Rebecca Winter (1)

This is a brand new book, just published at the end of October. A beautifully bound and printed book, with many color photos, drafts and ideas.

I watched a Textiles and Tea interview with Rebecca Winter and she said she wrote the book in conjunction with a study she did with the Handweaver's Guild of America and that it is much like a Master's Thesis on Shadow Weave.

In the introduction to the book Rebecca states that shadow weave is a color and weave cloth and that is based on twill. (This was startling to me, because I had heard that shadow weave was based on plain weave. However, Rebecca does point out that on a shadow weave draft, you aren't able to weave plain weave. Hmmm.) She also points out that it can be a unit weave and that if you change the sett of your draft, your cloth becomes warp-faced rep weave. So already, we have lots of interesting things to think about.

Rebecca begins at the beginning with Mary Meigs Atwater and several drafts that she introduced in an issue of the Shuttle Craft Bulletin, Feb. 1942. Mary felt she had invented something entirely new, but her processes in getting to this discovery have never been determined. Using a draft with a 2/2 or 4/4 tie up and a parallel threading along with alternating colors in the warp and weft made for some eye catching designs. Indeed, when I tried this approach with some 8 shaft threading drafts, I found that my designs looked like shadow weave and only had 2 thread floats. I'm guessing this discovery was worth the price of the book.

By Chapter 5, Rebecca progresses to another giant in Shadow Weave, Miram Powell. Ms. Powell introduced a new way of threading, tie up and treadling to create her shadow weave designs. Her new system used a twill line in threading and treadling. Easier to thread, easier to treadle. With the help of Russell Groff (Robin & Russ for those of us with a few years of weaving under our belts), they published 1000 (+) Patterns In 4, 6, and 8 Harness Shadow Weaves. This book had much to offer in the way of designs and is now, sadly, out of print.

Rebecca moves the reader from just thinking about Shadow Weave and into designing it for yourself. She shows how to translate the Atwater designs to an easier threading and treadling option, she addresses how to use Shadow Weave as a unit weave (blocks) and some of the pitfalls that you need to address when using a profile to make your design.

There are many drafts included in the book and they are all of a good size so that you can easily read them.

The book concludes with a series of projects in shadow weave including a project that uses thick and thin threads for a “new” look. Also included are color changes in the warp and weft so that the piece becomes more complex.

This book is what you need to get started with Shadow and Weave and won't require that you use weaving software unless you want to do so.… (meer)

Before I get into what this book is about, let me tell you what it is not. It is not a book of drafts. If that is what you are looking for, try Marion Powell’s 1000(+) Patterns in 4, 6 and 8 Harness Shadow Weaves. It is not a book of projects, although there are a few. If it is a book of projects that you are seeking, take a look at Shadow Weave from the Best of Handwoven’s Technique series.

The Enigma of Shadow Weave Illuminated by Rebecca Wilson is a deep dive into all things that make shadow weave shadow weave. Though not absolutely necessary, experience weaving at least one shadow weave project will help in absorbing the information presented in this comprehensive volume. After reading this book, you will come away with a deeper understanding of how shadow weave works and a desire to explore it further.

The book opens appropriately with a brief history of shadow weave with its introduction by Mary Meigs Atwater in a 1942 issue of Shuttle-Craft Guild Bulletin and explores how it may have been developed. It moves along to the next well-known innovator, Marion Powell. Each of these two weavers, Atwater and Powell, developed their own drafting methods. From there, we explore the characteristics and rules that make shadow weave what it is. Rebecca Wilson concludes the chapter with a list of the 26 characteristics of shadow weave. 26!

The third chapter, “Basic Design Considerations”, brings us to the more practical information for weaving your own shadow weave cloth. It begins with the expected discussion of color theory: how the choice of colors, including hue, value and contrast can impact your design. Among other considerations mentioned include scale, distance and optical mixing. Probably the most exciting section is that she shows you how to manage your selvages!

From there, the next few chapters explain how to make your own shadow weave designs. She introduces you to drafting your own shadow weaves with the Atwater method, which uses a parallel threading and treadling. Rebecca Wilson does this through an exploration of a few of Mary Meig Atwater’s published drafts. The next chapter walks you through the steps to convert a draft from Atwater’s method to the Powell drafting method.

The next chapter relates shadow weave design to block theory, which opens up the use of profile drafts. She provides both the Atwater and the Powell weaving units for the blocks. The author demonstrates the necessary adjustments required to handle the change of directions of the blocks in the profile draft while maintaining the dark/light color order that defines shadow weave. The chapter concludes with “The Rules for Shadow Weave within Block Theory” and “The Trouble with Shadow Weave as a Block Weave—Ahh! The Enigma.”

The last chapter on designing shadow weave introduces a few more concepts to make the design your own whether you use a published draft or one of your own. These include changing the treadling from dark/light to light/dark, changing colors within your design to highlight sections, and doubling up on dark or light threads within your design. There is a quick look at using your shadow weave draft for rep weave and even lace.

Finally, we get to the project chapter. It opens with a discussion of how to develop a documentation process for your projects. Tips are given for the basic information to keep and how to record it. This is followed by six projects: three scarfs and three towels. She does give all the important information for weaving these projects. However, she does not provide the amount of yarn required, leaving it to the weaver to determine the length of the warp for the number of items to be woven and individual preferences in length.

In all, this book is aimed at the intermediate to advanced weaver who not only wishes to weave great shadow weave cloth but understand the concepts that underlie shadow weave. It also provides the tools to create your own drafts for those who have more than the 8 shafts that published drafts stop at. The advanced beginner can find useful hints to modify available drafts and projects to make his or her own unique projects. As confidence is gained, the rest of the book will be waiting to take you to the next level. This book was well written and worth reading even if you never plan to design your own shadow weave drafts.… (meer)