Collapse weave; another thing off my weavers bucket list of things to try. As you can tell by the number of pictures I took, I was pretty excited about the results. While most weaving transforms a bit when you finish it by washing, this actually came alive in my hands. The first scarf that I cut off; cause I couldn’t wait to see what it would do, had a weft of Habu’s wool crepe that shrinks about 30% once it touches water. The warp is 8/2 tencel in a 3/1 twill that has a natural tendency to collapse. Since the wool took away a bit of the softness of the tencel I tried a fine bamboo for the weft on the next 2 scarves. The finer the weft the more likely it will collapse.
I liked the hand of the bamboo weft scarves better, and also liked that I could see more of the scarf because they didn’t collapse nearly as much. But truth be told I spent about a half hour just playing with the Habu scarf; playing with the accordion pleats, sans music. Truly, we have to get our weaving excitement where we can, so I foresee more collapse weave in my future. I would love to see some shawl width fabric, with that wonderful texture. So far I think it would be fun to use a collapse weave section in some woven wristers and even, heaven forbid, an actual garment. I have vowed that I hate sewing but the last issue of
has a collapse weave top that has me thinking of the possibilities. Yikes. Unfortunately this is slow cloth at its slowest. Weaving with 2/48 wool crepe was like weaving with fly hair but, oh so worth the results.

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This is the habu weft scarf as I am washing it. |
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I tried ladder hemstiching on an end piece, hoping to find a way to add buttons to shorter pieces to make a cowl. |
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So much excietment in one project. Here is my new handy dandy fringe twister, oh the joy! |
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This is almost too beautiful for words. I have never heard of collapse weave…just WOW!
Thanks, Joanne, it was certainly fun to take this off the loom. I hope you are finding time to weave soon.
Was fĂ¼r wunderbare Farben. Einfach nur schön geworden.
What wonderful colours. Very beautiful.
Liebe GrĂ¼ĂŸe von Ate
So cool. So pretty. Awesome to get to see it on the loom. That only makes the transformation all the more amazing!
The result is just spectacular. I would be proud as well. Amazing!!
oh my goodness, such beautiful colours! I'm so glad I found your blog.
Love love love
Beautiful! One day after I've leaned everything else I want to learn, I will try weaving. Btw is that one of those hair braiders from the early 2000's?
Such a fun weave, I just took another collapse weave off the loom. I think the fringe twister was a hair braider, rebranded. My girls won't let me near their hair with it.
gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous!!!
Thanks Judith, I just took a wider version of this off the loom. We will miss you at weavers this month.