From 10’s to the Moon and Beyond

Over the past year, I was able to transform three weaving challenges into one project.  Although I like a challenge, having too many at one time can be too much.  It started over a year ago when a group I meet with once a year came up with a challenge of designing something using ten as the inspiration.  I’m not really good at this type of challenge and I noodled around with several ideas that didn’t go anywhere.  

The last idea seemed doable, what was the phase of the moon on October 10, 2010?  Lots of tens in that.  I found a couple places that showed me at least two phases that it would have been.  No matter, a crescent could be my design.  I used Proweave software to design a crescent shape that I oriented in two directions.  I selected broken twill for my weave structure and had something that would work.

Around that time, I realized that I needed samples for an annual exchange with the Complex Weavers 24 +/- Study Group.  If I wove this design in 10/2 cotton that would work very well for the exchange – reasonable sized swatches with an interested design. 

 A third weaving group had thrown out another challenge.  Start with a work of art and use that as inspiration for a weaving project.  Well, I had a project, now to work backwards to find some inspiration.  After looking around at paintings with moons, I, of course, landed on Van Gough’s “Starry Night”.  It had a big moon and might have inspired my samples.  From the painting, I did select the colors for the piece – a yellow warp with dark blue weft.  I used two different colors of 10/2 yellow cotton, sett at 30 epi to give a less uniform look.  I also used 10/2 for the weft.

 

With the lift plan worked out, I decided to use an extended point twill threading.  This would repeat the motifs and rotate them across the width of the cloth.  I used this fabric for all three challenges.BBBBBBBBBBBBBbbbbBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

Samples ready to be cut

24+/- Draft - Broken Twill on 24 Shafts

 

BBBBBBBBBBBBBbbbbBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb In addition to this design, I made two more design changes to elongate and eventually join the crescent shapes. I wove off the end of the warp from the 24 +/- samples with the more elongated design.   

Elongated Crescent Design

Elongated Crescent Fabric

The final piece was woven with 8/2 Tencel in natural and navy. All of the designs were a broken twill on 24 shafts. The sett for both the cotton and Tencel was 30 epi. 

Scarf Draft - Broken Twill on 24 Shafts

Both Sides of the Scarf

Final Scarf

I'm still considering weaving this again in a wool yarn to see how that works.