| Greek Huck |
Marcy Petrini
March, 2023
Last year at Convergence® I presented a seminar on “Rectangular Float Weaves” which include huck. Along the way I realized that Droppdräll is the word for huck in Swedish. I found references with the help of my study group colleague Peggy Cole. I wrote about Droppdräll in my March, April and June 2022 blogs. The Swedish are very inventive with this weaving structure.
A few months after Convergence®, I received an email from Peggy asking me whether I knew about Greek huck. Greek huck? Never heard of it. Peggy said that it was in the Manual of Swedish Weaving (by Ulla Cyrus-Zetterström) on page 47.
I had read the book a long time ago, but I had used it as a reference more recently, getting ready for my seminar. I looked it up and no Greek huck on page 47. I looked in the index, but I didn’t find it. I browsed through the huck section and there it was on page 52. I have the 1950 edition, so I figured that the pagination changed and Peggy must have a different edition.
Now I was intrigued. To study a structure, I have to do a drawdown so that I can understand the warp and weft intersections. Here it is:
It’s a 6-shaft huck. I wasn’t surprised as I have come across other 6-shaft structures in the huck family from Swedish weaving sources.
I showed the drawdown at our next study group meeting and I said that I wasn’t sure that the two extra shafts for Greek huck added much; the blocks are staggered by one pick which, according to the author, makes the fabric more stable. I thought that rather than weaving two blocks for a 6-shaft huck, I would prefer weaving six blocks on eight shafts with regular huck.
The next day, Peggy sends me the drawdown for the Greek huck from her book, the 1977 edition: four shafts. On a pointed twill threading! There is that pointed threading again!
Now I was really intrigued! I was thinking that I would put a sample on my four-shaft loom after I finished weaving the scarf I was planning.
For the scarf I was looking for a twill so that the light would shimmer, but I couldn’t really find anything that caught my attention. The scarf is a retirement present for a friend. I seldom weave for non-family members or other non-weavers, but this is a special friend to both Terry and I, and I know he will appreciate the scarf.
In the middle of planning, I thought: he doesn’t need a scarf that shimmers. He needs a scarf to keep him warm since he moved to his native New England after his retirement. Maybe Greek huck would work! I decided to try it.
For warp I used a tussah silk noil from my stash, variegated in blues and purples. Despite the fact that it is labelled noil, the yarn is strong enough for warp. It wraps at 24 epi; for the pointed threading, I sett it at 18.
For weft I used 100% mink from Mini Lotus Yarns, black. It also wraps at 24 epi, but it is squishy, as a worsted-spun yarn may be. I thought it would work well with the silk warp.
And here is the scarf. I am really pleased with it.
The front and the back of the fabric are different. As woven, the front is warp-dominant, the back weft dominant.
The scarf is wonderfully soft and drapeable, probably the combination of the yarns and structure. Now I am inspired to try Greek huck with other yarns.
Try Greek huck, yet another option on a pointed threading.
Happy weaving!
Marcy
P.S.
The wonderful thing about teaching weaving, besides meeting great weavers, is that I always learn something. Earlier this month I was in San Diego offering two workshops to two talented group of weavers (with overlapping memberships): the San Diego Creative Weavers’ Guild and the Palomar Handweavers and Spinners Guild.
While attending one of the workshops, Liz Jones showed me the drawdown software that her engineer husband, Scott Jones, wrote for her. And even nicer than knowing about it, is using it! So far is available for Windows platforms with more to come, he says. It is free (with no ads!) available for downloading from Scott’s website:
https://www.quickdrawweaving.com/
The software is really intuitive to use, but if you are new to drawdown software, there is a YouTube Channel that provides a tutorial. The videos are also accessible from the website above.
When you download the file to your computer, you may get questions about whether it is safe to do so. That’s a pretty common question asked by a computer system when downloading what we call “executable files” – files that do functional operation. It is perfectly safe to download Scott’s software, I have done it. Many of you know how ticky I am about clicking on links, etc. for fear of being hacked. Scott’s software is safe, he is one of the good guys.
So click through the warnings pages, unzip the files that get downloaded and run the quickdraw.exe file to operate the software.