Colour & Weave

Colour & Weave, a set on Flickr.

Four scarves in Colour & Weave hand woven on a rigid heddle loom (Knitters Loom) in JC Rennie 2/11.3nm wool and cashmere.

Tip of the Month - January

There are some times when the quick warping method just doesn't cut the mustard - when you want a long warp or when you have some complex colour changes, for example.

First make a warp using the normal method on a warping board or warping mill and secure the cross as you usually would, then chain.

As well as your threading/fish hook and rigid heddle, you will need and extra stick.
You will also need to mark the width of your warp on the rigid heddle with a couple of bits of spare thread tied at the bottom of the appropriate slits.
All the loops will be dented in the rigid heddle on a table to prevent the spare stick from falling out of the loops.

Instead of using cross sticks, insert a loop of thread either side of the cross.

Place your index finger through the loom at the end of the warp.

 Ensure you can see the cross by spreading the warp within the loop.

 You should be able to see the the first thread, which may or may not be a single thread with a loop at the end.

Whether it's a singe thread or a double thread, pull it through the first slit and place on the spare stick.

As you get used to this method you will see the colour changes emerge in the correct order ready for denting in the rigid heddle.

You will usually have loops to put over the spare stick.

 But sometimes there will be knotted threads, where the colours were changed, you just have to be careful pulling these through the slits.

Keep going sliding the spare stick through all the loops as you go.

Once all the loops are through the slits they need to be secured to the spare stick.

 Sorry this is a rather blurred image, but hopefully you can see that I've cut a long length of thread and doubled it.
Pass the two ends through the loop at the other end and put the spare stick through it, pulling tight.

Take the two ends and tie them at the opposite end of the stick.  If you've a stick with a hole at either end you can tie this string through the holes to secure the loops on the stick.

 If you don't have holes, ensure that the string is very secure by tying a number of times round the end of the spare stick.

Place the rigid heddle into the loom and the spare stick will need to be tied to the back warp stick.

You will need to loop several small pieces of string evenly across the the back warp stick.

Tie each one to the spare stick, either side of the loops and evenly across the warp.

All you need to do now is wind onto the back beam as usual.

Now you've wound onto the back beam, use your threading hook to transfer one the threads in the slit into it's adjacent hole, ensuring you keep the correct colour sequence.
In this picture the first colour sequence, on the right is one light, one dark, followed by two threads of a completely different colour.  The next sequence is three dark and one light.

Colour and Weave

About a year ago I had a small group of beginner weavers who wanted to move on with their rigid heddle weaving.  One of them was Jane Cowan, who has recently sent me a picture of her lovely rug, woven for her daughter on her rigid heddle loom.
Jane wanted to know it there was a book that could help her design different "patterns" on her rigid heddle.  After seeing this beautiful piece of weaving I suggested "Colour and Weave Design - A practical reference book" by Ann Sutton.  It's out of print now, but there are one or two second hand copies available and worth having in your library if you can get hold of one.

Colour & Weave in The Hague

After two successful workshops over the last 2 years, Jane Deane, Amanda Hannaford and I were invited back to The Hague with a new tutor, Helen Melvin.

My workshop was Colour and Weave on rigid heddle, or 4 and 8 shaft looms, using plain weave with light and dark warp and weft threads to produce patterns.  I showed how to design colour and weave patterns on paper and how to substitute warps of different colours and textures to add impact to the woven swatches.

Here you can see everyone busy weaving their swatches.

Looms ranged from rigid heddle looms.....



















to 8 shaft looms.

Here you can see some warp ends that have been substituted for a different colour and texture.











Here a student is weaving her own colour and weave swatch that she had designed on paper.















All the workshops were very successful and we have all been invited back next year.  My workshop on 17 and 18 March 2012 will be The Theo Moorman Technique.  I'm really looking forward to returning to Dineke's Studio, De Spinners.

Colour & Weave in Sheffield

This morning I did battle with the snow to get from South Derbyshire to south of Sheffield to tutor a Colour and Weave Workshop for the Hallamshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.

I'm so glad I did because they worked really hard and produced some really interesting plain weave (tabby) designs.  Take a look below to see the results:

Ten people signed up for the workshop and despite the weather only one person had to drop out.

The looms ranged from rigid heddle looms to a 16 shaft loom.

Looms were pre-warped with a range of simple colour and weave patterns with a contrasting colour to differentiate between each pattern.

On the loom the weave looks quite open, but after wet finishing this lovely subtle blue and green weave will look stunning.

Just before lunch I got the group to substitute some of their warp ends to add interest to the work.

Here black was used to dramatic effect.

Gold and red were used very effectively here, in a rug yarn, which shows the patterns beautifully.

This is the same warp as the one above, but with some of the gold warps substituted with a moss green.  The green really made a difference to the pattern on the bottom left.

After lunch the colour effects were explored on paper, which is a great way to test ideas when you've not got your loom with you!

The purple and red warp was very dramatic with the turquoise blue divider warps.

Some of the red warps were substituted with the blue and used in the weft in one of the patterns here.

This is a sample of a new weavers efforts.  She really worked hard and her selvages were perfect!

After repeating the same colour combinations of the warp in the weft, the group went on to try out some combinations of their own.

Sadly this image doesn't do this weavers efforts justice.  The blue grey and white warps were really lifted by the addition of a lovely lime green, which looks rather yellow in the image.

Although, not clear, a plum warp substituted some of the dark blue warps to great effect.

This dark blue and light blue colour and weave sample was also lifted by the addition of purple.

By the end of the day each weaver had a good range of colour and weave sample patterns that they could use as reference for further colour and weave projects.

Workshop 2 at Flitwick

I had a great week-end in Flitwick with the rigid heddle weavers from UK Weavers on Ravelry.  I showed them Colour and Weave and even though some of them used some unusual yarns (to weaving) they still managed to produce some wonderful colour and weave patterns.

I showed them how to design their own Colour and Weave patterns to make their plain weave (tabby) truly exciting.  Take a look at just a few of the many patterns they designed and explored themselves, before warping their looms for a second time to weave an article of their choice in their own pattern!

Here's an interesting pattern using less blue than red and repeating the warp pattern in the weft.

This pretty design was originally in red and white but then the occasional green end was added the weaver decided to add green weft picks.

This weaver chose the lovely lilac and white with a wide colour and weave pattern and in her last swatch chose the odd dark blue end to lift the effect.

This pattern, like the others, was designed on paper before the loom was warped, so the weaver worked out the interesting line and dot pattern in advance.

This weavers was disappointed in her pattern, until we "finished" it!  Despite her yarn choice ("for practice purposes"!) she wove a really lovely pattern that this image doesn't do justice.  Her first choice of black and white was lifted with quite an electric green.

This was a really good example of how important "finishing" is as part of the weaving process!

Orange and grey lambswool was used by this weaver for all her beautiful colour and weave designs, before she added the brick red colour to add impact.

For her main project, she chose the same pattern, but with a golden yellow and grey with the brick red accent.

Although this weaver chose an acrylic yarn for her samples, she still produced a beautiful set of colour and weave designs, as you can see here, clearly shown in dark brown and white.

This interesting swatch used wool with a cotton effect yarn in the main swatches with a black effect yarn as an accent in one of her last swatches.  With careful "finishing" she prevented too much shrinkage of the wool, but wants to go on to explore the effect of shrinkage on yarns of differing fibre content.

Cotton was the choice her for this simple, but effective use of two shades of blue.  Later swatches used white to lift the whole effect.  It was really stunning.

Another very simple, but beautifully effective colour and weave pattern which was lifted by the injection of the soft peach yarn.

Well done to everyone who took part in the workshop, you worked hard over the week-end and were all very receptive to all my instructions and have a range of swatches for future use.

Oh, and a huge thank you to Jan for organising it and making my job so enjoyable!

Colour and Weave Design: A Practical Reference Book