My weaving is getting very interesting at the moment. I wove this shibori pleat fabric a couple of years ago using Jo Anne Ryeburn’s creative instructions in Handwoven but it over felted as I forgot about it in the washing machine and although it looked very interesting it was only useful for a belt not a draping fabric.

This time I’ve modified the pattern, adding a plain weave selvedge and I’m using 20/1 wool/lycra for the shibori wefts. The warp is 30/2 tencel and 60/2 silk ground weft.The result is shown at the left. I will also cross dye the wefts.

I decided I wanted much deeper furrows so have now modified the pattern up to 24 shafts. Although the more shafts the better, I think there are ways to make a similar fabric with less shafts. You just need a very steep point twill. Joanne included an 8 shaft version in September/October 2002 Handwoven.

I’ve added the beautiful native Australian flower, just because I can. I read of someone who named the the local flowers with her own names, which I thought made a lot of sense. Otherwise, like me, you feel inadequate because you don’t know the ‘agreed’ latin name for it, or if you do you forget it all the time. It’s much nicer to have your own poetic naming system. Now that’s given me an idea. The struggle with naming and folder management of weave designs…be more creative and less focused on rigidity and convention.