Marcy Petrini 

December, 2024

Introducing: Block-Aid^©!

A free on-line resource to describe blocks!

(https://www.marcypetrini.com/marcy-s-blogs/385_the-block-aid)

Why Block-Aid^©? Read on…

Soon after I started weaving, I discovered blocks: an overshot table runner, huck lace shawl, summer and winter pillow. I just wove for fun and to learn about the different structures, but not really paying attention to how they are similar or differ.

When I started to weave on more than four shafts, I began to think about block differences. We can just repeat blocks of summer and winter by mimicking the threading of the first block as shown below: each block is always shaft 1, pattern shaft, shaft 2, pattern shaft. As we weave each block, the remainders of the blocks weave a combination of warp with pattern and ground wefts. (The drawdown is sinking shed to show the blocks more easily).

This method doesn’t work for overshot. We can mimic the block threading so that each new block is formed by dropping the first shaft and adding the next, as shown in the drawdown below. However, when we treadle the blocks the same way we do on four shafts, the floats between woven blocks are too long. For example, if we weave block A, there will be half tones in blocks B and H, but the weft will float over the plain weave ground from blocks C through G. (The drawdown is rising shed to show the long weft float).

About six or seven years ago, I decided I really needed to concentrate on the differences among blocks. By then I had become familiar with Emery’s weaving classification, so I first chose rectangular float weaves, as she calls them. I think of these structures as one shuttle weaves that form blocks that are an integral part of the cloth.

The other group of weaves I wanted to learn more about was tied unit weaves. I first learnt their nomenclature from a workshop by Donna Sullivan on summer and winter. It was time to get back to those structures. I submitted and got accepted for both topics as seminars at Convergence^® 2020 which was postponed till 2022. It just gave me more time to weave samples!

There are, of course, other blocks. As I was thinking of systematically approaching the problem, I decided to submit a seminar for Convergence^® 2024 called “Not All Blocks Are Created Equal.” From the drawdowns above, we already can see that we can’t simply substitute the “rules” of one structure to another.

The more I learned – and still learn – about blocks, the more I find new ones. I was getting organized for my MAFA on-line class just earlier this month, when I realized that putting these blocks in a single monograph was a losing proposition: it would be incomplete the minute I sent it off to the class participants!

That’s when I came up with the idea of Block-Aid^©. Along the same line as the Pictionary^©, each block has its own downloadable pdf file, with photos of fabric, drawdown, descriptions of the blocks, going from four to more shafts when applicable, and other details specific to the block. Unlike the Pictionary^©, Block-Aid^© is not one page per block!

On the website right now with the link above are final drafts of the various blocks. The information is fine, the format may change. We will announce as blocks are finalized and when new ones are added. I already have a long list of blocks to add. More samples are needed!

Happy Weaving!

Marcy