09/06/2023
For this first weaving, my main hope was to develop more comfort with plain weave and surrender to the uncertainty of improvisation. I’ve tried weaving a little before but had issues with tension (the warp not being taut enough, not using yarn that was suitable for the project, not allowing enough slack in the weft, etc.) that left me disappointed — mostly disappointed that I hadn’t been more thoughtful with or observant of my materials. My fiber arts practice consists mainly of knitting, and in that craft, it seems to me that tensioning is a less dire issue, as there are ways it can be masked/forgiven (though certainly not always), so I think in my previous weaving experiences, I was a little quick to jump in and finish the project. With that in mind, I wanted to focus on being more intentional about how I was working with the yarn — pulling, pressing, tugging, sliding, guiding — so that I could feel more in control of what I was doing. I didn’t really have a plan for the design/pattern since I wanted to take it slowly, row by row, doing whatever felt right next, giving it my all!
materials! i actually ended up using a different, but similar blue yarn in place of the one here, which has a slightly duller hue and softer texture. when choosing the colors, i wasn’t consciously trying to match the colors of the book cover, but somehow that happened?
getting familiar with the string harness/shedding system by weaving a few rows of plain weave.
Having yarns of almost the same weight was very beneficial when doing interlocking weave because the rows remained the same height. Later on (shown in #6 the end (TTFN)), I tried more color changing with one of the yarns and a different thicker yarn/fabric, which didn’t produce the same tightly woven result.
This seemed like such a nifty way to change/intersect colors! Because Marianne didn’t explicitly mention in the video that this technique doesn’t produce exactly the same result as the interlocking weave, I was kind of confused when I looked at the result of my first pass of this method, as it looks more like interlocking weave but with the yarn held double. Compared to the result from the previous technique, I think I prefer this one less, mainly because I like the more tightly woven fabric.
I had a small segment of this fun wool yarn at home, which I wanted to incorporate for the fluffy texture, though I didn’t have a specific plan in mind for it at first. Then, when I started thinking about how I might want to use the conductive thread, I thought that interweaving the thread and the yarn might work nicely — the yarn already had a variety of texture and color, so the thread would look like it belonged. Using a needle, I passed about 16” of the thread through the center of the yarn, which, while short segments of the conductive thread were still visible throughout, created a length of (mostly) insulated(?) conductive yarn. Because the yarn is so thick in some sections, I chose the explore the basket weave, hoping to showcase the yarn more and give it some breathing room.
I was surprised by how much I loved the color pattern created by simply alternating the three different yarn colors every row (yellow, pink, blue,…). My first thought was that it’s somehow reminiscent of a braid, but I also think each spot of color looks like a little gem! Or candy (Nerds?)?! Choosing colors (for anything) has always been more difficult for me than I think it should be, so I had relatively low expectations for this color combination, but they actually look quite nice together, in my opinion. After that color-changing pattern, I tried alternating between just the pink and the blue, which produced a more regular, structured brick-like appearance, and I find that those colors arranged in that position are quite striking, too.