Atwater-Bronson Lace Pick-up

Along with finishing weaving the rag rug last night, I also finished the hems (by machine) on the Atwater-Bronson lace towel I was working on.  This towel is a sampler of designs I drew on graph paper, when I was playing around with the possibilities for this lace pick-up technique.  There are twelve squares, each with a different design.  Each square consists of 10 x 10 lace blocks.  Each lace block consists of eight warp threads and eight weft picks.

I divided the designs into groups depending on how many blocks each required.  I just kept drawing until I had enough designs for what I wanted to do.  Since my squares were 10 x 10 blocks, I needed to use an even number design, or the design wouldn't be centered.  If I used the designs that are 7 or 9 blocks wide, I would thread an uneven number of lace blocks.  The x part of the design turns out as plain weave when woven.

This is one half of the towel.  The designs from my graph are:
Top row: 8-G, 6-E, 8-F
Bottom row: 6-I, 8-E, 6-B

This is the other end of the towel.  The patterns are:   Top row:  6-A, 8-H, 6-B (minus 4 x's).  Bottom row:  8-L (minus 4 x's), 6-C, 8-I

This is a very easy weave structure, and the treadling sequence is very easy to memorize.  My grandson Davey (age 8) was over last weekend, and he was able to weave some of it, and understood the pickup on this simple pattern, which is only 4 blocks wide by 3 blocks high:

As I mentioned in a previous post, this pickup idea came from an article by Bob Owen in the March/April 1992 issue of Handwoven, pg. 56-57.

If I was going to change anything the next time, I would have more lace, and less plain weave divisions.  But then, the possibilities are just about endless.  Unfortunately, I will probably not have enough time to ever weave all my ideas.

I'm going out to get that rag rug off the loom now.  

Lace Sampling Finished

I changed the linen warp on my sample loom from 18 epi to 24 epi to see which sett I liked best.  After this test, I think it was better at 18 than 24.  Maybe partway between at 20 would be better.  At 24 epi, the pattern is elongated but the plain weave is tighter.

Now I have to decide if I want to take the time to make some towels with this pick-up technique.  I was thinking about doing a gamp with it along with some people in the local weaving guild.  I figured I could use cotton instead of linen, and use three different colors for the warp and the same three for the warp.  Now that I know I can do this, I will have to get back the the planning stage. 

At one time, I did a summer and winter weaving with pink, yellow and lt. blue that looked like 6 colors, so I may do that.

My other idea was to use complimentary colors that can make the plain weave look irridescent.  That could be interesting too.  A lot depends on my yarn stash and whether I want to dye yarn.

 

 

Bronson Lace Pick-up Continued

The article I was referring to in my previous post was from the March/April 1992 issue of Handwoven, page 57.  It was an article written by Bob Owen, another Michigan weaver.  I don't know if he is still around, since he was retired when the article was written.  I learned a lot from the article about block weaves in relation to lace.

I drew up several designs, but chose to start with the one that was in the article.  A block means that each x on the graph represents a group of threads.  For this project, each block equals eight warp threads and eight weft threads.  The squares around the design are also blocks that will be the Bronson Lace weave, and the design will be plain weave. 

This particular design would require ten shafts without the pick-up method.  This method only requires three shafts. 

Here is my result of this design.

I wasn't real sure about the sett for this linen yarn.  This sample is sett at 18 epi, and it appears a little loose.  I decided to weave another design before cutting the samples off the loom and wet finishing them.  I knew they would look completely different once they were washed, with the floating yarns scooting together.

So, here is my next design.  It was a little harder to follow, with more skips and rows.  I kept getting a little mixed up because I kept wanting to make the blank spaces be the plain weave instead of the x's. 







This design turned out to be quite pretty.

 

While weaving this second motif, I snapped a few pictures of the pick-up process.

Raising shaft 3 raises groups of 3 warp threads.  I had 13 groups in my sample.  

A pick-up stick is used to pick up groups of 3 threads, according to the pattern.  This is the first row of the pattern A.

With the pick-up stick in place, shaft 2 is raised.

Since the shed is small, I used a stick shuttle to weave with.  This shows the pick-up stick against the reed and the stick shuttle weaving under the raised pattern threads and the threads on shaft 2.

The pick-up stick is then pulled out, and the pick is then beat into place.

Something else that I did with this pattern was to move some of my warp yarns that were supposed to be on shaft 1 onto shaft 4.  It was suggested in the article to do that to space out the heddles.  I moved every other one from the first shaft to the fourth shaft.  The tie-up had to change also (every time shaft one is lifted, four also has to be lifted).

I love the look of Atwater-Bronson lace.  This is the first sample after wet finishing.  Linen shouldn't be dried in the dryer because it can ruin the sheen of the threads.  I cold press mine with my marble rolling pin on my kitchen counter and just leave it there till it's dry.

My second sample, rolled and left to dry.  I'm happy with how both turned out, but I will experiment a bit more with the remainder of the warp.  I am going to resley the reed at 24 epi for the next samples to see which I like best.

Atwater Bronson Lace

I have a towel woven in linen, that a friend made, that I have always loved.  It has a dogwood pattern in plain weave, with the rest of the towel in Atwater-Bronson lace. It requires more than 4 shafts, or so I thought, until I came across an article about pick-up in an old Handwoven magazine.  It was worth trying, so I warped my sample loom last night while watching sappy Hallmark movies.

I'm ready to try the technique.  If it works, I may try a sampler of some designs I made. 

Dishes are done, now onto laundry and vacuuming.  Then I will allow myself to weave.  Hooray for a day off during the week.