Dogwood Lace

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I demonstrated  weaving at a local recreation center in Loveland, Colorado with Vivian Gilbert, a fellow member of the Northern Colorado Weavers Guild. 

We both brought samples of fiber items to share with the public, and I fell in love with Vivian’s sample of Atwater-Bronson lace.  It was reminiscent of a dogwood flower. 

Being originally from the town of Phoenixville, PA—known for its annual Dogwood Festival—I knew I had to weave this. I learned lace weaving in order to weave dogwood flowers!

Project Details

After finding the dogwood flower pattern in A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns (#611 by Margaret Gaynes), I sat down one afternoon to design this project, and was off to the studio. 

The result is a lovely piece that is the perfect complement to my Grandma Feconda’s floral china.

Equipment

Eight-shaft loom. (Though this project only uses seven shafts.)

Warp and Weft Yarns

Valley Yarns 10/2 Bamboo from Webs in Natural; 4200 yds per pound 

I used 11.5 oz (includes both warp and weft.)

Wind a warp of 340 threads, four yards long.  (This includes a doubled floating selvedge at each side.) 

Sett

24 ends per inch, sleyed two per dent in a 12-dent reed

Dimensions

14.2 inches in the reed

When removed from the loom, this piece measured 12.75 inches in width and 87.5 inches in length. 

After wet finishing in the washer (on cold settings) and a toss in the dryer on medium heat, the runner measured 11.25 inches in width and 79 inches in length.

Weave Structure

Atwater-Bronson Lace in A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns edited by Carol Strickler.

Characteristics of Atwater-Bronson Lace

I am still new to lace weaving. Using the facts below, however, I felt comfortable designing with this structure.

• Shaft one is designated as the ground shaft
• Every other warp thread must be on shaft one
• Every other treadling raises shaft one
• Shaft two is designated as the tie-down
• Shafts three through eight  may be used to create units of lace
• Each threaded unit of lace consists of six threads: [1,3,1,3,1,2], [1,4,1,4,1,2], [1,5,1,5,1,2], [1,6,1,6,1,2], [1,7,1,7,1,2], [1,8,1,8,1,2], and so on...
• Weft floats appear on one side of the cloth
• Warp floats appear on the opposite side of the cloth

Tips for Weaving Atwater-Bronson Lace

Count the number of heddles on shaft one before you begin threading so you don’t run out during threading.

If you take a break and resume weaving with a plain-weave section, remember to begin with the tie-down shaft treadle (which raises shafts two through seven).  Otherwise, you will end up with two weft threads in the same shed.  It is easy to miss this error because it shows up mostly in the sparse plain weave sections.

Threading and Treadling

There are four threading/treadling elements in this project.  They are: plain weave, lace border, flower A, and flower B.

The following draft diagrams illustrate the four threading/treadling elements for this project. You can take these elements and combine them in different ways to create your own designs.

You can also Download the WIF file for the complete project.

Plain weave (24 warp ends)    
I used twenty-four ends of plain weave on each side for the edges of my table runner. I also treadled twelve picks of plain weave between pattern areas to separate out blocks of design.

Lace border  (18 warp ends)
This threading is used as a border adjacent to the plain weave threading at each end and between the flowers.

This threading is also used between the flowers.

Flower A (36 warp ends)

Flower B (36 warp ends)

I used the threading units in the following order for my table runner:

1. Doubled floating selvedge (2 warp ends)
2. Plain weave (24 warp ends)
3. Lace Border (18 warp ends)
4. Flower A (36 warp ends
5. Lace Border (18 warp ends)
6. Flower B (36 warp ends)
7. Lace Border (18 warp ends)
8. Flower A (36 warp ends)
9. Lace Border (18 warp ends)
10. Flower B (36 warp ends)
11. Lace Border (18 warp ends)
12. Flower A (36 warp ends)
13. Lace Border (18 warp ends)
14. Plain Weave (24 warp ends)
15. Doubled floating selvedge (2 warp ends)

I used the treadling units in the following sequence to weave my table runner:

1. Fourteen picks of plain weave (beginning and end of piece)
2. One repeat of lace border element
3. Three repeats of flower A followed by lace border
4. Twelve picks of plain weave
5. One repeat of lace border element
6. Three repeats of flower B followed by lace border
7. Twelve picks of plain weave
8. Repeat steps 1-7; make sure that flower A (or whichever flower you choose to treadle first) is also the last flower you treadle in order to balance the design

Finishing

I hemstitched the table runner using ten-thread bundles and twisted a 4-1/2 inch fringe before wet finishing the cloth.

Resources

A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, edited by Carol Strickler.

Pattie Graver has been weaving twills for over fifteen years.  In May of 2008, she attended Madelyn van der Hoogt’s Weavers School and was introduced to a whole new world of weave structures.

She is a corporate refugee and splits her time between her love for yoga and handweaving.