Making a huipil from San Mateo del Mar

We have a small community of backstrap weavers here in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico that get together once a week to weave, share and learn. After the isolation and depletion of our ranks by the pandemic we needed an invigorating project. We selected this type of huipil and invited a young, very accomplished weaver from San Mateo del Mar, Noé Pinzón Palafox, to mentor us.

A huipil from San Mateo del Mar recently woven by Jazmín Azucena Pinzón Palafox

Noé comes from a family of masterful weavers . He learned to weave in his family starting at age five. His younger sister, Jazmín Azucena Pinzón Palafox, wove the huipil in the picture above. His mother, Francisca Palafox, is credited with reviving the techniques for weaving this huipil. The weaving of this huipil had all but disappeared by the end of the last century. His 8 year old nephew is already winning national prizes for his weaving. That is how one learns to weave here in Oaxaca.

San Mateo del Mar is an Ikoots (sometime called Huave) community in the hot costal lands of Oaxaca, Mexico. It is located on a narrow peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and a lagoon (https://goo.gl/maps/G3mpSZWFBnbYDBxC8). It is all about the sea.

The huipil itself is made of cotton, now a days commercially spun. The cool sheer cloth is nearly a balanced weave sometimes with heavier weft stripes, woven brocade designs and several warp stripes. The brocade designs feature marine and coastal imagery or geometric patterns. A curious feature is a tassel at the end of the center front warp stripe. The huipil is woven in one or three panels, each piece with four selvages. The neck opening is a woven slit.

Here is some background information on these huipils :

• Wefts of Sea and Wind: The Textiles of Francisca Palafox https://oaxacaculture.com/2009/08/francisca-palafox-textile-museum-oaxaca/
• LA TEJEDORA QUE SALVÓ DE LA EXTINCIÓN AL HUIPIL HUAVE. https://fomentoculturalbanamex.org/noticias/la-tejedora-que-salvo-de-la-extincion-al-huipil-huave/
• Huipil de San Mateo del Mar. On page 50 of this pdf is a huipil from San Mateo del Mar made before 1956. Several pictures and a drawing of the loom are included.

Traditionally the huipils are made with natural colored cotton with colored warp stripes and colored brocade. Local natural colored cotton can be either off-white or brown (coyuche). Both were hand spun on a supported spindle. Preparing and spinning the locally grown cotton is very time consuming and has been largely abandoned now. Off-white cotton is now available commercially spun. The color grown cotton must still be hand spun because of its short staple length.

The natural dyes available locally were sea snail purple (caracol purpura), indigo and cochineal. The sea snail is now extinct in this area. A small sanctuary for the sea snail exists farther west on the Oaxacan coast, harvesting the dye is limited to a few authorized individuals. Indigo is grown inland nearby in Santiago Niltepec. A few people still cultivate indigo plants, but the production of the dye can be effected by earthquakes which destroy the tanks used for extracting the dye and by drought. Cochineal, a highly prized red insect dye is native to Oaxaca. The insect grows on prickly pear cactus. It is not particularly good dye for cotton, it is hard to get the bright red known on wool, giving instead a pale or purplish color. The cotton must be meticulously prepared and mordanted to have a stable cochineal color on cotton.

Todays huipils have evolved and updated and are woven in all sorts of colors. The huipil is woven in 3 panels a center one and two side panels. The center panel has designs created with supplementary weft, i.e. brocade. The weave structure is nearly a balanced plain weave, the openness of this structure allows space for the supplemental weft. The supplementary weft can be continuous or discontinuous but the design is formed when the brocade weft is placed in the shed. The panels are sewn together in the stripes. If the huipil is narrow enough and the weaver and loom are up to the task, it can be woven in one piece thus eliminating the seams. Each panel is woven with 4 selvages. Four selvage weaving is demanding and time consuming but highly regarded, giving a special spirit to the cloth. The neck opening is woven as a slit. The huipil made from four selvage panels is finished by sewing it together, no cutting involved.

A unique feature of these huipils is the center warp stripe, that is called the umbilical cord. It is woven into the cloth for most of the length of the panel, then it is not. The unwoven ends of these warps hang free looking like a tassel. Weaving this is a bit a a challenge to us but also why we chose this style of huipil and why we have a mentor.

Noé suggested we weave a mini-huipil to learn all the techniques. He brought an example he had previously woven.

The back of Noé’s mini-huipil.

This mini-huipil is about 30cm long and 40cm wide. The cloth is sheer enough that you can vaguely see the designs and stripes on the front. He demonstrated making the warp using 16/2 natural cotton and a softly spun merino wool silk yarn in a midnight blue. Then we made our warps, we chose different colors. You will see various warps in this post. Care must be taken with the center colored stripe when lashing on to the loom bars, as it is not woven at the beginning.

Preparing the mini-huipil warp.

Here you can see the loom being set up. The heddles have been made. The far end has been lashed-on to the loom bar and a bit was woven before the loom was turned around. Note that the center colored warps have not been woven but pushed down to right side. The warps must be carefully distributed on the loom bar to weave a sheer cloth.

This end has been lashed-on and the 3rd beam is ready to be removed.

The distribution of the warps on the second beam must match that of the upper beam before lashing-on. The final distribution of the warps is done with the first wefts. The colored center warps are not woven initially but pushed down to the right side ( the cloth is woven with the wrong side facing the weaver).

Initiating the front body of the huipil.

The weaving continues for a bit until it is time to incorporate the colored warps in the center. These warps are raised and now woven with the rest of the cloth.

Bottom front woven without the center stripe.

Obviously the warps near the center will have to curve around the newly incorporated warps.

Center front with ground warps bending around the center stripe.

Once the center stripe is incorporated the brocade designs can begin.

Plan for weaving the mini-huipil.

Adding brocade birds with discontinuous supplementary weft.

At the right height the neck slit is begun and woven using two wefts. Also two more stretcher bars, temples, are added to keep the cloth from pulling in at the slit.

The start of the neck slit, with 3 stretcher bars in place.

The design may continue along side the slit. The slit in the back is shorter than the front slit.

Finishing the brocade birds and weaving the neck slit. You a looking at the wrong side that faces the weaver.

Loom protection.

Araceli’s hens from the right side..

Weaving continues with two wefts until the end of the slit in the back. The back may or may not have additional brocaded designs. Eventually the center stripe is dropped again. Finally one reaches the tedious weaving of closing the gap, or terminal area, that is part of four-selvage weaving. This requires smaller tools and finally a needle. But finally the entire cloth is woven.

When closing the gap, the final few passes of the weft are done with a needle.

The gap has been woven.

The wrong side,the side that faces the weaver, of the completed cloth still on the loom.

And the right side.

The cloth is removed from the loom, washed and finished. The under arm selvages are butted and sewn by hand. Nothing has been cut.

One completed mini-huipil.

There are no holes where the center stripe has NOT been woven.

Cloth under the front tassel.

Three of the five participants have completed their mini-huipils so far, different colors, different designs- Noé’s birds (not charted, done free hand), Karren’s dragonflies and diamonds, and Araceli’s triangles and hens. Two more participants are working on theirs.

Finished mini-huipils made by Noé (left), Karren and Araceli (right).

Now that we know the techniques we can tackle larger huipils.

Advertisement

More Huave Style weaving

This was a short warp, 3 yds. but I’m getting a lot of practice on it.    Someone asked where I got my patterns.

I didn’t manage to bring any Huave textiles home with me but I did handle some  while I was there.  Because I have been working on brocade for the past two years I recognized the cloth, not the huipiles, are continuous inlay/overlay the same as  the Thunderbolt Towels I made before I went to Oaxaca.  The only difference is that the Huave cloths are warp dominate.  Once I had a sett for the warp dominate cloth, 8/2 cotton at 20epi,  I searched for photographs for the patterns.

Huave geometric cloth, Photo: Karen Elwell

My first Huave Style cloth with geometric design

 

Pillow tops with Huave insert

Second Huave Style design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The newest design is inspired by some photographs in the book, Mexican Textiles

Huave textile top left:fretted zigzags alternate with star motifs.

My zigzag with star motifs still on the loom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still have warp left on the loom.  The most common Huave cloths are ones have animalitos in rows across the cloth.  I personally prefer geometric designs but I must try the animalitos such as these:

Huave cloth with creatures of the sea Photo: Karen Elwell

 

The Huave live near the sea and this charming cloth has crabs, fish, shrimp, seahorses and a mermaid and merman.  For my first try I’ll stick with rows of figures more along these lines:

Huave cloth. San Diego Museum of Man. The brown brocading weft is natural brown cotton, coyuche.

Continuing work on Huave Style cloth

Second Huave Style design

I started another continuous brocade piece on the same warp that I used for the yellow piece.

First Huave Style cloth with geometric design

This time in addition to a new design and brocade color I added a stretcher to keep the width of the cloth constant.  The biggest problem I had with the first piece I made with this technique, is that the cloth got narrower as I wove.

The commercial stretcher that I have are too big for this 14″ wide cloth so I used one made to fit this cloth.  It is simply a piece of hollow bamboo cut to size and two little nails.  I learned this from my backstrap weaving teacher, Doña Euforsina, last winter in Oaxaca.  I grow lots of bamboo but it is not straight and has bumps where the leaves emerge. So after some cutting and sanding and I had a tube that I thought would work.

The stretcher goes on the back of the fabric, thus not obscuring the pattern.  You place the bamboo under the web and insert the nail through the selvage into the hollow of the bamboo tube.  Do one side then the other, the second side takes a little tugging but you want the web taut.

Bamboo stretcher in place on the underside of the web

 

the hollow bamboo and two nail for stretcher

Here are the pieces used to stretch the web, a piece of bamboo and two nails.

The other picture shows how the nail in the selvage holds the bamboo in place.

Nail attaching the web to bamboo stretcher

 

I finished this piece and after some separators started on another  and I pleased to see that as the cloth rolls on the cloth beam it is all exactly the same width.

A solution without buying a thing!

Finished a Huave style weaving on a Rigid Heddle loom

I finished my first attempt at weaving a heavily brocaded Huave (or Ikoots) style cloth that I discussed in my last post, https://entwinements.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/testing-for-hauve-style-weaving/.  I am pleased with this technique.

This is the finished cloth, after mending, washing, a little steam from the iron and trimming.  It is 13″ wide by 17.75″ long without the fringe.  This is about the size of most of this style cloths that I saw, they were labeled as tortilla cloths, or smaller ones as table napkins.

The design was inspired by photograph of a piece of cloth seen at the end of the last post.  I handled some of Huave weavings in Oaxaca but didn’t manage to photograph or buy any.

Working on this piece reminds me of bas relief carvings.   The brocading weft is mostly on the surface and then the few ground warp ends that  tie down the supplementary weft make a lower surface.  The effect is more pronounced than most quilting   I see today.

The hand of the cloth is nice for placemats or table runner or embellished parts of clothing. More substantial than just the 8/2 plain weave, lies flat  but is not stiff or heavy. The obverse is smooth and finished.

The Technical Details

This is a brocade ; continuous supplementary weft in inlay /overlay interlacement, the same technique used in I have been using with 8/2 cotton doubled,(https://entwinements.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/south-of-the-border-thunderbolt-towels/), the only difference is that each end in the warp now works individually, not as a pair.  Might seem like a small change but the effect is quite different.

The warp is 8/2 cotton pale mint green.  It is sett at 20 epi.  To get 20 epi on the rigid heddle loom I had to use two 10 dent heddles.  I didn’t have two 10 dent Leclerc heddles for the Bergere loom I was using so I used a narrower Ashford 10 dent heddle for the second one .  I lined up the two heddles and could see light through all the eyes so I thought it would work. I threaded them and then tied them together with zip cable ties because they move as a unit. Threaded the full width of the narrower heddle, and I do not have a second castle on this loom.  What I didn’t check was the size of the eyes, they are not the same size so the shed was not as clear as when I use two leclerc heddles.  So I added a dowel under the slot threads and pushed it to the back beam and  opened the shed and beat with a sword.

The ground weft is the same as the warp, mint 8/2 cotton, and the brocading weft is yellow doubled embroidery floss.  I started this piece with a full large skein of embroidery floss I brought back from Oaxaca this year. Our little skeins of floss are 5g this one was 30g and it is divided into 5 subskeins. So I knew I had to make the whole piece with this one skein of yarn, the Oaxacan floss is not mercerized and ours is, so no chance of matching it here.

I was using two strands of floss for the pattern warp, this effect needs a thick pattern weft. So I wound the shuttle using 2 of the subskeins and wove until they ran out.   I looked at my woven pattern and calculated that I could get 3 diamonds lengthwise using the 3 subskeins I had left. I wanted to finish with the same motifs that I used in the beginning.  I finished and I came out with just 1 1/2 picks of embroidery floss left!

 The epi is 20 and the ppi is around 10, so this is a warp dominate cloth, all the better to hide the inlay potion of the brocading weft.  This is the big difference from using 8/2 doubled in one 10 dent heddle.  Using a doubled 8/2 though out, epi is really 10 (true there are 20 threads but the interlacements is as if there are 10) and ppi is also 10 for a balanced plain weave cloth.

Top: interlacement with doubled warp and weft. Bottom: normal interlacements with the same number of warp threads.

The inlaid brocading weft is much more visible in the balance cloth than in the warp dominate cloth.   The effect in the warp dominate cloth is more magical, the brocading weft appears and then nearly disappears. In the balanced cloth  you are aware that the brocading weft is there all the time, just sometimes it stands in front and other times it back.

All in all these are the same threads,8/2 cotton for warp and weft and the same brocading weft, two full strands of embroidery floss  and the same structure.  The only difference is whether the warp threads weave  individually or doubled.  Yet the difference in appearance is dramatic.  Here is a side by side comparison:

8/2 cotton used normally at 20 epi in two 10 dent heddles Results: warp dominate weave

8/2 cotton doubled in warp and weft in 10 dent heddle: results in a balanced weave

 The 20epi also gives more detail, more pixel per inch if you will, and shorter floats.  The yellow design woven in the orange cloth would result in floats 1.4″ long, way too long and there would only be two diamonds across the same width of cloth.

When I did my samples before I found that I had to beat hard with the thick brocading weft to get it to look right.  I could not beat hard enough with the heddle so I used a sword.  It felt like I could have woven it on a backstrap loom more comfortably; it took a lot of jerry-rigs to make this work on the RH loom.

Once off the loom I turned it over and I could see a fault line where I missed a ground tabby pick.

At the top you can see the fault line but at the bottom is has been mended.

I knew I had missed one because the shuttle was on the wrong side.  But I mended it and all is well.  You can also see how tidy the back of the cloth is.

Before weaving I did a graph of a section of the design, only two diamonds wide and about 3/4 of one diamond tall.  Just enough to see the spacing .  I then calculate that I would get 4+ repeats across the web.  So I decided how I wanted it centered and worked out from there having two partial motifs, one on each side.   I did get better at handling the edges with the partial repeats as I wove.  Some things you just have to do to get it right.

The other problem I had weaving this is that the cloth narrowed, the last part is at least a 1/4″ narrower than the start.  That was a surprise, so the next time I’ll use a stretcher , like I do on a backstrap loom, to keep the width constant.

I’m usually wiser the second time I do something, how about you?

In response to a comment I’m posting an additional diagram here:

To fit the same number of warp ends in the same space , the weft straightens and the cloth becomes warp-dominate.

 See comments for further explanation.

Testing for Hauve style weaving

I’m testing the loom set up, threads and other variables for Huave( also called Ikoots) style weaving.  This is an indigenous group in Oaxaca that live in the Istmo region to the south of the city and at sea level near the coast.  I have only seen their textiles in Oaxaca city, and the huipiles look very similar to the Zapotec huipiles that my teacher makes.  I’m the bigger one in the pic.

We both wear huipils, she made hers, it is beloved and authentic Zapotec.

Here is a detail of one of the common motifs she taught me.  This is my first Zapotec style weaving done on a back strap loom.  Technically it is discontinuous inlay.

The Huave huipiles are very similar in technique, all cotton, inlay  and share some of the same motifs.

Part of a Huave huipil

Huave huipil on display at MTO.

At the bottom you can see a similar motif.  The other horizontal bands are very original, obviously beach scenes with coconut palms, pelicans, turtles, etc.  Another distinctive features of the Huave huipils is a center stripe.  At first I thought they were 4 panels but no, the stripe in the center does not hide a seam and at the bottom both front and back it comes out of the cloth to become a tassel. So I think it is a supplementary warp. The neck opening is also a woven-in split, occurring with in this stripe.   The Zapotec huipil is woven whole and the neck opening is cut and stitched.  This huipil does have a very low contrast inlay design that does not show in the poor quality photo but you can see the stripe become a tassel at the bottom.

Both style of huipiles are fairly sheer plain weave cotton woven on backstrap loom, embellished with heavier opaque stripes and discontinuous inlay.

Huave cloth. Photo by Karen Elwell

The Huave also make textiles that are not sheer and made as cloths to keep tortillas warm (bread cloth?), napkins, table decoration etc.  These interesting textiles have a continuous brocade weft, that is the supplementary weft goes from selvage to selvage.  When the brocading weft is not on top, making the design, it is buried in the regular shed and only slightly visible.  If you compare the plain weave at the end with the background of the butterflies  you can see the difference.

My continuous brocade, inlay/overlay, woven on RH loom.

I have made things with this very technique, continuous inlay/overlay that look quite different, the brocade weft being much more visible in the back ground.   This is plain weave done on a rigid heddle loom.  The Huave work looks to be more warp dominate  and thus hide the pattern weft in the inlay areas. Could also be the proportion between the size of the warp and weft yarns.

Huave backstrap loom weaving a round cloth. Technique: continuous brocade, inlay/overlay. All cotton.

Here you can see the Huave work on the loom and the pattern weft looks fat, made up of three strands of singles.  And the weft looks fine.

Notice that the tie-downs in the overlay help to  define the riders on the back of the horses.

So how can I get this effect? What size yarn for the warp? sett? what to use for pattern weft?  I have been doing inlay/overlay on rigid heddle looms (RH) with 8/2 cotton doubled in a 10 dent heddle. I was flipping through a recently acquired book, Tejido Huave and Beyond by Erica de Ruiter,  and she suggests 8/2 cotton sett at 20 epi.  So that’s what I’m trying. You can get 20 epi on a RH loom by using two 10 dent heddles .

Here is my set-up: I had a Leclerc Bergere loom empty with a 10 dent heddle and found another 10 dent heddle from a narrower Ashford loom.  I held the two heddles up to the light and the eyes seemed to line up.  So this is mint green 8/2 cotton warp sett at 20 epi.   Since both heddles move together, I don’t need a second castle, I used cable zip ties to fasten them together and they move as one unit.  The sheds don’t open as cleanly as when I use 2 Leclerc heddles( the eyes aren’t the same size) so I put a dowel under the warps in the slots and pushed it to the back beam.  I can use it to help clear the shed. The dowel does have a security tie on it since it travelled to a workshop and back.

Then to see what pattern weft would work, from my previous work with inlay/overlay I know that two strands of embroidery floss will cover the surface of the 8/2 cotton  in the overlay areas.   I tried a soft beige and white and then the yellow and the yellow worked. I’m quite pleased with how little of the pattern weft is visible in the inlay areas.

The challenge of making this pattern work is the beat.  For the bottom of the diamonds I wasn’t beating hard enough and the diamond is elongated.  I got out my sword from my back strap loom and started beating hard with that. Even so I have to brace the little table I have the loom clamped to, with my legs and tummy and beat after I change the shed.   But you can see the top part of the diamonds is more compact.  I expect it to contract even more when off the loom and washed.

So now I’m ready for a project.  Maybe something like this.

Beautiful Huave cloth with geometric design. Photo: Karen Elwell

South of the Border Thunderbolt Towels

Thunderbolt Towels made on a rigid heddle loom

I am mesmerized looking at Mesoamerican brocaded textiles such as huipiles or quechquemitls. These glorious cloths are usually woven on backstrap looms by masterful weavers. They weave traditional clothing; sometimes it is a riot of color or other times the height of subdued sophistication such as sheer white gauze with opaque white brocade. These weavers may have started weaving about the age start we to read, which gives them years and years of experience.

I have designed a brocade that can be made on a rigid heddle loom by a weaver who can weave a balanced plain weave. The master weavers working on backstrap loom use fine threads and closer setts than we typically use on rigid heddle looms. This design is adapted for a balanced plain weave with sett achievable with one common rigid heddle, a 10 dent to be exact. I made a sample on another warp, then refined it for this project. I still used finer threads to keep the hand of the cloth supple.

Inlay/overlay design on a beige with white stripes background. When the navy pattern thread is inserted into the shed you see dots of navy creating half-tone areas. When the pattern weft floats on top of the ground cloth you have solid navy areas. Woven with 8/2 cotton at 10 epi.

I worked with 16/2 cotton but you can also use 8/2 cotton. Using four 16/2 strands instead of two 8/2 strands produces a thinner more pliant cloth because the strands lay side by side. This could be called a basket weave but I am calling it a plain weave where each end is composed of multiple strands. You have a choice of making the towels with  un-mercerized cotton 8/2 doubled or 16/2  quadrupled. The quadrupled 16/2 gives a thiner more supple cloth but is a bit more challenging to work with. If this is your first time working with multi-stranded ends, stick with the 8/2 cotton.

Inlay is the simplest of the innumerable brocade techniques especially if the supplementary weft goes from selvage to selvage just like the ground weft. For inlay the ground weft is followed by a pattern weft in the same shed. Since you keep the shed open to insert the supplementary weft you can easily tell which shed is next. Inlay alone produces a dotted line; you see the color of the brocading weft as it goes over every other warp. Just inlay , selvage to selvage, does not have a lot of design possibilities. To extend the design potential inlay can be combined with floats over the surface of the ground cloth, this is called called overlay. In inlay/overlay designs have dotted or half-tone areas and the floats or solid colored areas . The limit of the length of the floats is determined by the function of the cloth. The design challenge is to have a strong visual impact of the overlay area without having the floats too long for the intended use of the cloth.

Since the brocading thread is either in the shed on on top of it the back side of the fabric is smooth and has no floats. You can see an echo of the pattern on the back, when the brocading weft floats over on the front. So the front side has dots and solid areas, the back has dots and no dot areas, both are finished and presentable for uses where you see both sides of the cloth such as towels or scarves.

Front side of brocaded design showing both inlay and overlay.

Back side of the pattern.

The sections where the brocading weft floats over the ground, the overlay, are selected by the weaver with a pick-up stick. After throwing the ground weft the shed is kept open and a pick up stick is inserted in the same shed pulling down some warps that are in the raised position. The pick-up of one warp end makes a big visual impact producing a float 3 ends long. Because you pull down warp ends from the raised shed with the pick-up stick, maybe this technique should be called pick-down instead of pick-up.

These designs can be graphed on appropriate paper and the location of the ends to be picked out of the shed can be counted out. This might be effective if all you want to do is one project but if you want to develop speed, mastery in brocading one can learn to work visually, as the Meso- American master weavers do. Once you have established the pattern by counting you can look at the previous row and know that this pick-up is the end say to the right of the one below. This eliminates the fastidious counting and keeps one from propagating a counting error across the whole row. When one does the pick-up visually you might be off in one motif and yet all the other motifs in that row are correct. One isolated thread out of place is barely noticeable, a whole row shifted one end to the right is visually jarring. An all pick-up patterns have errors; there are little isolate errors that one must hunt for and there are disruptive errors that interfere with the perception of the overall pattern. Of course, it takes time and experience to see which thread is beside the one in the previous row, I started weaving just triangles to train my eye.

This project of continuous (pattern weft goes from selvage to selvage) inlay/overlay on a few towels woven on a rigid heddle loom is designed to be simple to execute yet be visually impactful; suitable for a first attempt at pick-up brocade. The ground cloth is a balanced plain weave, sett at 10 epi, and the design has the same pattern of floats in every row , they just shift one thread to the right or left. The warp has stripes, these act much like heavier lines on graph paper keeping you from getting lost in a sea of sameness when you are counting ends. It also lends it self to improvisation , you can decide as you weave where and how many times to reverse the direction.

The most challenging aspect of this project may be thread handling. It can be woven with double 8/2 cotton or quadrupled 16/2 cotton. I worked with the 16/2 quadrupled but have done many projects with 8/2 doubled. The 16/2 cotton produces a thinner more supple cloth, both have 10 ends per inch, in one case one end is two 8/2 threads and in the other it is four 2/16 threads.

PROJECT AT A GLACE

Weave structure: balanced plain weave with a supplementary weft band

Equipment

Loom: rigid heddle

Weaving width:16”

Rigid heddle: 10 dents per inch

Shuttles:one for the ground weft, boat or stick, and for the supplementary weft several smaller stick shuttles

Pick-up sticks: two at least 18” long and wide enough to form a shed for your shuttle, 1.5-2” is usually wide enough

Measuring: a cloth or paper tape about 36” long that you can write on

Hemming: hand sewing supplies,sewing machine and 1/4” seam tape OR a serger

Yarns

From Maurice Brassard Fils Inc. They have the same colors available in both sizes.

8/2 cotton comes on ½ lb. tubes of 1680 yd., 16/2 cotton comes on ½ lb. tubes of 3360 yd.

• Orange, Orange foncé #1315

• Grey, Gris foncé #271

• Green, Vert nil #1934

For 8/2 cotton towel warp you will need

• Grey, 830 yards

• Orange, 110 yards

• Green, 100 yards

Weft will use 850 yards of grey.

Total yardage of grey for warp and weft: 1680 or one ½ lb. tube.

OR

For 16/2 cotton towel warp you will need

• Grey, 1650 yards

• Orange, 210 yards

• Green, 190 yards

Weft will use 1700 yards of grey.

Total yardage of grey for warp and weft: 3360 or one ½ lb. tube

Supplementary weft from your local yarn shop: DMC six strand embroidery floss, 8.7 yd. skeins.

The Brocading weft is thick, made of two strands of the embroidery floss.

Towel with orange brocade: 3 skeins bright orange #947

Towel with green brocade: 3 skeins bright green # 166

Towel with graded colored brocade: 1 skeins each of red #666, orange #971, gold #972 and yellow #725.

Warp

Warp length: 116” = 20”loom waste and 3 towels at 32” each

Warp width: 158 ends or 15.8” at the rigid heddle

NOTE THAT EACH END IS MULTIPLE STRANDS, either two 8/2 or four 16/2.

The warp has stripes; 8 ends of grey then 2 of a bright color, ending with 8 grey. The two narrow stripes alternate colors, orange then green. You will have 15 narrow colored stripes, 8 orange and 7 green, and 16 wide grey stripes.

Warp color sequence:

(8 ends grey, 2 orange, 8 grey, 2 green) repeat 7 times total then end 8 grey, 2 orange, 8 grey.

Wind your ground shuttle with multiple strands also, same number as your warp. Ground picks per inch on loom: 9.

Each woven towel on the loom was 14.25′ wide and 29” long, off loom 14.24” wide by 28” long before hemming. The hemmed and machine washed towel is 13.5” wide and 24” long.

WEAVING INSTRUCTIONS

You will be working with multiple strands as an end, two strands of 8/2 cotton equals one end or four strands of 16/2 cotton equals one end. I will describe the process for 8/2 cotton and put in changes for the 16/2. The most important thing about working with multiple strand is to pull them from the same kind of package, and by package I mean cone, tube, spool or bobbin. If you wind your weft shuttle from one cone and one bobbin they will be at different tensions and give you trouble as you weave, where if you pull from two cones or two bobbins the tension will be similar and you will not have as many problems. This may mean a little more yarn handling than usual, winding extra bobbins or spools, but it will reduce the aggravation of working with multi-stranded ends.

To direct warp your rigid heddle loom set it up as normal with the peg placed for a 116” warp length. Place the yarn packages at the back of the loom. You will only need one of 8/2 cotton package for this doubled warp because you can pull a loop, which is composed of two strands through each slot AND each hole. Note the difference here from normal direct warping when you pull loops only through the slots. You will walk twice as far but no further threading will be required. If you are working with 16/2 cotton you will need two identical packages, for all three colors, behind the loom and you will pull a double loop through every hole and slot. Do 8 ends grey, then 2 orange, 8 grey, 2 green, repeat this sequence 7 times total, ending 8 grey, 2 orange and 8 grey. You will have 15 narrow colored stripes, 8 orange and 7 green, and 16 wide grey stripes. Wind onto the warp beam, paying close attention to the selvage warps which tend to drift off the warp bundle. Tie on and spread your warp and you are ready to weave.

This is the stripe pattern you are creating, 8 ends grey, 2 bright color.

Measuring tape for towels with hems and pattern.Prepare a measuring tape for a towel by marking a starting line a few inches up from the end of the tape, then make a line 2” above for the end of the hem, then 3.5” from that line for the start of the brocade design. The distance from the end of one hem to the start of the next is 25” and then 2” more for the last hem. You can pin this to the web on the loom as you weave to know where to weave the hems and the brocade design. I use the same measuring tape for all three towels so that they are the same size with the design in the same place.

Prepare a measuring tape for a towel by marking a starting line a few inches up from the end of the tape, then make a line 2” above for the end of the hem, then 3.5” from that line for the start of the brocade design. The distance from the end of one hem to the start of the next is 25” and then 2” more for the last hem. You can pin this to the web on the loom as you weave to know where to weave the hems and the brocade design. I use the same measuring tape for all three towels so that they are the same size with the design in the same place.

Weave the hems, the first 2” and last 2”, with a thinner weft than you use in the body of the towel to reduce the bulk of the hem. The hem is two and some places 3 layers of cloth and I don’t like it when it looks padded. So for the 8/2 hem weft I use a single strand of the grey and for 16/2 a double strand. I weave for 2” with the thinner weft then change to the heavier weft for the body of the towel. As you weave the body of the towel before the design, count the picks per inch. You should be getting around 9 ppi for a balanced plain weave. You want your beat to be steady before you get to the brocade band where you will be adding more weft into the shed. Ideally you should beat to have 9 ground ppi in the brocade area also.

The standard operating procedure for this brocade:

1. open shed

2. throw ground weft and beat

3. keep same shed open

4. pick out design by removing (place them under the pick-up stick) ends from the threads that are up

5. turn pick-up stick on its side to make a pattern shed

6. throw the supplementary colored weft in the pattern shed

7. beat the pattern weft on top of the ground weft

8. change sheds and repeat from 2.

This is is for a continuous (the supplementary weft goes from selvage to selvage), inlay/ overlay brocade. The pick-up ( pick-down is a better description) is done on an open shed meaning that only half of all warps are eligible for pick-up each time.

Here is a graph of the brocade design: it is based on 10epi and 9ppi and your design should come out very close in size to the actual graph.

Graph for South of the Border Thunderbolts. Ends with black horizontal bars are removed from the raised shed by placing them under the pick-up stick. Ends in white are left raised.

 

Because we are working on an open shed, each row of the graph shows only the ends in the shed that are raised, so only half the warp ends show in each row of the graph. You can think of the white rectangles as the ends that are raised and the black lines as the ends that are down. In each row we only manipulate the raised ends. Each row in the graph has the rectangular blocks offset because the ends in the two sheds are offset; an end in the slot shed sets beside, not exactly above, an end in the hole shed. So this brick graph paper has 5 ends per inch in each row and 9 rows per inch for the picks. ( You can down load this type of paper from the internet from a graph paper generator on the web.) When you are doing your pick-up on an open shed, and it is not possible to get straight vertical line because of the offset position of the threads in the two sheds, you get a wiggly line instead of a straight one. But you can get very nice diagonal lines by moving over one end each row.

Removing one end from the raised shed will result in a float over 3 ends; this may not be obvious at first glance but the two end beside the one that you push down are already down, as they are part of the down shed. Try it and you will understand better. So removing 2 adjacent ends produces a five end float and 3 ends removed, a 7 end float. Now a 7 end float in a 10 epi cloth is 0.7” long, as long as I think we want to go with the floats on these towel. So the longest float in this design is where 3 ends are removed from the raised shed.

Weave a one color brocade bands first. Prepare your brocade weft shuttle by winding it with double strand of embroidery floss, by double stand I mean two 6-stranded threads; you need this large amount of floss to cover the ground. If you have only one skein, find both ends and wind double from both ends with your hand in the center of the skein to prevent tangling. The first row of the brocade pattern will determine the placement of the entire pattern. This first row needs to be counted and checked, counted again and checked. The basic pattern overlay areas ( the part that says repeat 4 times total in the graph) is, from right to left , leave 8, remove 1 end, leave 1, remove 2 ends, leave 2, remove 3. This pattern is repeated 4 times in the center of the warp, the right side starts with a partial pattern and the left side finishes with a partial pattern .

To begin open a shed and throw the ground weft beat , keep the SAME shed open (this can be the hardest step) insert the pick-up stick into the shed from the right side, at this point all the raised ends are on top of the pick-up stick, now with the point of the stick leave the first 2 ends of the right selvage up, then put 3 ends under the stick, skip 8, put 1 ends under the stick then skip 1, pick 2 down, skip 2, pick 3 down– this completes the partial pattern on the right and the first full repeat. Do 3 more full repeats and the left partial following the graph. Be carful not to separate the strands in each end with the pick-up stick, this is a new hazard caused by working with multiple strands for each end. Now bring the pick-up stick down to the fell line and check the gaps you have created in the shed. The gaps will be the floats in the brocade weft.

Checking the pick up on the stick before throwing the shuttle. Pattern shown is pick one down, leave 8, repeat.

Check again, see their position relative to the stripes is good. When you are convinced that the pick-up is correct then throw the colored weft, beat and change sheds. Throw the ground weft in the new shed, now pause and look carefully for any mistakes in the last pick-up. The best time to see errors in the pick-up is now after you have changed sheds and placed the next ground weft. When you are convinced that it is correct you can proceed to the next pick-up row. This row is the same pattern of floats as the first row, just moved one thread to the left and now should be much quicker to pick-up because you have visual landmarks. This 29 row pattern moves to the left through row 7 then moves to the right through row 25 then it moves to the left again. Watch carefully that you move only one end each time and that you get all the strands of each end.

The colored threads of the brocade may look sparse as you are weaving but off the loom the ground warp will shorten and bring them closer together and un-plied floss will spread out, this is what embroidery floss is designed to do, and cover the ground, when it is washed and pressed.

Overlay looks sparse on the loom but will be fine when finished.

 

the same towel after washing and pressing.

Catching the brocade weft at the selvages requires extra attention, if a row of brocade ends in a float there is nothing to automatically catch the brocading weft at the selvage but you can use the ground weft to lock it in place as shown in the photograph below.

Using the ground weft to catch the brocading weft at the selvage.

 To secure the cut end of the brocading weft turn it back into the same shed after catching it on a selvage thread. After you finish the pattern,  weave the plain body of the towel following your prepared measuring tape, changing to the thinner weft for the hem. At the end of the hem weave two picks of scrap yarn to mark the end of one towel and the start of the next.

To do the Thunderbolts in the graded colorway, wind 4 shuttles with a doubled strand embroidery floss with each of the 4 colors; red #66, orange #971, gold #972 and yellow #725. The pattern has 29 rows or picks; do 4 in red, 4 in orange, 4 in gold, 5 in yellow, 4 gold, 4 orange and 4 red. Be sure to tuck in all the ends back in the same shed as you weave.

If you are have trouble with your pick-up and nothing seems to make sense or be in the right place, check to see if you are in the right shed, that is the same one that has the last tabby ground weft. The most common error is to change sheds after beating in the ground weft, it is a habit and it takes concentration to override this normally useful habit. So if you are doing the pick-up and you can’t figure out which is the end beside the one below, or if it just looks wonky, check your shed. When you get the right shed open the pick-up will go more smoothly.

You will make mistakes in your pick-up, and the real question is when will you catch them; the sooner you catch them the easier they are to fix. Ideally you will catch them when you check the pick-up on the stick. Look at the gaps, how do the look compared to the floats in the row below. If you see an error, it is easy to fix using the second pick-up stick. The idea here is to keep all the correct pick-up on the first stick by transferring it to the second stick up to the mistake then pick-up the correct ends with the second stick, and then transfer the rest of the correct pick-up to the second stick. The goal in not to make the whole pick-up again, just fix the mistake.

For example, if I have removed 4 ends from the raised shed instead of 3 at the end of the first full pattern repeat, I would keep the first pick-up stick in place, slide the second in the pattern shed up, from the right, up to the error, now slide the first stick out to the left just enough to let the mistaken ends fall off , use the tip of the second stick to pick-up the correct ends and then push the second stick into the rest of the pattern shed made by the first stick. Once the second stick has the correct ends for the pattern shed you can remove the first stick. Having two pick-up sticks saves you from having to make the whole pick-up over.

Once you change sheds and throw the next ground weft and beat, errors in the previous row can jump out at you. It is still fairly easy to correct at this stage. Take out the ground weft and open the shed that has the error. To take out the brocade weft you must re-establish the erroneous pattern shed. This is fairly easy if you use the brocade weft itself; grab both ends of the weft- the loop from one selvage and the long tail from the other side- in one hand underneath the warp and pull down, then use the other hand to insert a pick-up stick in this shed. Turn the stick on its side and take out that weft.

Mistakes found later are a pain. You have to decide if they are grave enough to warrant the energy and frustration to unweave that much. So go slow and check often; errors found on the pick-up stick are painless to correct, ones found before you do the next pick-up are fairly easy, so keep checking.

These towel are designed with hems. Once off the loom remove the waste yarn and cut the towels apart. Now the ends of the warp must be secured; you can serge the cut edges or you can machine sew the edges to 1/4” seam tape of an appropriate color. I quickly hand baste the edge to the tape then machine stitch it. Watch that you don’t stretch out the edges. Once the edges are secure , turn the edge up and baste in place; make sure the width of the edge is the same as the width of the body of the hem. Steam press to flatten. Then you can machine edge stitch this in place , the extra machine stitching re-secures the warp ends but it also shows on the back side of the towels so some prefer not to machine stitch, your choice. Then fold up the hem to the pick where you started with the heavier weft. You can pin baste this in place making sure that the green and orange stripes line up. Steam press. Then hand sew the hem in place with matching sewing thread, take big bites with the needle into the hem, go below the serged or taped edge, to avoid putting stress on the ends of the warps. Take little bites into the body of the towel so that it doesn’t show on the right side. Also do not pull the sewing thread too tight, it will form dimples on the right side. Check the right side after the first few stitches to see if it looks good, you can still adjust your tension. A nice hem comes straight down from the towel; it is not wider than or narrower than the towel itself and only slightly thicker because of the thinner weft in the hem area.

The hemmed towel can now be washed in the machine and dried as you would dry it in normal use. Steam press for a final finish.

Here is a similar design I found in a shop in Oaxaca, Mexico this year.

A similar brocade motif on a Oaxacan textile 1/15. Here each motif has its own pattern thread and there are spaces between motifs without patterning (discontinuous pattern weft).  The little loops formed where each brocading weft turns are a new feature.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Technique: Shuttle Craft Guild Monograph Twenty-two 1967, BROCADE by Harriet Tidball

LATIN AMERICAN BROCADES; Explorations in Supplementary Weft Techniques with Special weaving Instructions for Rigid Heddle Frame Loom, Backstrap and Floor Loom by Suzanne Baizerman & Karen Searle,1976

Red brocade

Do you remember this Bhutanese sash?  At the time I put it on this blog I was surprised that it was card woven and brocaded.  But the heart motifs, made of 3 diamonds intrigue me.  I do love hearts.

So I started  a row of them, in 13 different colors of red/pink, turns on the backside. I can see that the Bhutanese piece has the turns on the top  but I need to develop my skills of turns on the back.

 

Started with some selvage to selvage stripes to delineate the design area.  Diamonds are easy enough to make, space between the motifs makes it easier to fish out the right thread.

 

Final row of hearts, washed and pressed.  Maybe these motifs would look more like hearts if I had used one color for each motif. In person each of these colors is different, photography makes them more the some.

Diamond motifs in multi-colored brocade

 

 I decided to make a multi-colored isolated motif in the same overlay/underlay technique. The design is simple, a diamond with 4 diamonds inside. Using 3 colors is new. I did graph it out on paper the first time, not as a guide to weaving it but sort of a dry run to find problems. Maximum float length is over 5 ends. The dimple in the middle of the small diamonds is a tie down to prevent a 7 end float.

 I did not use the graph to weave the design, weaving it is easy just move over one end each pick The design is has nice clean lines. The lines at the 4 points that sort of look like rabbit ear antenna, are not as strong as I thought they would be; appears that a float over just one end can disappear at times and the line is rather weak.

The turns of the brocading weft are on the back of this piece and while that makes for nice clean lines visually it made it a bear to weave.  The hardest part of was finding the right thread dangling down on the back. For some reason my finger can’t tell if I have a pink or a purple thread.  It can be difficult to tell if the thread should go to the right or left because you can’t see where it came through the web. So it can help to have a system such as all the brocading wefts travel in the same direction in each pick as that travelled by the ground weft.

To clarify, I decided that if the ground weft went from right to left in that pick then all the brocading wefts also go right to left.The problem is just to find the right one and that is the slow step here.

The pastel colors do not have the energy of the brighter color typically used in Latin American brocades. Here is the back side:

There are many ends and I made no attempt to hide the ends, I did trim them to a uniform length.

Next challenge is to make a whole row of the same diamond motif, each motif with a different color scheme. This time the turns will be on the top, since there are more brocading wefts to get confused and tangled. I did add the edge second motif to the graph to get the spacing right.

Working the turns on the top is much, much easier. No confusion, you can see which is the right thread to use. Much easier.But the turns penetrate in the next color block. So the design is not as clean as the first, but it still works.

Lesson learned:

• turns on the bottom can be difficult with many brocading threads
• need a system not to skip any brocade thread  in each pick
• turns on top take up lateral space
• one end floats are not very effective visually.  They are the same size as the normal weft and thus do not stand out.

 

Twill skip blocks-more brocade

This is a continuation of the study of turns in discontinuous brocading weft.   Last time  I did inlay and looked at the turns at the end of the rows, this time I an doing overlay , which creates floats, and the turns at the end of the row.

Here, at the bottom,  I floated the brocade thread over 10 ends and under 2, and I used the stripes as markers. Very easy to execute.

 

A float 10 ends is long for this sett.  But the turns are surprisingly  inconspicuous. They do go under 2 ends so are slightly more separated from the figure than in previous examples,  but I think that it is the stripes that keep you eye from fixating on them.  The blocks move in a twill fashion across the cloth.

At the top where the blocks move to the right and then back, forming a chevron,  a technique learned from practicing triangles, the turns become more visible.  But because of the increased separation the edges of the zigzag still looks sharp and crisp.  The turns become a dotted line echo of the main figure.

 

Here is a similar treatment on a warp-faced cloth.

The brocading weft floats over many ends(probably 24 at the widest point) to form the design , then travels in the shed to the stripe then makes its turn, on the surface.  It is hidden from view when it travels in the shed by the dense warp.  The center section of the  cloth is elevated, I mean that it is thicker,  by the brocading weft.  The turns are not distracting here, and the diamond is clear.

Turns on the surface are much easier for me to weave and if the are separated from the figure, or coincide with a warp stripe they do not befuddle the figure.

Here is a piece of silk brocade, backstrap woven that a friend brought back from Bhutan and allowed me to take a quick snapshot.  Note that it also warp faced.

If you look at the rows where a flower (named by me)motif reoccurs, and alternates between having the figure and the background brocaded, the turns occur as bars between the flowers.  You probably can’t see that much detail in this snapshot but when I had this textile in hand it was clear.   The turns become an element of the design, not a distraction.  I think that I remember that the brocading weft floated on the underside when not on the surface.  There are several places where there are 3 bars between motifs instead of two and I think this is just to take up space  because another full flower motif did not fit in.

The back of my textiles are neat and tidy, but I don’t think I would call them two faced.  See for yourself.

Student work from Brocade Class

ALL of these students are working on rigid heddle looms.  The students have been trying different brocading techniques and here are some of their first tries:

She is working on mercerized 3/2 perle cotton, 10epi, and wove some milkweed pods .  She outlined her inlay with turns and added mohair wispies.

She is working on cotton rug warp, 8epi, and did a stunning border pattern in multi-colored cotton. Overlay-underlay with continuous supplemental wefts.

Here is some more work on the same warp, with just a hurried washed.  She found the snowflake motifs in a knitting book. The snowflakes are worked with 3 separate strands of perle cotton, overlay-underlay with the longest float 3 ends long.

An last but not least in a picture done on her first ever warp!  She used several techniques to create the effects she wanted.The warp is wool and the brocading weft are woolen types.