Snowflake Twill: One Step Back and Four Steps Ahead

I think there's no point in hiding the fact that I love twill. I love the complexity, the convoluted thread paths and watching them grow as I throw the shuttle.

I hadn't been weaving for too long when I found some old material at a second hand store. It was just a scrap in a basket of old doilies and linen hankies. The pattern was amazing! I bought it for a dollar and later found out it was snowflake twill in off white and beige cotton.... with an orange stripe down one side. I didn't like the orange line but some weaver long ago placed it there and had a good reason to do so.  I was going to photograph the fabric to show you and have been taking my studio and linen cupboard apart to find it but no luck!  ( If you click here... this link will take you to a post where I show the antique cloth and also more snowflake scarves more recently finished )

Then came a blizzard of snowflakes!! Weavers Magazine issue number 13, 2nd quarter 1991  and before too long issue number 18,  3rd quarter 1992 and then issue number 20, 1st quarter 1993.   Seems I wasn't the only one who liked the pattern work and there was a demand for more! They featured more projects in Weavers issue number 35, Spring 1997 again.  Even the recent fall 2012 Handwoven magazine featured a reprise of snowflake once more. Its like "eye candy"!

Over the years I have woven endless yards of snowflake twill in scarves, shawls and table runners. I have never used it for kitchen towels as that would seem sacrilegious somehow, but there's no reason why it couldn't be done. It would be a lot of work for a towel you wipe dishes with!  It seems to be a draft I turn to time and again. So much so, I can recite the entire treadling by memory... forward and backwards!

Its known as snowflake twill, or Swedish snowflake twill, which is interesting since Guild of Canadian Weavers Masterweaver Jane Evans wrote her thesis on Latvian weaves. It was later published as this (sadly) out of print book:

It seems the Latvians trace it back as one of their traditional patterns. Well, who ever invented this pattern has my eternal thanks!

So what is snowflake twill? Its technically a twill progression. A ever progressing twill run to a mid point and then mirror reversal. This detail (below) shows a typical 8 shaft run that creates the "X" formation:

Notice the zig zag runs below the threading

There is a whole world of  twill progressions out there, so if this inspires you to look further, then great!

 In the best of Weavers "Twill Thrills" they show a lovely heart shaped motif so once you get the concept, its fun to play with and see what you can come up with. (Granted, a computer program makes this much easier and I use Fiberworks-PCW.)

Fair warning! It seems to gently lead you further, deeper into the next weaving world of Network Twills like the rabbit diving into the hole in Alice in Wonderland! (The best guide introductory guide for network twills, and theory on most weave structures,  is Madelyn van der Hoogt's "The Complete Drafting Book for Handweavers")

Then you link the motifs together with either satin threading (note the beautiful cross style pattern created between the X's):

My favourite method is to use a point twill threading in between. Jane Evans had a lovely runner featuring this method in Weavers Magazine issue number 18:

It certainly adds more drama!

Table runner, in fine mercerised cottons, 36 epi.

Smooth yarns really show the pattern nicely and square the pattern better, and I have used various weights up to size 10/2 (or 2/10) cotton but anything larger in grist would have a float problem.  Having said that, I have seen a lap throw in medium sized wool and it looked stunning! The wool has the ability to hold the twill floats in place, particularly if fulled a tad. Its produces a nice balanced pattern if you use the same size yarn as both warp and weft, otherwise the X's become elongated and just look weird. 

I also tend to use soft neutral colours as the pattern can get rather busy visually and even more so with bolder colour. Again, some years ago I used cream silk as warp and black silk as weft and it was snapped up at a sale! The woman buyer had what I would like to call, an "exuberance for fashion and flair." Back in 2005-2006 I was commissioned to weave an all black snowflake twill shawl. It was hard on the eyes but it was stunning! I didn't have a digital camera then unfortunately.

I like to use one matte yarn and one shiny one to get a beautiful play of light on the cloth to reveal the pattern. This way it looks great on a table with the wood :

This is the table runner I gifted my son and daughter in law this past spring.

I personally haven't woven a four shaft version but I did venture into twelve shaft territory for my sister's shawl. ( all details are fully covered in three posts on "Melinda's Shawl" are shown on the sidebar, under "Topic Shopping") I used a fine off white tencel (shiny) and used a silk seaweed blend weft (semi matte). The X's get to be rather large as you can see from this picture. That's a six inch ruler for one repeat:

As you can see this twenty one inch wide shawl has the room for the larger pattern. I could only fit three repeats across the shawl.  I've run my limit on shaft size though, unless I go to really fine yarns like 20/2 cottons and sixteen shafts, otherwise the float lengths will become a problem. Might be fun to try it sometime on the Megado!

So does it always have to be an X?  No... you can get a squared O from the same draft! With the regular threading in place, simply treadle the reverse of the threading: (can you spot the mistake?  :)

Here's another twist on this. The threading and treadling are reversed...... and it produces

.... you get X's! Reverse one direction, either the threading or treadling and the O's are back.

So time to move onto the snowflake scarves on my big loom and a progress report. Its still under way as I had put on warp long enough for three scarves. I had a few set backs.  I was weaving away and had enough done so that I could now see the underside as it advanced almost to the cloth beam.  So roughly twenty five to thirty inches...then I  saw the  white line!

This picture was awkward to get and then Blogger turned it for you, but you can see the line. What caused it? One warp end that didn't get threaded through the eye of the heddle, but just below it. If it had been above the eye then the line would have appeared on top and been caught right away.  The top looked just fine!

There are some threading lines but they tend to coincide with the three ends per dent in my twelve dent reed. I'm not going to tell you how many inches of silk yak blend I cut and pulled out. I wanted to save the warp and not get the fuzzies.  I let it sit for a few days after fixing the warp thread. The warp and I needed a time out.

The warp is bleached camel and silk blend and not overly shiny  and the (now scrapped) silk yak was not all that shiny either. Now I had a chance to change up the weft (notice how I'm looking for the positive here?)  I used a 20/2 silk for the first scarf for a tone on tone. The lines are quite visible but they are not errors.  They are three thread groupings through the reed that coincide with the pattern groupings. Believe me, I double checked!!

The second scarf is currently under way and I'm using a beige silk and camel blend and it has a beautiful golden sheen. Its a finer weft and so the pattern repeats are smaller... and there's a whole lot of weaving to get the inches in!

I also have a scarf warp going on the Louet as well and so took time out to weave a scarf there.  This project needs my close attention as well when treadling ...yes, its another twill. Are you surprised?

Late for the Party

My big loom 'Emmatrude' has been very patient this year. (She is a Woolhouse Tools floating parallel countermarche, model name Gertrude) Not much happened on her while I dealt with life issues such as my cranky lower back. I found my loom bench aggravated my sciatica and my 'fix', the big black chair has been working  very well and I find I can weave longer sessions which is fantastic! I'm under no illusions and I listen to my back and rest when it tells me to.

My Louet is busy right now... but more on that next time!  :)  I am keeping the other loom busy with a series of three scarves. The warp is 10/2 tencel and the weft is 30/2 silk; sett is 28 epi and it's approx 7" in width. I was given a dusty rose pink skein of tencel some years ago and I was challenging myself to team it up with other colours and put it to work (stash busting?) Perhaps I saw too much dusty rose and sea foam green back in the 1980's and so the rose skein has sat a long time waiting its turn. I found a mineral green, violet and black that seem to work nicely. The colours are all medium hues and so of similar values.
The threading is a fancy 8 shaft point twill and here's the draft for scarf number one (which I'm still weaving on the moment, but in the home stretch!)

The scarf in the picture at the top of the post shows it being woven 'as drawn in' or the old fashioned 'tromp as writ'. Since its boring to do the same thing over and over, the second scarf will look like this:

Same threading but now the treadling will be network. Changes everything doesn't it?  I love to be able to play with the treadling possibilities on a screen. I can even view the back of the work and then check for  overlong floats in warp and weft!  The colours are much brighter than the ones actually used but I was okay with 'close enough!'

I have been playing around with variations for the third scarf and thought this one is a good contender and may happen. We'll see. I'll continue to play with choices while I work through the first two!

This treadling is is a twill progression such as you would find in a snowflake twill. I'll have to try a sample to see how it works with the real cloth and colours to see if its a go.  Its too bad that these weren't ready in time for the coming sales, so they are officially late for the party!

So if you have a long warp on and want to change the project, try changing your treadling sequence! Its amazing what appears when you dance the treadles!

I have also been busy preparing for sales like many of you are doing as well. I spent time going through my hand wovens, tagging and making up inventory sheets.  Happily, they are all coming at easily to handle intervals this year! I divided my items into two groups with newer items going to be set up on display with other guild member's contributions at a month long sale in Mill Bay, BC. It runs Oct 30th and closes Dec 1st. I'm on the list to sit a couple of shifts at the sale, but not until the 17th and 30th of November. I'll have to go in much sooner than that to photograph the entries before they all sell!

The balance will be mailed off to a one day sale in Salmon Arm which is in the south central interior of BC, held by a guild that I'm still a member of despite having moved away. They are such a great bunch of ladies !

Last, but not least... one of the benefits of my recent stash collection clean up was the rediscovery of an antique! I bought this from a friend some years ago and the general consensus is that it was new in the late 1950's or early 1960's. I'm the third owner of this little machine since then. It still has the original cloth wrapped cord which makes me a bit nervous! I did replace the rotting cotton cloth on the roller with some new cotton ticking.

When plugged in, the roller turns and I believe (if my memory serves me right) you pull the lever on the right to to snug up the curved metal plate  at the back. It holds the cloth between the metal plate and the roller and presses it in a continuous rotation, with the cloth being slipped in the top and rolled out the bottom. No steam but I can recall that two or three pressings gave good results.  I guess you could mist the cloth before slipping into the roller!

 Hubby watched me trying to hard press towels this week on a conventional ironing board and hinted that a steam press might be in my future. That sure would be sweet but with a new well and plumbing, I think it might have to wait a spell.

As a parting shot, one of the items being pressed up and prettied for the sales is the 12 shaft snowflake twill shawl. Rather than fold it up, I thought it might be nice to look at it for a short while until it ends up around someones shoulders for Christmas!

10/2 undyed tencel, sett 28 epi, silk seaweed blend is the weft so its buttery soft. There's hundreds of twinkly crystal beads along the edges. Madge Manikin looks like she's ready to party now   :)

Déjà Vu All Over Again

Some of you might recall the story of our little fawn from a couple of years ago. Well, it seems the little nipper has all grown up and likes to call our yard 'home base'. He's also taken to bringing his girl friends along too. No doubt he's waiting for the blueberries to ripen and so are we... it will be a race to the finish and I have no doubt on who will win! He gets up far earlier than we do.

Peter, our little solitary bunny is no longer so solitary as Bruce has spotted three other friends down in the lower meadow at times. Most likely doing what rabbits do best..... eat. (what were you thinking of ?!)  Peter is the only one who comes right up to the house and sticks around even when we're outdoors. Outdoors here is bone dry. We are under an 'extreme' fire rating and all holding our collective breath. Meanwhile all over BC there are over 300   403 forest fires burning ! (Edited to reflect actual numbers on August 3rd, 2010. It seems 50 new fires are being added daily.) This seems to happen  every summer now unfortunately and I'm not impressed with our new 'normal'. The weather reports says we have rain finally in the forecast come this Friday.

So back to weaving! I promised you the second white shawl debut. The second white 12 shaft snowflake twill shawl was woven using a fine silk and sea cell blend that I bought at Diane Sanderson's Silk Weaving Studio  at Vancouver's Granville Island (beautiful shop... you must go if you come to Vancouver!) The snowflakes were a bit smaller and weaving progressed nicely. It sat in a finishing pile for a time and since I really don't like having a pile like that, I pinned it out on my new foam board. (A large pile of finishing can be rather daunting and seem never ending, especially if you are under a deadline. I'd much rather do it as I go along.)

You can see I'm using new pins with easy pull heads as well. I place one through each warp bout. The grid squares are all one inch. Three weavers went together on one long insulation foam board and so it cost each of us $7.00 for a board that you can use over and over, turn over and use all over again. My pink one is about seven or eight years old. (Then when all used up, you can use it to insulate!) Anyhoo, the fringe twisting went along just fine and now comes the fun part!   If you are new to my method, see here.

Beading!  I want to add a bit of sparkle but not a lot of weight. I want a bead presence but not something that will detract from the shawl's pattern. I chose some small opalescent beads, then a larger opalescent that has been silvered in the bead's centre. It sparkles as it catches the light! A simple arrangement of four small, one large and a final small to catch and hold the grouping, between each fringe bout. Its centred so it will be equally  viewed no matter which side of the shawl is facing out. Again if you are new, check here on my beading technique.

I thought it best to keep it simple given the complex nature of the pattern (see Melinda's shawl, parts 1, 2 and 3 under 'topic shopping' on the right hand side bar) as it also gives the owner more options for what to wear with it.

It's a large piece so after its soaking and gentle squeezing out, I hung it outside over a PVC rod to drip dry. I gently tugged it into shape and untangled the fringe. It was a bright sunny day but under the deck it was difficult to get a good shot. Tickling the picture up later was made harder to do because the background is so much brighter.

Happily, no such camera issues once pressed and hung on Madge Manikin (sure wish she had arms!) The sheen is lovely! The sett was perfect.

Looks very much like the last one that went to my sister, hence deja vu all over again.

This time there is a big difference!  The *feel*. I wish I could share that with you. Its incredibly soft and a delight to touch.  As you can see, it drapes beautifully as well. The silk seacell weft gave the shawl a much creamier colour.

Do you find that you are amazed at what we can create with our hands? Every now and then a piece hits me just like that.

As Luck Would Have It

My second drawing hit success right away! Dianne in New Zealand wrote me right away, "I'm here! I'm here!"... and I got the silk into the post and on its way.

Then the next day the first name drawn 'Rose and Thistle' or Martha wrote me. Oh, dear! It seems that she and her family were in the middle of a major move to a whole new state. So her silk prize is on its way to her shortly. It just seemed the fair thing to do!

What amazes me constantly as I meet and make new friends where ever they live, is that I have so much more in common with these weavers, than just weaving!

Dianne lives in New Zealand and I used to live there. It's a small country and somehow it just keeps coming up in my life in many ways. As Dianne wrote: You certainly have a connection with NZ. For such a small country with small population we spread ourselves around a bit.

I look forward to following Dianne's blog and the coming exhibition she is participating in.

Martha and I have the Navy in common. As you may recall my Dad was in the British Royal Navy and her husband was in the United States Navy. I thought we had moved a lot in our married life but she has me beat by 3 or 4 moves!

We also share a love of medieval British history and could most likely chat up a storm on just that subject alone before we even get to weaving!

I look forward to seeing what comes of these skeins, the weavers, and perhaps share with you here in time.

Now shifting to a new topic.... see these scissors?

So weaving is carrying on in the second shawl and progressing nicely....until I had a big scare! I was changing bobbins and snipped off a long tail with my scissors. As I reached to put them back up on the shelf on the top of the loom, and they FELL from my hands!! Straight down and on the newly woven cloth. I felt sick. I could see cut ends sticking up everywhere!

(I took these pictures with my mobile phone so sorry if they are not my usual clear pictures...but I was too stunned to go and find the camera)

I started to cut back weft and remove it and as luck would have it...there was a silver lining to this situation. Yes, I had to unweave about 4 inches to just beyond the damage to a spot where I could resume weaving. This is tricky with a twill progression! The good news is there was only ONE cut warp thread. That's it. One.

So went through several emotions in about two minutes and finally came away from it calling myself lucky!

I took a long length of 10/2 tencel and pulled it from the back of the loom through the heddle, through the reed to replace its wounded cousin and then secured in place with a 'T' pin just below the cut end and 'figure 8 the tail around the pin. The portion at the back is hung in a weighted film canister much like you do with a floating selvedge. Then I pulled the old warp end out and just tossed it over the back. ( I always use the old thread as a guide because if you pull it out first, you'll have a heck of a time trying to find your place!)

The scissors now go into the bench storage!

Later when the warp comes off the loom, I will needle weave both ends on in their direction for an inch or more. The wet finishing will tighten everything up and it will disappear from view.... but not from memory!

Melinda's Shawl: The Finishing Touches

I had a couple of busy days where I had to give the house some attention; I played house maid, laundress and banker and threw in a grocery run for good measure and now I can get back to (guilt free) work again. I had hung the shawl over the fringe board and now it was time to get busy!

This project is a little larger than the usual narrow scarves I do so out came my large folding table for more a comfortable work space. These light weight tables are a godsend! You can get them in a smaller version too.

With the edge of the work securely held, I can twist and pin, tie the knot and then double check the length, adjust either a smidge up or down and then snug tight. Next! (for a full post on this technique click here)

I slipped my iPod on and listened to music and podcasts and systematically worked my way across. I didn't quite get it all done one afternoon, so the next day I picked up where I left off and before you know it.... It's done... well, this part at any rate!

Out came the bead stash and my beading needles. More podcasts and a nice breeze wafting through from outside... I tried some various arrangements of beads and varying lengths but finally settled on a simple arrangement. I wanted to add a touch of sparkle and glamour, but due to the 24 inch width, I had to be careful not to add too much weight!

Below is a close up of what I'm doing. Click on the picture to make it larger still (or any of them). A detailed post on my beading technique can be found here.

You can see from the size of the normal sewing thread that the needle is *very* fine. I slip it down through the tencel and back up to the edge and then along to the next spot.

In the next picture, you can't see where the thread is at all! After washing and pressing, you simply can't tell

The beading process took me a leisurely day and it ended the time soaking in the laundry tub in warm sudsy water. Good squeeze through to help shift warp and weft threads into their proper places and a couple of rinses. Drop of unscented fabric softener in the final water, then spin out the excess water in the washing machine. Trim off all the tails and then give it a hard press on the ironing board. Hang to dry... not an easy feat when it's 85 inches long plus fringe!

The next morning you will find it has gone from being stiff as when it has just come off the loom, to being soft and buttery to touch. The pattern is still quite raised and prominent due to the water content after it was first pressed. The second pressing smooths the surface and then brings out the shine!

You can see the gleam in the folds above... I had some light concerns about the sett at 28 epi but it turns out to have been perfect! The wet finishing adjusted and shifted things nicely and the pressing set the threads into place.

So, it's ready to take a trip to my sister's mailbox. Now the hard part comes... finding the right packing box and figuring out how to get it there wrinkle free!

I think I'll have to make one for me some day!

Melinda's Shawl: Under Way

I must have a late blooming variety of rhododendrons as most places I have been to in recent weeks, all their shrubs have long finished their flowering cycle. What ever the reason, our shrub is in its full glory next to our front door. A window in the studio also shares a view so I get to enjoy the show. I also keep an eye out for my little Pacific Tree Frog (or his new tadpole).


So where did we leave off last time I wrote about the shawl... ah, yes.. the tie up!

Here all 12 treadles are finally done and Lilibet can come down off her pedestal. Thank you for all the well wishes for my thumb! Its healed up nicely and we're back in top form again. The tie up did take me far longer to do than normal but I was creative with finger positioning!

Here I have woven a fine header of pink 2/16's cotton and then checked for threading errors. None were detected! I even went over it with a pick glass just to be sure. Next is hemstitching to secure the edge. I cut out a four inch section of cotton and then sew. In this case I want a finer fringe so I'm doing small groups of four ends, so later the final fringe will be twisted groups of eight warp threads.

I wove in the border and got started on the snowflakes! I have woven eight shaft snowflakes before but with twelve shaft, you get much more definition! They are also so much larger which is one reason why I considered them for the shawl. There are three large snowflakes over the 24 inches, plus borders.

( click on any images to enlarge)

This picture gives you the overall perspective. The shawl is 24 inches wide at the fell line.

This is a close up of one " X" with a six inch ruler for scale. As you can see with the larger pattern is makes photographing the whole pattern a bit difficult! Its going to look fabulous !

Trying to capture the pattern when its white on white is also a challenge! So please pardon the varying degrees of light with some of these pictures.

This one shows the leading border, the diamond returns and the feet of the first snowflake. This is all I could manage before having to advance the loom. So I have been weaving away steadily and the only trouble I'm having is the right hand floating selvedge keeps fraying off and I must start another. I have looked at everything including sitting closer to that edge, angle through the reed etc and it appears that the twist in the yarn simple unwinds as it hangs off the back and that is transferred to the thread at the weaving and ..poof... it falls off. Needle weaving the ends in later is not a problem but it would be nice if it behaved!

It took me four afternoons of weaving to complete the the first full shawl of 85". I was also trading off with my other loom so not all that time was on this piece. Here it is hanging on the back of my chair while I tie back on again.

Now to start on shawl number two! I'm going to review my stash and see if there is another soft colour that might show nicely, or stick with the white. Maybe change the fibre?

Choice is nice....

I see by my Google 'followers' counter that I'm approaching a landmark number! This is exciting for me as you can imagine. I will be drawing a name for the prize skein of silk pretty darn soon! Who knew you could feel this happy about turning 100? :)

{Oh, as an aside: I seem to have come down with a summer cold.... crap! It comes a a surprize as you can imagine but I'm grateful it was *after* I saw my Dad.}