Marcy Petrini 

June, 2024

Three shorts weeks from today (Monday May 17^th as I write), we will be heading from Jackson, MS to Wichita, KS Convergence^® 2024 in our vehicle full of manographs for my classes and photography equipment for Terry to take pictures as a conference volunteer.

As I review and edit my monographs to be used for my seminars, I think about the “Up and Down the Twill Shaft Escalator.” Why worry about going from a four-shaft loom to an eight-shaft loom? Just opening Carol Strickler’s book gives many eight-shaft twills from which to choose. However, thinking about the topic allows me to focus on options for the different kinds of twills.

Let’s consider the straight twill below.

To convert it to eight shafts, we couldn’t just extend the treadling steps as the resulting floats would be six threads long, perhaps not too long for some setts, but so unbalanced that the float could sag.

One solution is to delimit the floats by adding parallel twill lines. The one shown below is a 3/2/1/2 twill, called a regular twill because each treadling step produces the same ratio of warp and weft across the pick.

But why not an irregular twill, sometimes called a fancy twill? Below is one I quickly sketched out. Think of the options. And we wouldn’t need to stop at eight shafts!

If you have a multishaft loom (greater than four shafts, that is), why would you care to decrease your design to four?

This is what happened to me. I really liked the 40-shaft twill I designed for a shawl “Ripples in Knoxville” which I wore at Convergence^® 2022 and shown below.

I saw a flower that reminded me of the concentric circles in the shawl design and I wanted to use it for a scarf. My four shaft loom was available, so I scaled down the twill to four in the design below. Simpler, but still effective.

 I weave a lot of twills, but usually not block structures so much. I spent the last several months weaving 8-shaft samples for my “Not All Blocks Are Created Equal.”

Can you figure out what these two structures are?

For most didactic sessions, the teacher, or leader as we call them at Convergence^®, is relatively in control: there is a plan, a certain amount to be explained, work to be shared. Sure, questions come up, explanations may need to be clarified and sometimes a query needs further investigation. But basically, the teacher is in control.

Not so with the seminar “Can We Be Inspired by the Inspiration of Others?” The artists are in control! What inspires each one of us is an individual matter. Understanding what inspired others opens up another window into creativity. I can’t wait!

What inspiration comes to you from this picture? (NOT one to be used in the seminar).

 See you at Convergence^®!

Marcy