Manipulation

Day 114: Warp threads have a trait in common with many of our spouses and friends: they can generally be manipulated into doing things they wouldn't ordinarily consider doing, given a little gentle coercion. When weavers talk about "manipulated weaves," they are referring to a technique where warp threads are brought to the surface or drawn down from it by hand to allow the weft thread to dominate that space. Certainly, surface patterns can be set up with heddles alone, but let's say you wanted to put cute little trees along the bottom edge of a scarf while working the remainder of the cloth in a different pattern. How would you go about it? On a standard loom or rigid heddle, you could "collect" some threads from the upper or lower layer using a pickup stick to bring them into the opposite layer for one pass of the shuttle. When the stick was removed, they would return to their normal position and weaving could continue in the normal fashion. The photo on the right shows this principle in action. I have lifted threads from the bottom layer so that when the stick is turned on edge, they become part of the "roof" of the shed. When the shuttle passes through the shed, they are captured on the surface of the cloth as floats. The photo on the left shows the same principle being employed on the inkle loom. My fingers dive down to pick up threads from the lower layer because I want them to float on top. In subsequent passes, I will pick up different threads from below in order to form a diamond pattern on the face of the band. It's not the job those warps were originally assigned, but they are willing to do it if I ask them nicely.