Lost in the Woods

Pine Tree Towel
8H Summer & Winter

According to the calendar, spring is here but still we wait for sunshine and warm days. It was a tough winter for a lot of reasons including but not entirely due to severe weather. Instead of feeling blue while suspended between situations and seasons I decided to try my hand at weaving Summer & Winter.

So I headed for the woods and searched for a nice pine tree border in several books. My loom is limited to eight harnesses and ten treadles allowing me to weave six blocks in Summer & Winter. In order to achieve a nice branch effect I wanted to find a draft using all six possible blocks. I was particular that the trees appear as realistic as I could make them.

This draft seemed to best fit my requirements. You will find it on pages 27-28 of the Shuttle Craft Guild Monograph #19: Summer and Winter and Other Two-Tie Unit Weaves by Harriet Tidball.

Pine Tree Towel showing front and back sides
8H Summer & Winter

Summer & Winter has long been on my "to-do" list because it took time for me to get over being intimidated it. Most worrisome was the necessity of using a skeleton tie-up on my countermarch loom. I studied and sampled and discovered it was not as difficult as I had feared. It is possible to use the countermarch action using a skeleton tie-up but instead of tying only rising or falling sheds to every treadle, one ties only selected harnesses on each treadle to be paired. Yes, two countermarch treadles can be tromped at once when tied up this way.

Weaving with the skeleton tie-up requires half again as many treadle steps as otherwise therefore many more opportunities to go wrong. But with careful attention a rhythm establishes itself.

There are several methods of treadling Summer & Winter. I attempted to illustrate the three I chose to weave with these photographs. They produce similar but different results. It is tough to say which I like the best.

Click on Photo to better see results of three treading methods.
Lower Left: Paired X's
Lower Center: Singles
Lower Right: Paired O's

Treadling Variations:
Black: Paired X's
Dark Green: Singles
Medium Green: Paired O's (this towel shows reverse side)

In my usual fashion, I added color to the warp and tabby threads. To make the tree trunks seem more real, I used brown warp ends and in the very center of the brown trunks is one subtly variegated thread. I hadn't considered how the added color would play throughout the center of the warp. The result made me very happy. Variety is, after all, the spice of life!

8H Summer & Winter Pine Tree Towel
Hem details

After a while I grew tired of weaving with only green and gave black a try with pleasing results. Dark brown would work well, too. Take a close look at the hems on the black towel. I began with the hem on the right. By the time the ending came I'd decided to add two extra shots of black to close off the block design. This seems to make for a more finished look.


Summer & Winter opens exciting possibilities for further design exploration. But for now I am working to rethread my loom with another warp based on this draft. At 15x19 inches these towels are rather small so now I am working on something a bit wider.


Will I find my way with Summer & Winter or stay lost in the woods? Actually, being lost in these particular woods isn't so bad.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

8H Summer & Winter Towels
The towel at upper left showing the reverse side