If it's February, it must be time to weave samples for the Complex Weavers 24 +/- Study Group. For some reason, it's always a last minute thing for me. This year was pretty last minute, although I have been later in past years.
For this round of samples, I played around a little with network drafting. I use Fiberworks PCW software to help plan my designs. One of the features of the program is that you can draw a shape in the threading area and convert it to a network draft. This makes the process fairly easy although you still have to make sure the transition between the repeats works OK. I honestly didn't spend too much time tweeting this design. I wasn't entirely happy with it but the samples are a time to experiment.
For the tie-up, I decided I wanted to have the fabric be weft faced. That way I was lifting fewer shafts that were left down and I would get something different on each face of the cloth. I was able to "draw" diagonal lines in the tie-up box to create the tie-up. I planned to weave it as threaded, (i.e. trop as writ).
I picked 10/2 cotton for both the warp and weft, since I have a lot of it and for a change pick colors I like. (Normally, I use this exercise as a way to use up yarn colors I don't particularly care for.) I selected two colors for the warp - UKI Crab (green) and Lt Turk (blue). I alternated these colors across the warp. I find that using two colors in the warp of similar value will often give added interest to the finished textile.
I wasn't sure what color weft I wanted to use, so I wove a couple inches of four colors. From bottom to top they are: UKI Spec Turk (blue), Hummingbird (purple), Ind Orange and Lt Orange.
I decided to go with the complementary color Ind Orange which would give some value contrast as well.
I like the resulting cloth. It was a shame to cut it up because there was both iridescence and shine that I'm not sure the 3" x 3" squares have. The warp- and weft-faced sides are nicely complementary.
I need to go back to the design and work on it a little. Also there was a threading error that kept me from using the total width of the cloth. I have several more yards of this warp left to use for experimentation.
For this round of samples, I played around a little with network drafting. I use Fiberworks PCW software to help plan my designs. One of the features of the program is that you can draw a shape in the threading area and convert it to a network draft. This makes the process fairly easy although you still have to make sure the transition between the repeats works OK. I honestly didn't spend too much time tweeting this design. I wasn't entirely happy with it but the samples are a time to experiment.
For the tie-up, I decided I wanted to have the fabric be weft faced. That way I was lifting fewer shafts that were left down and I would get something different on each face of the cloth. I was able to "draw" diagonal lines in the tie-up box to create the tie-up. I planned to weave it as threaded, (i.e. trop as writ).
 |
| Sample Design - one repeat |
I picked 10/2 cotton for both the warp and weft, since I have a lot of it and for a change pick colors I like. (Normally, I use this exercise as a way to use up yarn colors I don't particularly care for.) I selected two colors for the warp - UKI Crab (green) and Lt Turk (blue). I alternated these colors across the warp. I find that using two colors in the warp of similar value will often give added interest to the finished textile.
I wasn't sure what color weft I wanted to use, so I wove a couple inches of four colors. From bottom to top they are: UKI Spec Turk (blue), Hummingbird (purple), Ind Orange and Lt Orange.
 |
| Color sampling |
I decided to go with the complementary color Ind Orange which would give some value contrast as well.
 |
| Final Project Colors |
I like the resulting cloth. It was a shame to cut it up because there was both iridescence and shine that I'm not sure the 3" x 3" squares have. The warp- and weft-faced sides are nicely complementary.
 |
| Finished Textile - Back and Front |
I need to go back to the design and work on it a little. Also there was a threading error that kept me from using the total width of the cloth. I have several more yards of this warp left to use for experimentation.
