Crepe Closer 4

Here it is October already. The year is rapidly fading. And this is the last group of photos from my Strickler crepe weave sampler, but it won’t be my last adventure with crepe. It is plain to see that crepe would make especially fine clothing.

Strickler # 41
I chose this one for my study group swatch exchange. It seemed the "crepe-iest". 

Strickler #42

Strickler #43 (Oelsner #826)
I admit it, this is one of my favorites.

Strickler #44

Strickler #45

Strickler #46
Another of my favorites

With weaving there is always more to learn and experience. My guess is one could never exhaust the possibilities. Isn't that the beauty of it all?

One last photo shows the swatches I shared with my study group. It was tough to whittle it down to one of the 24 options from my sampler. In the end I chose #41 because it seemed to be the “crepe-iest” crepe in the lot.

Strickler #41
Study Group swatches show rust colored weft on the left and weft same as warp on the right.

Where to go next? How about taking a quick step back into waffle weave? We'll see.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Crepe Closer 3

Happy first day of Autumn! Don't you just love Autumn? With cool but sunny days, brilliant colors and musky scents, this is my favorite season. It’s nice to get together over a cup of hot tea or cider and talk weaving. Or at least have a hot cuppa and read the latest weaving blog posts.

Here is the third installment of photos of my crepe sampler from the Strickler 8H book.

Strickler #35

Strickler #36

Strickler #37

Strickler #38

Strickler #39, same as #813 in Oelsner's "A Handbook of Weaves"

Strickler #40, same as #814 in Olesner's "A Handbook of Weaves"

The colors of these samples really do say "Autumn", don't they?

After this there will be one more set of six photos then I’ll have a bit more waffle weave to show.    

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Crepe Obsession

Once crepe came into focus, I couldn’t get enough of it. My study group even decided to take a closer look at crepe, too.

It was tough to show the entire length in one photo.
Here it is folded to show a bit of each version.

Of course, I went to one of my all-time favorite books, Carol Strickler’s “A Handweaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns”, in search of new crepe drafts. There, on pages 15-16, was a veritable chocolate box of delightful options.

Then came the obvious trouble of making a choice. But wait! Each of the 24 variations can be woven on the same straight draw on 8 shafts. I wanted to weave them all and with only a few changes in tie-ups and treadlings, I could. Yippee! Changing tie-ups on my Glimakra is less than convenient but ultimately do-able. Once I got started, climbing beneath my loom for each of the 17 required tie-ups became routine.

On my shelf I had a few cones of old 20/2 unmercerized cotton mill ends from WEBS. With those I wound a narrow warp, sett it at 37.5 e.p.i., and away I wove. And wove . . . and wove some more. The result is a sampler of 24 crepes and interlocking twills. There is a 6” length of each variation. The finished sampler is 12.5” wide and 108” (3 yards) long. It contains a wealth of useful information.

Left to Right - Drafts #23-32 from Stickler

Left to Right - Drafts #33-42 from Stickler

Left to Right: Drafts #40-46
There is some overlap from the last photo. The last swatch on the right is Draft #26 in both pale yellow and brown
because I ran out of the yellow.

This cloth is soft has a nice drape. It would make a comfortable shirt or a snuggly baby blanket. For now I will enjoy handling the sampler and think of future projects.

This is the entire length. That's a lot of crepe!

If not for my structure study group crepe may well have entirely escaped my notice. A little push outside my comfort zone often brings delightful results. This one certainly did. For a new weaving adventure, think about giving crepe weave a try.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver