trick will be to pace my energies.

Related Posts: 
Lashing on to the Loom: Part One
Test Weaving the Warp

“Ready to Weave Once Again” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 13, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

INITIAL TRIAL WASHED AND PRESSED

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

A quick and dirty shot reflected in the mirror. 

I am much happier with this sampling than I was when it was on the loom.  Washing in very hot soapy water followed by hard pressing on a wooden board has resulted in a fabric that is delicate and drapes beautifully.  I now believe it will be very worthwhile to take my time to get the color decisions and the weaving right.

Related Post: Crackle Threading Issues Emerge

“Initial Trial Washed and Pressed” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 6, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina