Although the blog below was written a while back, I’m still working with the idea of grouped weft, and in fact will be posting soon about some finished pieces using this weave structure! I hope you enjoy my explorations below!
The third warp I put on the loom for sampling was 20/2 linen sett at 20epi. Again, I drafted a threading using three blocks of various sizes. After the warp had been threaded through the heddles and reed, I stretched about 2 yards of it out onto a table and painted it with some fiber-reactive dyes in blues and tans. The other 2 yards still on the warp beam I left natural linen.
I absolutely loved the way the linen wiggled and squirmed in the weft float areas! And I again, sampled with wire and monofilament in addition to metallic and paper yarns. I used a very fine kraft paper yarn and felt it worked extremely well with the wire and monofilament.
Above weft: tan kraft paper fine yarn; monofilament; fine brass wire. Just look at those curvy warp floats!
Above weft: white fine linen; white fine wire; outlined with dark grey hand-spun hemp
Above weft: light blue slub rayon; metallic yarn
Above weft: silver-grey olefin; copper colored metallic yarn
Above weft: metallic yarn; outline with heavy handspun black yarn; monofilament
Above weft: unknown stiff twine-like fiber; fine tweed silk. The stiff fiber really caused the fabric to buckle and bubble beautifully!
Having worked with both cotton and linen in the warp, I am much happier with the effects I get with the linen warp. I like that it is non-conforming and wants to wiggle and move and do its own thing!
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