Weaving the Fabric
in the Handwoven Sept/Oct 2006
Schacht Spindle Advertisement

Fabrics and Jacket Designed by Betsy Blumenthal

We created this weave structure by experimenting with several ideas for placing weft floats on a multicolored ground. Marguerite Davison identifies this structure as Barley Corn Weave, in the Handweaver's Pattern Book. It requires only four shafts and is easy to weave. The fabric pictured in the Schacht Spindle Company advertisement was woven using Pattern I. The complementary fabric shown in the photo top right was woven using Pattern II. Both of these fabrics are combined in a jacket.

Materials

Warp:

5/2 perle cotton, 130 yds per ounce, in the following colors and amounts:

Dark Turquoise #48: 880 yds, 7 ounces Jade #135: 375 yds, 3 ounces Pistachio #152: 240 yds, 2 ounces Grass Green #154: 240 yds, 2 ounces

"Pixel" rayon novelty yarn, color orange #0020:1 ball for warp = 176 yards = 1.75 ounces (need 160 yds).

 

 

 

 

Weft:
Background: 5/2 tencel, color = purple sage, Textura Trading Co.,
    12   ounces.
Pattern Floats: Shoshenshi 100% linen paper, Habu Textiles, color #115,
    one skein  (280 yds / 2.5 ounces)
    "Pixel" rayon novelty yarn (same as warp): 2 balls for weft

Weaving

Click here to download a ZIP file containing the WIF files for these fabrics.

To begin, weave a few rows of background tabby:
a = raise shaft 1, b = raise shafts 2-3-4.

Pattern I:  Repeat these two steps for 2 ¾ yards of fabric.
 

Step 1.  Repeat 7 times: – raise shafts 2 & 4 – weave with paper weft – weave tabby with background tencel weft shaft 1 vs. 2-3-4 End with a final pick of paper weft on shafts 2 & 4. Step 2. Repeat 2 times: – raise shafts 2 & 3 – weave with Pixel weft – weave tabby with background tencel weft shaft 1 vs. 2-3-4 End with a final pick of Pixel weft on shafts 2 & 3. Return to Step 1. Note: there are no background weft picks between the paper float pick and the Pixel float pick.

Pattern II: Repeat for 1 ¾ yards of fabric.