Drall Scarf on 12 Shafts

I just finished this 12 shaft drall scarf a couple of days ago.

I used a tie up that I have used several times before, but this time I treadled it as drawn in.  This gave the boxes a more squared look than my previous scarves which are woven ‘free form and can be seen here’.

The warp is 20/2 silk that I hand painted using Procion MX.  I have shown this process a couple of time before here.  Tencel is my weft of choice on these scarves because frankly they have the most exciting colours available.

The warp is another colour combo that I’ve used before, fuschia and moss in a medium dye density painted randomly on a pulled warp…when woven with purple weft it gives an amazing iridescence which I think it looks like an oil slick on water.

I love weaving drall which is sometimes known as turned twill. Kerstin on her blog Kerstin’s Extra has a wonderful explanation of drall here.

Because I have 12 shafts I can weave 3 distinct blocks of twill, each containing a group of 4 threads on 4 shafts.  The first block is the horizontal stripe going from selvedge to selvedge.  The second block outlines the boxes and the third block is the centre of the boxes. So if you have 8 shafts you can weave 2 blocks and 16 shafts will give you 4 blocks.

When planning this scarf I had to work with the 208 ends I had in the warp and fiddled with my pattern until I found a sequence I liked.

The tie up for this 12 shaft drall pattern is really very time consuming on my countermarche loom, so I’ve already put another warp on so I can weave it again.  This time I’ve put on 6 yards to weave 3 table runners in 10/3 bottle green mercerized cotton.  I’m thinking I’ll try out some of the linen yarns I have in my stash as the weft.

The garden shot for today is Fremontodendron 'California Glory'.