Collapse weave - finally!

I am sure you remember all my collapse weave experiments from the spring and the spinning of the singles during the Tour de Fleece. Well, I finally got around to warping and weaving the scarf and it turned out exactly as I had hoped. The challenge with collapse weave is that it is unpredictable so getting results that are sort of what you wanted is wonderful.

 This is the warp. 2 sets: one S-spun and one Z-spun. These were sized with xanthan gum.

This is the weft. I had 2 skeins of roughly the same size. I chose to use the larger skein but I should have gone with the smaller one. Oh well.

The warping process was very easy. The sized singles were a bit stiff and smooth. I ran out of the Z-spun singles so the warp was not as wide as I had planned. I still have a bunch of the S-spun ones. I warped the S-spun with 2 strands in a slot and hole for 1/2" and then the Z-spun for 1" with 1 strand in each slot and hole. So the S-spun was more tightly sett than the Z-spun. I used a 10 dent heddle which is pretty wide for this fine of a yarn. But one needs to leave a lot of room in between the strands to allow them room to collapse. This is similar to what we have to do with felting in knitting.

You can't see the difference in the sett in this photo that I took as I started weaving. 

The gradient goes from a magenta to a grey through blue and violet. I wanted to make sure I had the warmer end of the gradient so I started weaving from the magenta end. You can see the range on the right hand side of this photo.

I did 6 picks packed tightly and then 8 picks at a balanced weave. The 6 picks came out to be about 1/2" and the 8 picks came out to be about 1" to mimic the warp.

The weft was not sized so I was afraid to wind it into a center-pull ball. I wanted to keep the yarn under tension. So I wound it onto a tennis ball. Then I had to rewind it so that I was starting with the correct end. The singles had broken in one spot when I was winding them onto the niddy-noddy. So I wound off till I hit the knot, undid it, and then rewound it onto the shuttle so the undone knot was on the inside of the shuttle and the magenta was on the outside. Then it was time to start weaving.

The weaving went fast. Since there are no color changes, it was a matter of just paying attention to the denser and looser weaves. 

 Once it was off the loom, it looked like this. It is easy to see the thicker and thinner parts in this photo, both on the warp and the weft.

Before washing, I had to finish the fringe. I couldn't separate the S-spun and the Z-spun into separate fringe elements so I ended up braiding them to make sure they stayed OK. They got a bit distorted after washing but they still look nice.

 The magic happens in the water. I soaked the scarf in a few baths to get rid of the sizing. Each bath was about 10-20 mins long. Then I hung it up to dry.

 Here's the finished scarf after drying. I hadn't trimmed the fringe yet but otherwise it is complete.

This photo shows the texture. I was looking for that crinkly square-ish effect and that is what I got. It didn't curl up into a spiral which is what I was afraid of.

So I declare this project a success!

Collapse Weave Exploration

When I spin or work out, I need entertainment. Sometimes I listen to podcasts. But frequently I need something to look at. Spinning and weaving videos work well to entertain me. They inspire me, give me new tips, and reinforce older ones. Things that went right over my head when I was newer to spinning make sense now when I watch those videos again. Some of my favorites are by Sara Lamb, Sarah Anderson, Judith MacKenzie, and Patsy Zawistoski. The first three teachers have videos on Interweave and Patsy Z's are available via DVD on her website.

Anyway, I was watching Kathryn Alexander's video on Energized Yarns and she mentioned that they can be used in weaving. Then I watched Sara Lamb's video on Spin to Weave and she talked about weaving with them. I did some googling and found a book by Anne Field called Collapse Weave and most of the other information on the web was related to her book. There was a few independent blogs and artciles but not much. Knitty had a blog on it. I bought the book and read as much of it as made sense to me. But I am smitten.

The book is mostly about weaving on a floor or table loom and I haven't figured out my floor loom yet. Therefore, that was not an option. But some of the early stuff in the book is simple plain weave or tabby. I felt I could do something with that. The basic concept is that you spin singles and leave them as energized yarns. The energy goes dormant as the yarn sits, or you might have to tame it by wetting and letting it dry with a weight on it. Sometimes you even have to add sizing if you want to use it as warp.

However, after you weave, you soak it in water to finish it and the pent-up energy is released and it makes the cloth turn into a 3-dimensional work of art. I bet there are some works of horror too. But we won't think of that.

The next stage of this journey had to do with the Tour de Fleece. Someone on Ravelry asked what my plans were for the Tour de Fleece this year, and suddenly I thought about weaving singles for a collapse weave project. But I didn't want to spend a lot of time spinning something that wouldn't work. And that led me to the experiments in this post. I need to spin and weave some samples before I plan my Tour de Fleece spinning.

I decided to try 3 different types of energized singles. Maybe these distinctions won't make a difference but I have to start somewhere, right?

I spun these three yarns.

 From left to right: dyed Polwarth top spun worsted with a Z twist into a fine, highly twisted singles yarn; cream undyed Corriedale roving spun longdraw with a Z twist into a slightly thicker, highly twisted singles yarn; gray undyed Corriedale spun with a short backwards draw with a S twist into a slightly thicker, highly twisted singles yarn.

 The top 3 cones are my warp. I chose some linen/silk that I had on hand from Colourmart. I wanted something that wouldn't shrink to provide structure in the fabric. I also am not sure which of the colors will look good so i decided to try them all.

 I've warped the loom and put on a header and am ready to go. The warp is 4 yds long. I used a very wide sett - there is a lot of room between the warp threads to give the energized yarn room to move. I plan to weave 4 sets of samples. Each set is 2 identical samples: one will be washed and finished and one will remain unwashed for reference.

1. A 12" sample with the dyed worsted fine singles as weft.
2. A 12" sample with the cream woolen yarn as weft but make stripes of more closely packed weft and a balanced weft which will be spread further apart. 
3. A 12" sample with the gray semi-woolen S twist yarn as weft
4. A 12" sample with the gray yarn striped with the warp yarn

The objective of the two striped samples is to experiment with differential shrinkage. This is where one yarn shrinks a bit more than another one and creates a gathered or crinkly effect. If you remember seersucker fabric, that is achieved by differential shrinkage.

This is a search for collapse weave projects on Ravelry. This is another blog with some details of collapse weave. I provide these as references in case you are intrigued by my journey and want to follow along.

And now that I've finished that spinning, I am pondering my next project. I want color. I pulled these 4 braids out of my stash but I'm torn as to what to spin. I've asked on Instagram and on Ravelry and so far the Fiber Optic gradient has a slight edge although all 4 braids have received votes. What do you think?

The knitting is also making progress. I've finished the body and need to pick up and knit the pockets next.

Then come the sleeves and the hood. This is a mashup of Giorgia, Cross Pockets, and Rogue. The raglan shaping is from Giorgia because my row gauge matched that pattern more closely than the row gauge on Cross Pockets. The body below the armhole is mostly based on Cross Pockets because I wanted to see how that design looked on me before I went through the effort of figuring out the shoulder and armhole shaping at my row gauge. I also like the hood shaping on Rogue so I am going to adapt that for the hood. The color in this photo is a little washed out as I used the flash to eliminate shadows. It is a bit brighter than this. A rose color. The yarn is Rowan Calmer in the colorway Mandarin.

And that's all for now, folks!