Restrospective

I have been weaving a long time, at least it seems to me to be a long time. Weaving trends come and go and the neat thing is that new weavers enter this world of endless design and creativity. I have been reading about weavers doing various "collapse" projects with over-twisted yarns, warps or wefts woven to be pulled and then the cloth fulled or shrunk, weave structures that are condusive to be changed by felting, and mixing material that shrink and take up at a different rate. All interesting experiments and like most experiments some are more sucessful than others.

I made this sample in the late 80's. It is a mix of metallic yarns and a fine wool that was meant for machine knitting. The wool was well behaved as warp and I pretty much ignore advice as to whether a particular yarn is not suited for warp or not. Yep, I can be wrong. The weft is the same wool but then every honeycomb cell, the weave structure I using, has a shot of fine clear elastic at the top and bottom of the cell. The sample was washed. It didn't need to be pressed. That would ruin the cool texture and probably melt and break the elastic. BTW, the elastic was very easy to wind on a pirn and never gave me any problems with the shuttle.