Loom Controller Shibori on Chenille

There was a discussion recently on WeaveTech about weaving with chenille (and avoiding the dreaded worms that crawl up out of the cloth if the weave structure and sett aren't snug enough). I mentioned having woven loom-controlled shibori on chenille, at the time not being aware that one wasn't supposed to be able to do that. Turns out there are lots of impossible things that can easily be accomplished so long as one doesn't know they're impossible.

Here are two shots of the cloth, woven using 1450-ypp chenille in light grey from Robin & Russ, with nylon upholstery thread for the gathering picks. After weaving, the gathering picks were pulled tight and knotted, and the cloth overdyed in black Procion MX dye (although you'd never know it from the fringes, which look an odd nonblack color in the photos).





The cloth was woven on 8 shafts, on a threading that mixed straight draw and points. The ground structure was plain weave, shown in the draft below as pale yellow in both warp and weft. The gathering picks are shown in black; if you squint at the draft, you can see the diamonds formed by the treadling.



I think I wove at least 2 and probably 3 scarves on the warp, each with a different treadling. This was my favorite, and the only one I photographed. The date on the slide mounts is 2003, so it wasn't as long ago as I thought before I went dumpster diving for the photos.