Rosalie Neilson:

Huck Lace

Rosalie Neilson loves using color and geometric design in her weaving, her specialty being warp-faced rep. She publishes articles regularly in weaving and braiding journals and maintains an active teaching schedule. Her publications include three books on Kumihimo design and An Exaltation of Blocks, a two-volume book with a toolkit of printed Design Pages and Transparent Overlays for weavers and designers to explore literally millions of unique symmetric patterns.

 

15hr class

COLOR & DESIGN IN HUCK LACE TOWELS 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The structure of Huck Lace provides a treasure trove of design for weavers. It is a shaft-efficient weave structure where an 8-shaft loom can produce six blocks of design; and a 4-shaft loom can produce a myriad of different ways to combine textures of warp/weft floats with plain weave.

Weavers will learn how “blocks” or units of huck lace are threaded on four and eight shafts, and how they can be combined to expand design possibilities. Discussions will focus on converting a profile draft into a threading and treadling, and how literally thousands of designs can be created within a single threading by changing the tie-up. 

Participants will use printed Design Pages and Transparent Overlays from Neilson’s book An Exaltation of Blocks to explore thousands of design possibilities for 6-block Huck Lace. 

The Towel Project will consist of three 4 ½” sections of Huck Lace, each a different color, separated by a one inch stripe of plain weave. The overall width of the project is 16 ¼” suitable for looms larger than 18” wide. For looms that are 18” wide, the stripes of plain weave are narrower, yielding an overall width of 15 1/3”. 

Weavers should arrive at the workshop with a pre-threaded loom (either 4- or 8-shaft loom). Warp should be sleyed in the reed, tied to the front cloth beam, and spread to the appropriate width, ready to weave.

 

Expertise:  Advanced Beginner to Advanced level Maximum 

Handout: $25.00 – includes coil-bound handout with Design Pages, Transparent Overlays, Huck Lace Template

Equipment for participants: 

Pre-threaded loom (Drafts provided by instructor upon registration)

4- or 8-shaft loom 

8/2 unmercerized cotton in four different colors

6 or 12 dent reed – 3 ends/dent in 6 dent reed, or alternate 3 – 2 ends in 12 dent reed

Sett 18 epi

threading and reed hook

tape measure 

boat shuttle with four different colored bobbins 

      (use the same colors as your warp or you can experiment with other colors from your stash)

scissors

tapestry needle

weights for warp repairs

masking tape

(optional) laptop computer if you have Fiberworks weaving software program

 

Design Sessions: 

graph paper – 4 squares per inch. Use commercially printed graph paper. Do not use graph paper 

      printed from the Internet as the grid can be slightly out of sync with the Huck Lace Template.

pencils for block designs 

good eraser (like pink pearl) 

pencil sharpener