Halvdräll, Round Two

Day 156: The second set of halvdräll towels is off the loom, and I am quite pleased with how they turned out. Now that I have a better understanding of the structure, I was able to select colours which worked the way I envisioned them, the long floats being a medium shade of green, and the two tabby threads dark green and banana yellow. Ages ago, I had a kitchen painted in similar colours, and these towels would have fit right in. My current kitchen is green and white, and the yellow will be a nice accent if I decide to keep them. More likely, they'll be gifted to friends since my linen cupboard is already full of handwoven items. Another halvdräll project is on the agenda, but first, I want to work a test swatch of the 16/2 Scottish wool I'll be using for a tartan shawl to determine the correct sett. I can do that on the table loom, although the shawl will be woven on Max once I get "Friend Evelyn" done. Next up on the table loom is..."Norse Kitchen!" It's a draft I've always wanted to weave, but the way Davison laid it out in "A Handweaver's Pattern Book" (green version), it was confusing. By using Fiberworks' weaving software, I was able to sort out the various sections to get them in the right order. The warp for "Norse Kitchen" is already measured and waiting its turn.

Halvdräll 2.0

Day 106: I like to keep a supply of handwoven towels on hand for gifts, so when my first experiment with halvdräll was complete and I had a better understanding about how colour functioned in the different areas of the weave structure, I decided to make another batch. Here is Halvdräll 2.0, using the darkest and lightest colours for the warp and alternating tabby sequences, with the mid-tone as the pattern thread. Notice that the mid-tone shows up well in all variations. In the previous version, I had used the darkest shade as the pattern thread, and it tended to get "lost" where it crossed a lighter shade of the same colour. The structure of a weave can make a significant difference in how colours behave with one another, and while this is not quite as apparent in halvdräll as it is in shadow-weave, for example, it does seem to play a major role in the final effect. I'll be making four towels on this warp.

Halvdräll Towels

Day 101: My first halvdräll adventure is off the loom in the form of four towels of varying lengths, and have not been wet-finished yet. I enjoyed the weave structure so much that I measured a second warp in green and yellow, and this time, I will weave them as two pairs identical in their dimensions. The length of the aqua warp was designed to yield only three towels with extra for loom waste, but because I was weaving on the table loom, I had more left over than anticipated. I decided to weave two shorter towels to polish off the remainder rather than a single full-length one. When measuring the new warp, I added an additional half yard to give myself plenty of space. I can't say I'm happy with the red pattern thread here, but it was the only colour which even came close to working with the aqua. The next warp replaces aqua with yellow and natural with forest green. The pattern thread will be a medium dusty green which should show up better on both warp colours. This combination will give me the option of using either the yellow or dark green as the tabby. I will probably make pairs of each.

Changing Up The Halvdräll

Day 90: When I got to the third and last Halvdräll towel, I decided to change it up a bit, swapping out the dark aqua bouclé for 8/2 cotton. I had dark green on a shuttle, but it didn't seem to work well despite sounding good in principle. The pattern used light blue, white and a dark grey, but I wasn't happy with the appearance of grey with aqua. I dragged several more cones of thread out of my stash, keeping with cool tones at first, but then moving on to warm shades. Bright red came close to the look I wanted, but still wasn't quite there. A darker red solved the problem, although it was not something I would have ever thought to use if I had been planning the project out. That said, I am quite taken with the Halvdräll weave structure, and have two greens and a light yellow picked out for another round. I will be changing the width of each of the three white stripes ( by one pattern repeat of 10 threads in order to make the towels a little less wide. They will be dark green in the next iteration, with light yellow in the wider stripes and light green as the pattern thread throughout.

New Year's Weave - Halvdräll

Day 80: My New Year's Weave on the table loom is a set of three towels using a structure called halvdräll which, by some definitions, is a simplified overshot. It only requires four shafts/sheds, with two dedicated to the tabby weave which lock the pattern threads in place. That said, the instructions and I are in disagreement about the number of picks per inch (ppi), perhaps because I am using a heavier bouclé for the pattern. The instructions say I should be getting a ppi of 28, and I'm getting a ppi of 20. If I were to beat it as tight as the instructions imply, you'd be able to use it for exterior siding of a building! I think I will use 8/2 throughout for the second towel, but I still do not expect (or want!) to achieve a ppi of 28. Although not a true overshot, halvdräll is similar to it, but also shares characteristics with summer-and-winter in that the back is a near-reverse of the face. It makes a lovely fabric, thick and soft. It is also going much more quickly than I'd expected, and the treadling sequence is very simple and easy to memorize.