Over the past year, I was able to transform three weaving challenges into one project. Although I like a challenge, having too many at one time can be too much. It started over a year ago when a group I meet with once a year came up with a challenge of designing something using ten as the inspiration. I’m not really good at this type of challenge and I noodled around with several ideas that didn’t go anywhere. The last idea seemed doable, what was the phase of the moon on October 10, 2010? Lots of tens in that. I found a couple places that showed me at least two phases that it would have been. No matter, a crescent could be my design. I used Proweave software to design a crescent shape that I oriented in two directions. I selected broken twill for my weave structure and had something that would work.Around that time, I realized that I needed samples for an annual exchange with the Complex Weavers 24 +/- Study Group. If I wove this design in 10/2 cotton that would work very well for the exchange – reasonable sized swatches with an interested design. A third weaving group had thrown out another challenge. Start with a work of art and use that as inspiration for a weaving project. Well, I had a project, now to work backwards to find some inspiration. After looking around at paintings with moons, I, of course, landed on Van Gough’s “Starry Night”. It had a big moon and might have inspired my samples. From the painting, I did select the colors for the piece – a yellow warp with dark blue weft. I used two different colors of 10/2 yellow cotton, sett at 30 epi to give a less uniform look. I also used 10/2 for the weft. With the lift plan worked out, I decided to use an extended point twill threading. This would repeat the motifs and rotate them across the width of the cloth. I used this fabric for all three challenges.BBBBBBBBBBBBBbbbbBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbSamples ready to be cut24+/- Draft - Broken Twill on 24 Shafts BBBBBBBBBBBBBbbbbBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb In addition to this design, I made two more design changes to elongate and eventually join the crescent shapes. I wove off the end of the warp from the 24 +/- samples with the more elongated design. Elongated Crescent DesignElongated Crescent FabricThe final piece was woven with 8/2 Tencel in natural and navy. All of the designs were a broken twill on 24 shafts. The sett for both the cotton and Tencel was 30 epi. Scarf Draft - Broken Twill on 24 ShaftsBoth Sides of the ScarfFinal ScarfI'm still considering weaving this again in a wool yarn to see how that works.
