Friday, June 5, 2009

Eight Shaft Fancy Twill Patterns

Thought I’d share what’s on Lily Louet right now.
This is a variation of Frost Flowers from Twill Trills and shows radial symmetry. I used 2/8 silver Tencel for the warp with just 4 purple Tencel threads on each border. The weft is hand dyed 2/20 Bombyx Silk. When I weave with warp and weft that are really different, I put a thin border on each selvedge in a colour the same as or close to the weft threads, this really minimizes the weft turns and can be a neat design detail.
This is my draft.
I felt a bit tired of purple weft after this third scarf and defined patterns, although fun to weave I am in need of change.
I pulled off the 4 purple ends on each selvedge and replaced them with handspun silk in a blue/green variegated that I had bound with 2/120 commercial silk.
Changing the selvedges really makes a mess at the back of the loom, but since I threaded them through plastic mesh, it’s a somewhat controlled mess. I now have 10 film cannisters and the old selvedge threads hanging at the back of the loom!
I didn’t want to change my tie up, so went to PCW Silver and let this wonderful program make the change for me; this is the same treadling changed to network treadling.
Then came the problems…..the weft I though would be great, tanked! I wove and cut out 4 different wefts, finally deciding on 2/20 Tencel that I had hand painted. These photos don’t do it justice, it’s lustrous and the pattern although muted does show through and because it is such fine Tencel it should have great drape.
When I came back from ANWG my daughter had filled the house with flowers from my garden. It made me feel wonderful, so I thought I’d share them with you.
Zen Pansies by my bedside for sweet dreams.
A bowl of Clematis in the dining room, so pretty.

6 comments:

Life Looms Large said...

Interesting to see how you changed things up during this warp. Thanks for sharing that!

Even though I have a friend who does the edge threads trick at the selvedges, I didn't understand quite what she meant til you shared pictures of actually changing out the threads and having new threads hanging off the back of your loom.

The flowers look great! I love the clematis in the bowl....will have to try that if I get more blooms this year!

And the pink flowers on the mat you made during the winter...perfection!!!

Sue

bspinner said...

What a wonderful daughter you have. I agree with Sue about the clematis. Great way to bring them inside to enjoy.

I like both of your weavings and especially the way you changed the selvedges. Amazing how it effects the over all look.

skiingweaver said...

Lovely! I was just eying those frost twills in Twill Thrills myself... Love what you've done with them! And how nice of your daughter, the flowers are gorgeous.

Peg in South Carolina said...

radial symmetry? You throw out such a lovely sounding term, but I don't have the foggiest what it means! Could you explain? Please?

Lynnette said...

Hi Peg,
My first set of scarves used bilateral symmetry which in essence gives ray-like ridges along the diagonal. Radial symmetry is symmetrical vertically, horizontally and diagonally because the tie up themselves are symmetrical with respect to a imaginary diagonal line from the lower left corner of the design thru the upper right corner of the tie up.
Or bilateral is crosses and radial is circles.

Irene Adler said...

I've just been reading your blog for the first time - very interesting, thank you.

Your room looks just like mine! Same white walls, same woodblock floor, same big loom ....