The Last Yard: Designing Weave and Color Mixing

After a few weeks, I finally got the time to go back to PTRI to use the remaining warp I had for my basic weaving session. But instead of doing another shawl, I decided to experiment with it. I manipulated the last 3 inches of warp and re-drew the yarns from the heddles. I note down the new sequence in my notebook. This is an experiment after all and any happy accidents are worth remembering. 🙂 As I reach the end of my warp, here you will see the last yard I wove. You will notice that the pattern changes per section as I change the treadle (or pedal) sequence.

From bottom to top treadle sequence: plain weave, twill weave (2 treadles at a time), twill weave (single treadle), Basket weave for the last 2.

Designing Weaves: How hard can it be?

I’ve been working on a project which requires me to use indigenous materials, particularly abaca. The colors are beautiful really, but I can’t feel but a little limited with the options given to me. Whenever we’d ask for a possible alteration of the combinations or a change in choice of yarns, we’ll be told that it will take a long time to make and this for me is just very frustrating. So it hit me. How do you design these materials? How hard could it really be? So this summer, I learned how to weave.  And weaving changed me in so many ways. Five days. Two trainors. A 15.5” x 80″ piece of cloth. And boy, it wasn’t very hard. It wasn’t very simple either. But it DEMANDS a lot of patience. But the result, EXTREME JOY! Here’s a quick synopsis of my work in progress during my 5-day workshop.

First day: Lecture + calculation of yarn requirements + warp preparation