Annabelle Learns How to Weave
Tracy Bromwich
For the Fall 2015 Competition of Babywearing Weavers we were asked to find inspiration in children's literature. The charming book "Extra Yarn", written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen, was a natural choice for me. It tells the story of Annabelle, a prolific knitter whose supply of yarn is never exhausted as she works tirelessly to make creations for all the people, animals, and things that surround her. It is a sweet story about generosity and creativity that is beautifully illustrated with compelling combinations of color. I chose to work with a specific color scheme from the book and a simple weave structure that would add interest and texture but allow the play of the colors and the individual yarns to read clearly.
Detail of the warp - shown here in plain weave.
The wrap gets it's name from imagining what Annabelle might produce if she set down her knitting needles and discovered weaving. It also seemed an appropriate name for the first wrap made on my newly acquired AVL 16-shaft mechanical dobby loom. The whole process of building the loom and learning how to use it was such a challenge. I felt like a newbie all over again!
Chaos in the studio
At least the boxes were fun!
And someone discovered a new activity!
Three looms! Yikes!
Annabelle Learns How to Weave has a cotton warp and an Egyptian cotton weft. It is woven in a 12-shaft advancing twill pattern with a sett of 24 EPI. It has a puffy airiness to it that I just love. My son - usually disinterested in wraps - has a real fondness for it. He was even a willing model for the pictures!
The warp
The weave
The wrap
With all that went into this, there are only two wraps that were made. The learning process involved a lot of sampling, yarn waste (oh, the irony in the book's title as I was winding off yards and yards of yarn to fix a tension problem), many false starts, and so, so much cutting. The two that are available will be listed this weekend on my website. They include a 4.4 meter wrap for $411.40 and a 2.6 meter wrap for $286. There will be a link from my FB business page when the listing goes live. I'll post the listing time in advance in the chatter group, wonder woven love.
I am such a fan of these colors and this weave that I am giving a second chance to the concept. The new warp is also 100% cotton but is a variation on the green and teal shades. It will be in the same weave structure. Here's hoping that I've got this down and that it will be happy weaving from this point forward with more of these lovely wraps to come! Keep an eye on my page for more details. I'm hoping to work on this one in November.
The new warp
