Weaverly

Alice Schlein

recent posts

  • Conundrum

    Here’s the puzzle: whether to buy more yarn and weave/stitch/sew to make more stuff which then has to find a place, or to remake/reuse what I already have stored. And here’s the other part of the puzzle. There are still only 24 hours in each day (at last count). What takes priority? Time at the computer, time at the loom, time with family and friends, time with books…as my grandmother used to say, Oy vey.

    A big salute to all my hardy friends (and some not so hardy) who turned out for No Kings Day. My heart was with you.

  • Weaverly is Back

    Yes, we’re back, with a slightly different look. After blogging for 15+ years on a platform which vanished after a 30-day notice (although I should have seen the warning signs) we are back. Thanks for your support and your patience during this frustrating time. And a very big thanks to Trevor, Andrew, and Cathy, three skilled and patient humans, who made the new Weaverly happen.

    I decided not to include my email address, but you can communicate with me, if you wish, by leaving a comment down below. Scroll all the way down.

    There’s also a place on the sidebar to subscribe.

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I experienced a bookcase collapse, weaving books all over the floor, looked like an earthquake. Had to take steps. Reorganization time. Here are a few unposed snapshots of the studio this morning.

  • On the Fringe

    I am fascinated by weather maps and find unexpected beauty in wind patterns especially. How can anyone resist this morning’s map off the Carolina coast (as long as you are warm and dry, as I hope you are)?

    Yesterday I cut off a finished warp, and machine washed & dried it after separating the individual napkins (which had been hemstitched while still under tension). I had not previously worked with this 8/4 cotton as warp and was blown away by the beauty of the fringe after washing. I had spent weeks on the computer version of the draft, and more weeks on the weaving, but was totally unprepared for the star of the show: the beautiful fringe.

  • Working With a Rosepath Initial

    You’ll need some distance to make those dinnerplate-sized circles appear. Or just squint a little. 8/4 cotton warp & weft at 15 epi and ppi.

  • Combining Extended Initial, Network Drafting, and Amalgamation

    This draft for 16 shafts combines a 4×6 initial (rosepath or extended point twill) on a straight pattern line, with amalgamation of the resulting threading. Tromp as writ. The maximum float is 5. This draft would be very weavable, with much textural variety in the various blocks. Restrict the length of the floats in the tieup to 2. Wrapping or rotating the tieup will give many interesting variations.

  • Trying New Initials for Network Drafting

    When plotting your pattern lines on a network, whether for warp or weft, you needn’t be limited to straight lines, such as 1-2-3-4. Why not try initials such as point twills, rosepath, etc. In fact, any combinations that work together as warp/weft combinations on a given number of shafts will work as initials in a weave draft.

    The following weave sampler of 4 different 4-shaft threadings, when combined with their associated treadlings (in other words, tromped as writ) shows that any two of these initials will work together.

    Therefore, in the following diagram, any of the initials in the first row will work in a threading draft with any of the initials in the second row for a treadling draft:

    In subsequent posts I will give examples of the process with actual 8 and 16 shaft drafts. Stay tuned!

  • Further Experiments With Point Twill

    Liftplan created with a simple curved line which was then networked with a rosepath-type initial. It required a bit of cleaning up, but here’s the result.

    Here’s some Muhly grass from a few years ago.

    And. in the Department of Books, I just finished reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki by Haruki Murakami