Following on from my first experiements with gauze I'm working on another project. I've designed a scarf which will have a central dense section in alternating 1/3 and 3/1 twill to create a soft pleat bordered on each side by gauze.
For the gauze I'm trying out ground threads in a silk 30/2 with whip threads in a very fine silk (it's unlabelled but I'm guessing 50/2). The gauze is sett at 5 epi. For the warp in the twill section I'm using a cashmere 24/2. It's beautifully soft but quite fragile for a warp - I'm hoping "fortune favours the brave". As the twill needs to have more weft picks than the gauze it has supplemental weft.
In the gauze 8 picks of mohair (alpaca/sillk) are followed by 6 picks of high twist wool 14.5. These picks are also incorporated into the central twill. Between each of these picks the twill section has 4 picks of cashmere in a contrasting colour. these picks don't extend into the gauze, so there are 6 warps threads on either side in a wool/silk 10/2 which weave a plain weave selvedge for the twill. The sett of the twill is 25 epi, so slightly loose for a twill in 24/2 to encourage the gentle pleating.
There's a lot going on in delicate yarns and as gauze dictates a jack loom, I'm using the 16 shaft Jane table loom. It doesn't have a second warp beam. My last experiments proved that the ground threads and whip threads can be warped together for short warps <3m. Whether the twill will also work on the same beam I don't know. If there are problems I can probably improvise something to control the tension on the loosest warp.
Different yarns, different setts, different weave structures and gauze all in one piece...my kind of weaving.
Gauze silk on the right (30 sets of 3), 6 ends of wool/silk, then the light grey cashmere (220 ends), then the wool/silk and gauze will be mirrored on the left.
The high twist wool should reduce the gauze borders to about 40-50% of their loom state width
In Ann Richard's book "Weaving Textiles which shape themselves"; there are a couple of paragraphs about weaving gauze, with a technique that uses a small bead after the heddles through which is threaded a pair of fine 'whip threads', which are threaded through the heddles on either side of a 'ground thread which is usually thicker. Each group of two whips and one ground are sleyed through the same dent. The bead allows for the whip threads to be pulled either to the left or right of the ground thread (depending on which one is treadled) and act as single warp thread. The end result is that the wefts are gripped much more tightly than they would be in plain weave and so fabrics with a wider sett remain stable, a gauze is created.
It is also possible to weave plain weave at twice the sett by treating the ground thread as one warp thread and the pair of whip threads acting together as the adjacent warp thread, pulled either to the left or the right. It doesn't make much difference if they're pulled to the left or the right, except when they change sides a diagonal is created.
It's a fairly simple structure related to leno, only without the hand manipulation.
The magic with gauze happens when the gauze and plain weave areas are mixed and active (think high twist yarn) and passive threads are used for the weft. The shrinkage should be more even in the gauze sections where the weft is gripped and more chaotic in the looser plain weave areas and with an open sett more extreme.
Searching books and the internet I found some images of amazing textiles by a handful of textile artists (Noriko Matsumoto, Fiona Crestani, Ann Richards) but nothing on technique. Evidently it's a "black art" so I was immediately attracted!
If there is much changing of sides of the whip threads in the plain sections I imagine the take-up will be greater than the ground threads, so I will put the latter on a second warp beam. I'm going to be using linen for the warp with a sett of around 5 epi (for each group of three threads) and a section at a wider 2.5 epi just to see what is possible. I ll also use a wide variety of different weft yarns.
In order that I can do a lot of experimentation on a single warp, I devised a tie up for 4 blocks to produce many combinations of gauze and plain weave (see below). I should be able to create horizontal and vertical seersucker, checkerboard and window type patterns.
I had hoped to use my spring loom for the first weave but having thought about how the bead works on the whip threads, I ve realised that the system only works with a Jack loom, where the raised whip thread is at a greater tension than it's partner in a three thread group and is thus able to pull it to its side of the ground thread. With a countermarche loom the raised thread is at the same tension as its partner because that thread is automatically lowered by the treadling. I ll have to use a tableloom as both the spring and megado have countermarch actions.
Weaving programs can't work with this kind of structure so it's back to drafting by hand. I'll start warping the loom tomorrow and then the magic can begin.
This video shows how the beads deflect to either side of the ground threads.
First section of weaving - weft is stable in the gauze sections but easily moved in the plain weave sections at this sett.
Observations and Learning
Firstly, Gauze weaving is not for the faint hearted! The shed is very small and mostly not positioned on the shuttle race, a long and low profile shuttle helps. Particularly if using blocks, the tension even with a second beam can go all over the place during the weaving. I didn't have a second beam for this sample but as the warp was only about 3m it was just about controllable.
Linen may not have been a good choice for the warp as it proved to be a sticky, which resulted in the whips sometimes getting hung up on the ground threads.
The beads I chose were 4mm diameter with 2mm holes, bigger beads (5-6mm) would have been easier to hold whilst threading and less prone to occssionally getting stuck. Also be sure the beads are bigger than the dent spacing in the reed, as they occasionally migrate!
To begin and end your weaving it is possible to produce a denser plain weave by weaving plain weave and treadling to keep the whip threads on the same side of ground threads for each pick - beat hard.
The sample with numerous weft yarns and block patterns before wet finishing.
After the wet finishing the results! The blocks of plain and gauze didn't really work. They weren't discernable except that the plain weave areas disintegrated into a bit of a mess. When I used plain weave but alternated the side which the whip threads were on the structure was slightly more stable.
The most successful areas were where I used all gauze. Alternating areas of high twist yarn and regular yarn, or just using high twist yarn alone, produced a lovely stretchy fabric. The wider sett was a bit too fishnet for my taste.
brushed alpaca/silk/mohair (pink) alternating with highspun wool - narrower sett on the right more successful
the green in the middle is a mop cotton and on the right a variegated tensel 8/2, the different setts are evident as is the draw in created by the high twist wool used with the pink mohair
doubling the high twist wool with a passive novelty yarn creates an interested texture as after the wool shrinks the novelty warn has to escape in little loops
Farmwork (hedgelaying) intervened in the proposed deflected doubleweave project and when I returned to it I changed my mind about what to do. I wanted to revisit pleating.
Last time I made some self-pleating fabric by using high twist wool and a combination of other yarns including silk wrapped stainless steel. The pleats arrived on wet finishing. This time I wanted to explore woven pleats of a diferent kind.
These "upright pleats" as Stacey Harvey-Brown terms them, are created by using a doubleweave structure. The warps for each layer have to beamed separately so that their tension can be independantly controlled.
one warp on the sectional beam the other on the second beam passing through lease sticks
An integrated cloth is woven then the upper layer only is woven to create both sides of the proposed pleat, leaving the other layer's warp floating beneath. When both sides have been woven the upper layers warp is untensioned and with the beater the pleat is rucked up and eventually pinned flat to the integrated cloth, so that a little tension can be put back on the warp to allow a shed to be formed. Weaving continues with the integrated cloth once more and eventually the pins are removed and the pleat is formed.
I've used satin for the integrated cloth and plain weave for the pleats as the setts are roughly in a 2:1 ratio. I forgot to exclude the floating selvedge from the plain weave (pleat) on the first pleat and this made rucking it up difficult. The second and third pleats were more successful with the selvedge excluded but there's some residual "springiness" when beating. The selvedges aren't the best but the fabric is for a cushion so they'll be hidden in seams.
lift plan
tie up
The different colours of each side of the pleat should create a nice effect when they're sewn in different directions, coupled with a graduation in colour of the satin which will continue into a very dark blue.
Had lots of conflicting ideas for the next weave, but in the end have decided on something in DDW. Simple motifs in a "colour and weave" pinwheel ground cloth (something I saw in "Double with a Twist" by Marion Stubenitsky). To make things interesting I'm using a combination of active and passive yarns, the greens in the image are wools (merino 24/2 and a much thicker wool/silk 10/2) whilst the reds are passive superwash merino 30/2 and either a cotton 16/2 or cottolin 22/2 - haven't decided which yet.
the long floats in the areas of DDW should allow for some differential shrinkage and give a bit of texture aided by the different thicknesses of the yarns. The 10/2 might have to go on a second beam.
Lucy, Lottie and Paula with their debutant "one day" weaving course creations.
On our one day weaving courses, the looms are set up and ready for you to weave. After a short introduction we get straight to the action! In just a day you can create your own fabric on our 8 shaft looms. We also give a brief history of weaving, information on how looms work, show you many different yarns and discuss their properties and differences, plus a visit to our flock of sheep!
First real foray into designiing something in deflected doubleweave. I started with developing the block draught of a design by Margaret Coe in Marion Stubenitsky's book "Double and twist". The final draught requires 20 shafts. I have a stash of DMC embroidery thread that I got on Leboncoin so used those colours to enhance the design. After dressing the loom I did some quick narrow samples to check the sett to achieve the square design requiring a balanced weave. Alas my sample was too narrow as once on the main project I quickly realised the design was 4 x 5 rather than square. I ve cut this first piece off and re-sleyed 18epi. This is now working out close to square, I probably need 17epi to be perfect but I should be able to wet finish and block the fabric to get it square enough - I don't have enough warp to re-sley again and tie on a third time!
first attempt at 20epi
Finally square at 18 epi
After washing the cloth in the washing machine and gentling pulling it to exactly square and allowing it to air dry, I set about making the cushion covers. DDW in cotton is quite stretchy so I lined the fabric machine sewing through the yellow grid. A plain back incorporating a placketted zip and a cord filled binding completed the construction. The finished covers measure 55 x 55cm.
Whilst at the "Fil et Fibre" festival I wove some overshot with two a colour mercerised cotton warp 5/2 and a dark blue silk noil 3/14 for the weft. I ve used some of it to cover a laptop case for John's 70th birthday.
Warps are going on the table looms ready for one day weaving experiences.
There are still another 8 days until the wool festival at Mas d Azil, so time for a few more creations! These scarves use a networking threading based on overlapping sinewave design lines. multiple twill tie-up and "tromp as writ". 16 shafts for the design plus 2 for the plain selvedges.
A new pashmina design in merino and silk warp, with combinations of linen, silk and lambswool weft. This design has a patterned border inspired by kilim rugs. I ve also added some thicker wool silk in the warp. Because it's not evenly distributed and a lot thicker, this was warped traditionally rather than sectionally and has gone on a second warp beam.
detail before finishing "fluffs" the fibres
the thicker wool/silk measured out on the warping board
merino (red and blue) and the silk (yellow and green)
the thicker wool/silk on the second warp beam
Second pashima underway with linen/silk warp. I think it might be much more linen than silk and a bit stiff, I ll sleep on it before deciding whether to change it back to linwool.
The double weave shawls are finished. The second shawl I tried substituting the 1/7 lambswool/linen/silk for 2/16 linwool. Which has worked out fine giving a side which is less slubby. On the final part of the warp I tried 2/10 wool/silk. The colours are amazing and as the 2/10 is too thick to maintain an even pick density through the integrated areas, the weft opens up which has actually produced a subtle transverse stripe in the finished cloth. It's a heavier, thicker cloth than the linen ones.
Something for next time.
The fringes were knotted in groups of 6 and trimmed before wet finishing. Slightly quicker than hemstitching but much easier on the eyes at 30epi!
Last time I took the cloth to 56 degrees to get some width shrinkage, this time I stayed cooler and left the width almost unchanged.
