Checkerboard swedish lace

I revised the draft developed in the last post to get it back to 10 shafts and 10 treadles. Repeating the treadling at the changing of layers to create a closed selvedge.

At first I was just going to weave a sample but in the end I added a few more warp ends so that the sample could be a scarf.  After the first square was woven I noticed a couple of misthreadings, so corrected them and started again. The yarn is 15/2 silk (14 wraps/cm) so each layer was sett at 7epcm (18epi). I experimented with zquares using weft in both of the greens in the warp and alternating them.

The silk is lovely and soft with the doubleweave giving it more weight. The sett was a little close, the colours a little too similar and the silk too reflective for the plain weave to be seen through the "windows" in the lace, but the lace adds a nice texture to scarf.

Networked doubleweave

 

Gone down a bit of rabbit hole with this. Above is a networked double weave fabric with areas of double and single cloth. Eva Stossel has done some very interesting work with networked doubleweave using yarns with different shrinkage. I ll probably try some similar things or maybe a wool that felts and one that doesn't.

I've been trying in vane to network something with two different structures. Its complicated because ideally you need structures transposed to a straightdraw threading, but the number of shafts becomes too big, even with frequent turning of the draft and using a treadle reducing program. In the process, I came up with a chequerboard design for Swedish lace over plainweave. It reduced to 10 shafts but I added a couple more to try and get a firm border. The lace appears in the opposing squares on the reverse.

Double layer shawl

The weaving went much quicker than I expected and was all over in about a day. I hemstitched both ends on the loom then cut the fringes to about 2 cm. At first I couldn't get The wool to shrink but eventually at about 55 degrees it started. Overall about 33% shrinkage in the width and virtually nothing in the length (superwash merino warp). After gently pealing the layers apart that had slightly felted together, I blocked it and let it dry. 

The fabric is very light, soft and drapey with its open sett but the two layers add warmth. The areas os single cloth using the warps from both layers (the squares, selvedges and hems) help puff the layers apart and flare the ends of the shawl. The yellow side was a bit disappointing as the grey weft killed the colour (I couldn't see it when I was weaving as it was the bottom cloth). The slightly slubby linen/silk/lambswool weft adds a bit of texture.

 

Almost a thousand warp ends wound

940 ends wound on the beam for the doubleweave shawl. About halfway through I noticed that one of the bobbins had snarled up and snapped the thread, so quite a few sections were missing a thread (16). I managed to add the threads when threading the heddles and wound them onto the second warp beam. 

My next project will be building a warping wheel (a device to wind the sections not requiring bobbins and with hopefully less yarn waste too).

 

More samples

More doubleweave sampling....getting closer. This time superwash merino warp 30/2 with jaggerspun 8/2 for the shrinking ties. Lambswool/linen/silk 1/7 singles for the weft. A single cloth selvedge to give a wrinkly edge. I also tried more ties in a the shrinkable wool (one each side of the squares) but they have a tendency to migrate during the long floats and become unruly!

Unfortunately after I failed to get enough shrinkage with a hot handwash it went in the washing machine and is now 2/3 size and overfulled (I had to prise the layers apart) but the double layers between the squares give the fabric a lovely volume.

Third time lucky and all should be project ready for a shawl. I think I ll put the red stripe back in the middle of the squares and space them wider apart. I ll return to the yellow for one side of the shawl this time in superwash merino.

Sample before washing

After finishing, the shrinkage with  can be rather sudden! This sample shrunk about 20% in width and 10% in length. 

Double weave experiments

More experiments with doubleweave. This is a weave whereby two layers of cloth are woven simultaneously one above the other. I designed a fabric with two layers of cotton (16/2) plain weave at 24epi sandwiching free floating red woolen threads between them. At intervals the cloths are woven together as a single cloth in a series of squares. These also trap the red threads. Between the squares the red wool yarn is either tight puffing the two layers apart when it shrinks on washing, or very loose allowing it to free form.

The first sample was at two close a sett, so the red threads were only visible with back light. I widened the sett to 15epi for a second sample with almost a gauze like structure.

 

I also wove a sample as single cloth with a fine lambswool warp, but used the double layers as squares. In the single cloth the wool is tightly held by the warp, but in the more open sett of the double layer it can shrink and create a seersucker effect.

Planning to use this knowledge on a scarf project next.

more double weave with 2 structures

759 ends to thread and sley

Another experiment with double cloth overlaying different weave structures, this time huck lace over a pointed draft twill - both in cotton. 8/2 for the twill and finer 16/2 for the lace both set at 10 ends/cm (25 epi). The two cloths are joined at intervals in the weave. This didn't work at first so I had to add two more treadles to the draft and cut and re thread about 40 warp ends. Fortunately, the tension wasn't affected noticeable.

After washing, the lace structure has appeared, revealing the colours of the twill below, perhaps not quite as clearly as I had hoped. A very dark cotton or the lace may have helped and next time perhaps more blurred transitions between the colours underneath - maybe an echo weave.

Details of the lace structure (still wet and un-ironed!).

The finished cloth

The twill on the reverse.

 

Doubleweave experiments

I started thinking about doubleweave. Usually one weaves two (or more) layers of plain or sometimes twill weave and through altering the tie and up, treadling and number of shuttles, one can play with which layer is on top and whether they are joined to form a single double cloth, a tube, two separate layers, etc. But what would happen if the two layer were completely different weave structures? What if they used different yarns, at different setts? 

After some experimenting on fibreworks, I decided to mix plain cloth on one layer with a classic swedish "mosquito" lace on the other. The plain cloth was in 8/2 cotton, whilst the lace was in 20/2 both at 24 epi. Because of the way the weaving progresses in doubleweave with alternating picks in each layer, I figured that the weft density of the plain weave (24ppi) would control the density of the swedish lace to the same number of ppi. With the much finer 20/2 yarn this give an even, open weave. 

The resulting two layers are tied together in the weave at intervals and I hoped this would create a transparent lace cloth with windows to the plain cloth beneath. Rather like a stained glass window.

I used up lots of stash to make a multi coloured plain cloth, but kept the swedish lace white.

warped at 48epi combined

fabric on the loom, the windows in the lace aren't evident until the fabric is washed and finished

the finished cloth

I think there are lots of possibilities with this method, monksbelt springs to mind as another suitable weave structure for one of the layers. One could also fill the pockets formed between the layers with 'objects' as the weave progresses, sealing them in forever once the layers are woven together at intervals. A project for another day.

 

double weave and quadruple cloth

With doubleweave one weaves two cloths one above the other, normally on four shafts.These cloths can be joined at the selvedges as you weave to create either a tube or a double folded cloth (joined at one selvedge only). With eight shafts one can weave four cloths and this opens up many possibilities.

Whereas a cloth in 8/2 cotton might have 25 warp threads per inch width (10 threads per cm), weaving four cloths one on top of the other means there are now 100 threads per inch (40 threads per cm) - which makes dressing the loom a little more cramped to say the least!

these first explorations are just to try the different techniques and structures so I've been easy on myself colour coding the warps for each of the four cloths and starting with a 5.5" (12.5cm) wide warp a couple of meters long.

The first section is weaving a tube within a tube - effectively a bag with a lining. Next I brought the lining to the outside and the outside to the inside. Still a single bag but with a "waffled" wall. 

With two layers to the walls of the bag, I tried a bit of leno lace. Hand manipulation of the outer cloth warp threads to create an open structure which allows you to see the cloth below peaking through.

Next I wove four separate layers (4 rather than 2 shuttles required) to form a pair of open ended tubes around the top of the bag to accept a pair of drawstrings.

Finally, a pair of tubes side by side that when turned inside out into the bag already woven will create double lining divided into two sections.
 

 

Off the loom and finished