My textiles class is finally finished with fibers. We are beginning yarns in lecture, and in lab we already covered yarns and are now moving on to woven fabrics. Our first task was to use magnifying glasses to examine fabric samples and identify the weave. We then had to diagram some weaves.
I had no trouble with plain and basket weaves. Twill weaves were a confusing, but after I started to draw a diagram they became a bit easier. Satin weaves had me stymied. I read about satin weaves in my textbook, I looked at diagrams, and I used a stereoscopic microscope to examine some fabric, but I still did not understand the weave. Fortunately I had one more task to perform for the lab, and it was that last task that finally allowed me to understand satin weaves.

I do not know if my school has a loom, but we did not need one to construct weaves. We wove strips of construction paper. At first it felt like a silly assignment. As I constructed a plan and basket weave I thought this would be a good art project for kindergarten students, but for college students it seemed a little demeaning.

As I moved on to a twill weave I began to understand the value of this project. Twill quickly went from slightly confusing to very easy.

Then there was satin. As I began to weave my strips of paper together I still had no understanding of the weave. It took me a few tries to get the piece started, but once I made it to my fourth correctly inserted filling “yarn” I finally had a basic understanding of the weave.

Satin still is not easy, but at least I now understand how it works. This silly assignment turned out to be quite useful in teaching me about various weaves. Next week we will look at fancy and novelty weaves. Oy vey. I need to go buy some construction paper to play with at home.