Wednesday, October 20, 2010

FOUR BLOCKS AND SIX BLOCKS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

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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?

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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………………


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

2 comments:

Andrew Kieran said...

Loving the subtlety and care taken in your colour choices. The pressed fabric from your earlier post looks like it has wonderful drape. It's the time taken in planning that makes all the difference isn't it?

How do you find weaving software? I find it frustrating to use, maybe it's just the particular program we use at college, it seems to be counter-intuitive, it furstrates me. So despite being all modern and tech-savvy and having access to several thousand pounds worth of weaving software I find the most advanced technology i use for design is a pencil and piece of graph paper

Peg in South Carolina said...

Humblebee, thank you for your comments on my latest project. As for weaving software. I don't particularly like it but it would be difficult to get along without it. It makes it very easy to try out lets of different possibilities, but most of all, if you know how to look at your drafts (which is something I am apparently right now having trouble with!) the software is wonderful for pointing out threading, tieup and treadling errors. But if you are doing anything complex with texture or color, it is a miserable failure. Anyway, that is my opinion! I use PixeLoom, by the way.