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Spin-directional Check Weaving Project
Jan. 22nd, 2014 08:49 pmETA: photo credits (sorry!)
(As usual, I'm belatedly putting up a project diary because someone wanted to see it and this is the easiest place to make it available.)
For years, people may have seen me wandering around spinning with my drop-spindle and heard bits and pieces of the story of this project. I present here the status so far.
Inspiration
There are a number of textiles from northern Europe from the Migration Era and early medieval period that have a checked or plaid-type pattern created entirely by the spin direction of the thread (S versus Z) rather than by using multiple colors of thread. The light reflects off the two spin directions differently enough that, at a first glance at photos of these textiles, you would swear they were dyed.
First Test Piece
I wanted to see just what this effect looked like in real life. My first test-piece isn’t a particularly good piece of weaving, but you can see a bit of the spin effect in the warp stripes. They're most visible when viewed obliquely. There are also supposed to be weft stripes but the weaving ended up being somewhat warp-faced which makes this more difficult to see.
(photo courtesy of Sandra Linehan)
Second Test Piece
Since my first test had been at least somewhat successful, I started planning a larger piece. The second test piece focuses primarily on the warping border, with various experiments in spacing the warps to see how to get a well-balanced warp and weft and a slightly tighter weave. This piece doesn’t involve any spin-direction effects. I was also playing with several possible border decorations: texture effects from the tablet-turning direction, wool brocading, metallic thread brocading, and extending the warp threads out for a twisted fringe. Unfortunately this sample isn't very visible in the photo below. You can see it spread out to the right, in front of the pottery.
(photo courtesy of Sandra Linehan)
Main Project
In the end, I decided on a plain warp border and no fringe. My project is a rectangular cloak, to be woven on an upright loom with tablet-woven borders. There are a significant number of cloaks of this style surviving from northern Germany and Scandinavia from the Migration Era and early medieval period, so the garment seemed compatible with the weaving technique. The cloak is planned to be approximately 6ft x 6 ft with alternating 1” stripes of each spin direction in both the warp and weft. (16 threads per inch). The warping border is a simple 10-tablet band (4 threads per tablet) with the tablets alternating turn direction. The plan is to work a similar tablet-woven band along both edges and finish the warp off with a similar band that will also weave in the warp ends.
Status
The starting warp border is complete. You can see it in the photo above primarily as a mass of chained groups of warp threads. (Each group of 16 threads forming a directional stripe is loosely chained to keep them in order until I’m ready to begin weaving.) You can see how the different spin directions cause the group of threads to twist in one direction or the other.
The current stage of the project is to spin all the weft thread, in equal quantities of S and Z spin. While the amount of thread needed is based on length, I can estimate that by weight. As I will be weaving this on an upright loom, I don’t want to set the weaving up until I’m ready to work on it intensively. Based on my past spinning rate, this could easily take another 5 or 10 years! Typically, I can spin one ball of yarn of the size displayed (which is one spindle-full) in approximately 4-6 hours of work, though I don't usually spin continuously for that length of time. A typical spindle-full measures out at 210 yards. The total weft I'll need is 72" x 16 threads/inch x 2 yards (plus a bit for fudge factor, but we'll leave it at that for now). This comes to 2304 yards, so about 10 balls of thread, half S, half Z. Wow, really? Because I already have about 7 spindle-fulls of weft done. I could do this. I could totally do this.
(As usual, I'm belatedly putting up a project diary because someone wanted to see it and this is the easiest place to make it available.)
For years, people may have seen me wandering around spinning with my drop-spindle and heard bits and pieces of the story of this project. I present here the status so far.
Inspiration
There are a number of textiles from northern Europe from the Migration Era and early medieval period that have a checked or plaid-type pattern created entirely by the spin direction of the thread (S versus Z) rather than by using multiple colors of thread. The light reflects off the two spin directions differently enough that, at a first glance at photos of these textiles, you would swear they were dyed.
First Test Piece
I wanted to see just what this effect looked like in real life. My first test-piece isn’t a particularly good piece of weaving, but you can see a bit of the spin effect in the warp stripes. They're most visible when viewed obliquely. There are also supposed to be weft stripes but the weaving ended up being somewhat warp-faced which makes this more difficult to see.
(photo courtesy of Sandra Linehan)
Second Test Piece
Since my first test had been at least somewhat successful, I started planning a larger piece. The second test piece focuses primarily on the warping border, with various experiments in spacing the warps to see how to get a well-balanced warp and weft and a slightly tighter weave. This piece doesn’t involve any spin-direction effects. I was also playing with several possible border decorations: texture effects from the tablet-turning direction, wool brocading, metallic thread brocading, and extending the warp threads out for a twisted fringe. Unfortunately this sample isn't very visible in the photo below. You can see it spread out to the right, in front of the pottery.
(photo courtesy of Sandra Linehan)
Main Project
In the end, I decided on a plain warp border and no fringe. My project is a rectangular cloak, to be woven on an upright loom with tablet-woven borders. There are a significant number of cloaks of this style surviving from northern Germany and Scandinavia from the Migration Era and early medieval period, so the garment seemed compatible with the weaving technique. The cloak is planned to be approximately 6ft x 6 ft with alternating 1” stripes of each spin direction in both the warp and weft. (16 threads per inch). The warping border is a simple 10-tablet band (4 threads per tablet) with the tablets alternating turn direction. The plan is to work a similar tablet-woven band along both edges and finish the warp off with a similar band that will also weave in the warp ends.
Status
The starting warp border is complete. You can see it in the photo above primarily as a mass of chained groups of warp threads. (Each group of 16 threads forming a directional stripe is loosely chained to keep them in order until I’m ready to begin weaving.) You can see how the different spin directions cause the group of threads to twist in one direction or the other.
The current stage of the project is to spin all the weft thread, in equal quantities of S and Z spin. While the amount of thread needed is based on length, I can estimate that by weight. As I will be weaving this on an upright loom, I don’t want to set the weaving up until I’m ready to work on it intensively. Based on my past spinning rate, this could easily take another 5 or 10 years! Typically, I can spin one ball of yarn of the size displayed (which is one spindle-full) in approximately 4-6 hours of work, though I don't usually spin continuously for that length of time. A typical spindle-full measures out at 210 yards. The total weft I'll need is 72" x 16 threads/inch x 2 yards (plus a bit for fudge factor, but we'll leave it at that for now). This comes to 2304 yards, so about 10 balls of thread, half S, half Z. Wow, really? Because I already have about 7 spindle-fulls of weft done. I could do this. I could totally do this.
