Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Collapse Weave

I've had several cones of HABU wool crepe sitting on my shelf for a long time. I have tried several times to work with it. Most of my attempts have been unsuccessful. It is a highly over spun wool and has the wonderful ability to collapse fabric when used appropriately. It is a beautiful yarn from Japan and loves to twist back on itself.
It's very nature makes it difficult to wind onto a bobbin. And if it is a humid day - FORGET IT!
I recently bought a book on collapse weave by Anne Field. After reading it I did some experimenting. Here are pictures of my sampler using Zephyr yarn which is a wool silk blend and the HABU wool crepe for the collapse.

The weave structure I used was a 3/1, 1/3 twill. Most of Anne's book deals with the collapse in the warp. I wanted the collapse in the weft. The wool crepe yarn used in the weft needs room to move so the picks per inch are very loosely woven allowing the over twist to move when wet finished.

I see possibilities for scarves using this method. I want to experiment more with this but for now I think I have the beginnings of an interesting scarf.

What do you think? Remember this is a sampler not a finished product. I welcome an exchange of ideas on how you have done collapse weave.



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