Crackle Weave Explorations

My first sampler in years! Thank you Landon for helping me get it off the loom. :)

I've been debating on what to weave on 4 shafts. I would love to play with blocks on an 8-shaft (or more) loom, but right now I only have access to the 4-shaft loom. I've never done crackle weave before, and it seemed like an interesting challenge in working with color combinations. 

The yarn my son dyed is a bit of a challenge for me! At the time, he was about 5 years old. I'd bring him in to play with any old dyes stockpiled in my fridge that needed used up. His method of color choice was "use it all up." So...there's some interesting color combinations to work with! (And some colors I wouldn't typically work with, like neon yellow...)

Crackle weave is an interesting structure. I'm just getting started with trying it out, dipping my toe in the giant sea of opportunities with this structure. For now, I'm just doing blocks of advancing point twill, and exploring possibilities with color combinations using all the same size yarn.  What drew me in was the interesting way colors can be blended together, creating blocks of shifting colors, without needing a lot of shafts to do it.

I've had too many barriers between me and the actual act of weaving, so I just want to get to the loom and make stuff! I'll figure it out along the way. I'll have to post more once I have some more results. 

After trying some color combinations, I've decided on a simple two-color weft. We'll see how it combines with the shifting warp colors for a longer weave.

The final draft I'm going to weave on this warp. All yarn is 5/2 Tencel, 18epi. The two color warp blocks are two different warps Liam painted that I thought might work together. The weft colors are alternating between variegated purple from a skein Liam dyed, and Very Berry.

And here's how it's going so far:

I think maybe the stripes are going to be visually a little more apparent than I was hoping for, but we'll see what the final results look like once it's washed and ironed. I'm intrigued about using a combination of shifting warp colors with rotating threading and treadling patterns. There's a lot to think about! I haven't even begun to think about overshot and summer/winter possibilities. For now, I'm just keeping it mostly tromp as writ, all the same yarn gauge.

I'm also really interested in trying out something similar with my gradient palettes. An idea is brewing, I'm excited to give it a try with my next project!