For the last study group before summer we looked at Polychrome Crackle. The basic definition of polychrome is the use of two or more colours, either in the warp or weft. A lot of the examples of polychrome crackle use three or more colours in the weft, the downside is that you get ribbed edges from the numerous wefts. But, if you turn the draft so that the wefts become the warp that problem is addressed and for a lot of the drafts that I tried this on the pattern didn’t really change either.
While I was experimenting on computer with the polychrome crackle drafts I found that they reminded me of Echo Weave. So I took one of my favorite crackle drafts and did an extended parallel threading and presto a Crackle Echo Weave Polychrome draft was born.
There are two colours in the warp, I choose turquoise and orange. Usually for Echo Weave you use a split complementary colour choice but I went bright and cheerful, I felt like breaking the rules!
For the weft I tried all the blues that we have, and I wasn’t really happy with any of them. I had hoped to see the fourth colour from the mixing of the colour but the blues seemed to blend with the turquoise in the warp. The navy could be a possibility.
Next I tried all the greens; nothing is the right shade of green. It is interesting how the teal green perfectly blends into the turquoise.
All this weft auditioning is what I get for not using a split complementary in the warp. Onto the purples, the purples with some blue in them seem to work the best but I am still not seeing the fourth colour in the web.
In desperation I tried grey and silver, one is too light the other is too dark.
I take a leap of faith, maybe my sample sizes were too small to see the colour effect. I decided to go with the navy and I finally see the fourth colour! You can see the orange, the turquoise, the navy and a royal blue.
I was weaving along then Clunk my treadles will not move. One of my lamm tie downs was too long and it has slipped over a button further down on the treadle. It is an easy fix, just move the texsolv tie up to the next hole; but it is still annoying.
The pattern has a lovely long repeat at almost 9 inches.
The pattern is like a long teardrop shape, with orange and blue colours it is almost flame like though.
The scarf is very pretty and the colours are amazing. In the finished product the orange takes on an almost coppery finish. And the three different blues really pop.
For Sale.
What I have learned about polychrome crackle is that multiple colours in the warp are easier to deal with and you get a very similar look to having the colours in the weft. The pattern choice is important; a crackle pattern with a strong crackle block pattern shows the interaction between the colours the best.
Final Garden Shot is a new tree called a Mimosa tree, or Persian silk tree or my favourite the Sleeping tree (Albizia julibrissin). It is actually a legume and the fragrance of the flowers is amazing, there are buds on the tree we are hoping that it will bloom this year, although we only planted it late last month. It is called Sleeping tree because it will close it leaves during the night, so cute!
