8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts Sampling

Having just begun to emerge from the depths of a cold from Hades (my doctor did confirm that it was not the flu), I finally have energy enough to get back to work. I knew I was feeling better when I woke up this morning and found myself beginning to plan my day.

Anyway, I have managed to get the warp on the loom and ready to thread, as you can see in the photo above. The books are there to raise the shafts up to a level where it is comfortable for me thread the heddles. The bottom book is Black's Key to Weaving. The top book is a Spanish cookbook. Well, weavers have to eat as well.

Threading should be a quiet activity, perfect for someone in recovery. I must, however, be extraordinarily vigilant in the threading for I know that right now I am more vulnerable than ever to making mistakes.

Here is the threading:


It is simply the same ascending twill-type threading that I have been talking about recently, but with each threading unit repeated three times. The threading runs for 104 ends.The entire threading is repeated three times. So I have a total of 312 ends.

Well, that's not quite right. Yes, it is repeated three times. But somehow in the stupor of my cold (and yes, I did have a fever), I decided I needed an extra 22 threads, so I wound an extra bout with those number of threads. So now I had a choice. I could either drop those extra ends off at each side and thread the correct number of ends. Or I could add a block of units on each end and use up the extra ends that way. Since I had already wound everything on, I decided to go with the latter.

One thing really gripes me. As I was raddling the ends, many of the deep red ends really seemed much finer than the rest of the ends. Actually, when I started to wind the extra 22 ends I immediately noticed this and I switched to a different red cone. Today I checked. The red cone with the finer ends actually was a cone of 20/2 pearl cotton, not 10/2 pearl cotton. That must have been the cone I used for winding the greater portion of the warp. I would love to know why I didn't notice it when I began making the warp. It was so obvious when I went to make the extra 22 ends and again when I went to put the warp in the raddle.

In any case, another choice was tnow before me: 1) throw away the entire warp and start again; or 2) go on as planned. Since all I was doing was sampling, the first option seemed a bit excessive. I only want to see how this multiple-block crackle on 4 shafts actually works and also if I want to try it on my next silk warp. Also, the idea of alternating thick and thin ends sounds just a bit intriguing. I know it would provide an interesting texture in plain weave, and perhaps in some twill weaves as well. But how would it work in crackle? Do I sound like I am getting intrigued? Do I sound like I might be rationalizing? Do I sound like I still have a bad cold?

Perhaps the name of this blog should be Peg's Weaving Misadventures!

Weaving as Fine Art

I ran across a web site with woven pieces by Adela Akers What she weaves falls under the class of gallery art. Indeed, this excellent website showing some of her things is a gallery in Santa Fe. It is a gallery of crafts, but crafts which have been raised to a level competitive with fine art. And her work hangs in the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and in the Renwick Gallery in New York City. She is also Professor Emeritus of Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia

No, she is not a tapestry weaver. She is a weaver. She does use some unusual materials: horsehair and metallic foil. To learn more about her, go here. And here

Yes, inside of me is the desire to move my weaving into gallery art. Randall Darwall, whose work I greatly admire, elevated the woven scarf into art. Don't miss his beautiful web site. I would like to transform my crackle weaving into something more..........

8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts, Continued

Here is another drawdown view of the ascending crackle treadled with no binders. This time, however, I have reduced the size of the drawdown so that it resembles a bit more what the fabric might look like. What has happened, inadvertently, is the beginning of the crackle threading treadled as traditional crackle and not as Summer and Winter at all. But not totally. If you look back at the treadling in the earlier post, there are places where the treadling does alternate rather than repeat. So this is really a mixed-up treadling.

On this next drawdown, I have changed the treadling so that all treadles alternate. First, here is the reduced-size drawdown to give an idea of the fabric:


This is clearly a different beast! This is clearly the beginning of a summer and winter treadling.


And here is a blowup of the draft which shows just that:
















I have rearranged the treadles within each treadling block, so that they always alternate.
For a true summer and winter treadling, however, each set of treadles would be alternated repeatedly until that particular block is squared (traditional) or for the desired length of the block (contemporary).

So, I have learned that I need to be careful in picking out the order of the treadles for treadling a threading as drawn in. I need to have decided whether I want a Summer and Winter treadling or a traditional crackle threading. Or perhaps I might just want to be inconsistent……….?

But treadled as traditional crackle or as summer and winter, that binder thread on the opposite shed is always needed.

Making Choices

I love to sing. I have sung alto in church choirs since I was in high school. I also sang alto in a small group (three voices on a part) for over ten years. But in the past two years something remarkable has happened. I have gained confidence in my voice. Thanks to the church choir I now sing in and its director, my voice has improved in quality and power. I love singing more than ever. Over the years I have occasionally thought about voice lessons, but the thought has always quickly fled. Weaving is my passion and I have not been willing to give up any weaving time to something else, no matter how much I might lovethat something else. But not this time. Now the choice seems to be much more difficult.

A year ago our choir worked on a piece with an alto solo. We knew that this one particular week, the director was going to select the soloist. Oh, I wanted that so badly and I sang my heart out. And I was chosen. I was stunned. And I said no. I had to. I knew that in public my voice would not hold up. It would betray me. Saying no broke my heart. But I had to. And the alto I thought should have the part in the first place got it.

This alto and I are friends. She claims my singing inspires her to sing better. I claim just the reverse. She didn't do well on that solo by the way, but I would have done much worse. Now she has been chosen to sing a solo from a Handel piece for Christmas. Oh. And she is taking voice lessons. Oh. She explained to me that she does not want to make a fool of herself. She is very smart. And suddenly I now want, really really want, to take voice lessons.

The choice has suddenly become an urgent reality, not just a passing flight of fancy. I know I would put my heart into those lessons and into the practicing those lessons would require. I know that lessons would improve the quality of my singing and might even allow enough courage to grow in me to sing solo. But I wouldn't have to sing solo. The choir is where I belong.

It is hard to make choices when the heart is so much involved. It is hard to say no to something the heart so intensely desires. Deep down I have already made the choice. Deep down, it is the weaving that pulls me. I need to learn to accept the choice my heart has really made. I need to accept that I will always have to live with singing pulling at me. Deep down I have to learn to accept the great satisfaction choir singing gives me and not ask for more.

8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts

Yesterday I started talking about some of the specifics of my next crackle project, specifically the treadling. I gave the (corrected) threading I planned to use but I also explained some things about the kind of threading I am using. This is a threading that allows you to have 8 crackle blocks on 4 shafts.

Now I have been starting to work out some treadlings. Here is the first treadling, and it is the first treadling that Zielinski discusses as well. The threading I have used here, by the way, is not the threading for my next project, but the simplified threading where each block as only one unit. Zielinski calls it a simple ascending diagonal. The only difference between this threading, however, and the threading that I am using in my project is that in my threading, each unit is repeated three times. So mine, too, will be a simple ascending diagonal, just a bit longer.

Here are the threading, the tie-up, the treadling, and the draw down:

Look at the treadling. If you look at the first treadle, then the 3rd, 5th and ensuing odd treadles, you will see what are called the pattern treadles. These are the treadling as drawn-in treadles.

The first treadle raises shafts 1 and 4 and the third treadle raises shafts 2 and 4. If you then look at the threading, the threading for the first unit is 1,4,2,4. These are the shafts that the first two pattern treadles are raising.

Looking at the next set of pattern treadles (5 and 7), treadle 5 raises shafts 2 and 4 and treadle 7 raises shafts 1 and 2. The threading for the second crackle unit is 4,2,1,2. These are the shafts that the second set of pattern treadles are raising. Note, by the way, that the incidental thread between these two units (the 5th thread, on shaft 1) is not counted in figuring the the pattern treadles.

The remaining six threading units and their treadling follows the same procedure.

But there is a problem. Treadling these pattern treadles creates floats more than 3 threads long. The answer to that, of course, is to treadle the tabbies in between the pattern wefts. This is always the solution in crackle structure. If you look at the tie-up, there they are, treadles 1 and 3 and treadles 2 and 4.

But, there is a catch. These treadles do not raise tabby sheds. Raising treadles 1 and 3 does not raise each and every alternate warp end. Nor does raising treadles 2 and 4. How, then, do we create a binder weft?

The binder weft is created like this. Each time a pattern weft is treadled, the treadle that raises the shafts opposite to the pattern weft shafts is raised. Thus, when shafts 1 and 4 are raised for the first pattern treadle, then the next shafts which are raised are shafts 2 and 3.

Looking at the next pattern treadle: here the pattern treadle is the treadle which raises shafts 2 and 4. This is then followed by the binder treadle which raises shafts 1 and 3.

And this pattern follows through the remaining treadling. Pattern treadle, then binder treadle which raises the opposite shafts.

Here is a simulation of what the fabric would look like. I call it a simulation because I have reduced the size of the drawdown to the point where it looks more like what the fabric would really look like when woven.


Here the areas of floats are more clearly set off from the areas without the floats. The blocks are a bit easier to see here. It is also easier to see that the blocks here are a bit more muddied than they are in ordinary 4-shaft crackle. That, however, is not necessarily an issue for me. In fact, it might possibly enhance my attempts to manipulate color. But only actual weaving will show me how true, if true at all, that is.





Here, to the right, is the same threading, also treadled as drawn in, but without the binding treadles. I did this because I wanted to get an idea of what the fabric would look like if I used a fine thread for the binder threads and a thick thread for the pattern threads. Weaving in this way makes the binder threads practically invisible, so presenting the draw down in this fashion is actually more realistic than just making the pattern threads twice as as long in the draw down.

Eliminating these binder threads, however, has also highlighted something interesting. There are times that the first pattern treadle from one unit is the same pattern treadle from the preceding unit. That this is going to happen actually follows from the threading.

My next step will be to try reversing these orders so that I no longer get two of the same pattern treadles in a row. As long as I keep the two pattern treadles for each unit together, it would not seem to make a difference which order I place them. Then I will see what happens when I put the binding treadles back in.

One thing that is illuminating here is the value of weaving software. It has the ability to bring into focus things that need to be attended to before I actually start the weaving itself.

I Need a Proofreader

I was a newsletter editor for three years. After the second issue came out, a friend approached me to volunteer herself as a proofreader. I accepted. We are now good friends.

Now I need a threading proofreader! The correction in the last post is of the last threading. This is the threading I plan to use for my next warp. After I posted it, I was looking at the drawdown. Something didn't seem right. I looked at it some more. Was something wrong with the threading? So I went over the threading carefully. Then I studied the drawdown again carefully. The threading now seems to be correct.

I guess it is as easy to make threading errors on paper (or using weaving software) as it to make them when actually threading the heddles!

Next Crackle Project (Corrected)

Why did I change my mind? Why am I putting off the silk warp that I have done so much dye sampling for?

Part of this is, I believe, an unwillingness to get back to 60/2 silk. Much as I love it, it is fine thread and, while rewarding to work with, great patience is required in the dyeing and the warping. What follows may be really an excuse.

Anyway, I was checking out what Zielinski has to say about crackle. I knew he had some thoughts about getting more than four blocks out of only four shafts. So I dug out my Volume 8 of his Master Weaver series. There he explains how he has developed an 8-block crackle threading from something called a double diagonal twill. He discusses this particular twill in a volume of the Master Weaver series that I do not have. But he does here give us the threading for that structure:



Here it helps to remember that crackle threading is based on a point twill. Here are the usual four units but without the accidentals. The point twill basis is obvious here.



The point twill basis is not obvious in the double diagonal twill, but when he combines these units to create crackle blocks, the relationship to point twill becomes much clearer. And here are the individual 8 crackle blocks, again without the accidentals. Somehow it did not come through very clear but it is readable.



I have clearly left out much of Zielinski's thinking process here. What he is doing is joining the threads of the double diagonal twill threading in such a way that crackle blocks are created. Looking at the first threading unit on the left, he has joined together the first three threads of the double diagonal twill threading so that it forms one block. In other words he has put together first 1 and 4 and then he has put together 4 and 2. But that would create an impossible threading: 1,4,4,2. To correct this he has reversed the 4 and the 2. The resulting threading block is then 1,4,2,4. To read more of his explanations, check out pages 47ff in volume 8 of the Master Weaver series. One of the places this series is available, by the way, is Camilla Valley Farms.

And here is the threading I am going to use. It is nothing fancy. It is just each of the threading blocks repeated three times.


I will repeat this group of threads three times.

I am really excited to see the weaving possibilities for this threading. There will be issues, because no plain weave is possible. But I think exploring this will be fun.