ScrapHappy February 2024 — A Mixed Warp Four Ways

Throughout the many years of my weaving life, I have always loved to create mixed warps from odds and ends of yarn.  I love seeing the interactions of the different colors and textures as the yarns move throughout the piece.

My most recent project followed a design from Celeste Pryde, published in the March/April 2000 issue of Handwoven magazine.  Her pattern called for a 4-shaft Bronson lace threading, which is traditionally done in just one color, letting the thread texture form the main design.

Traditional Bronson lace, here woven in cotton for a towel.

Pryde’s take was to use all sorts of threads, alternating two at a time in mini-warps of 24 threads —

Stripes of warp with two different threads alternating, then woven with two different wefts alternating.

You can see the columns of colors above.  Then there was also an alternating pattern of how those columns were threaded on the loom (in weaving, we call those blocks).  And THEN, two different wefts crossed those warps, and there were four different treadling orders, to determine which threads showed more prominently.

As the weaving progresses, small rectangles build up.  Their threads are forming the same structure throughout the cloth, but because of the varying threads, the blocks take on different appearances.  There are four variations — warp floats in Block A, weft floats in Block A, warp floats in Block B, weft floats in Block B.

The first piece, following the pattern — various combinations of yarns look very different from block to block.

This is the perfect opportunity to use up even more odds and ends of yarns!  I used knitting ribbons, various weights of cotton, rayon chenille, rayon boucle, etc.

I wove the first piece about 5 feet long, following the pattern in the magazine pretty closely.  Each side of the cloth shows the four block variations.

Even though I was initially drawn to this pattern because of all the variation, it had to be woven with two shuttles, with the wefts changed constantly, and that took a lot of time.  So for the next two pieces, I stuck to one weft, and a simplified treadling.

For the second piece, I used the same space-dyed blue and rust rayon blend I had used in the warp.  I chose the treadling for weft floats on top, which results in warp floats showing on the bottom.

Weft floats in both blocks on the second piece. You can see that all the thread that is floating across several warps is all the same.

Warp floats on the back of the second piece. You can see that the threads that are floating are different — some are turquoise boucle, some are blue chenille, etc.

For the third piece, I used rayon chenille, with big sections of royal blue, turquoise, and pale silvery blue, and I only treadled for floats in Block A.  This gave an effect of long thin stripes.  It looks the same on both sides.

Rayon chenille used for weft, floats only in Block A.

For the last one, I just played around with different scraps of yarn and random treadling.

The fourth piece, using random yarns.

And here they all are:

The four pieces from the Bronson lace warp.

I am not sure what I will do with them yet — they are all about 16 inches wide, and 5 to 6 feet long.  I am calling them table runners because I can always use another table runner!  Right now, straight off the loom, their threads are still pretty perpendicular.  I am anxious to wash them and watch the threads relax and form more oval shapes.

I was very happy to use up these small amounts of yarn, and to finally follow a pattern I’ve been keeping for 24 years!

ScrapHappy Day, the 15th of each month, was originated by Kate and Gun, the first two names in the list below.  We are always celebrating the use of scraps, even if we don’t post every single month.  You can visit the others to see what scrap-happiness they have come up with this month!

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa, 
Lynn, Tierney and Hannah

 

 

 

Category : Weaving
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