Echoing Parquetry

I've been watching Craig create the panels for his book stand, and the rotated squares seem to have resonated with me. Squares within squares is always a fun idea to play with, so I thought I'd do exactly that. I could get a similar feel to the checkerboard pattern by using one of the classic Scandinavian dräll weave structures, or two-block turned twill. Those Swedes are masterful at taking a rigid framework of blocks and making them flow beautifully from one to another. The two blocks differ in two ways: when one block shows mostly warp threads, in the other you see mostly weft threads, and vice versa; and the direction of the twill diagonals changes from leaning right to leaning left. Many beautiful heirloom table linens are based on this type of structure.

After playing with the blocks for a while, I ended up with something pretty much the same as this classic dräll example from Carol Strickler's 8-Shaft pattern book.

I thought of using a subtle pairing of white and off-white linen threads, which is the traditional and formal combination in dräll weaves, but I'm looking over at the big box of colorful cottons that are begging to be used. So for this run of table linens, I'm going to splash some hues around.

In this first runner I'm using the same colors in warp and weft. That means there is always a group of squares that only show the weave structure, which is a pretty subtle effect when there's no color contrast. The sheen and twist of the perle cotton yarn make the blocks reflect the light differently from certain angles, kind of like Craig's parquetry squares.

Weaving the whole piece in the same color or with very subtly different colors is an idea for another day. For now, there are just these small oases of serenity in a more vibrantly colored landscape.

Carol