I Never Met a Meta(weave) I Didn’t Like
If you are a hand weaver, and you have jumped into the river of winding, beaming, threading, sleying, tying on and tying up in order to swim to the shore of cloth, then I cannot imagine that the notion of “metaweave” doesn’t intrigue you. If something about the interlacement of threads drew you to take the dive into the “you mean you have to put all those strings into those little holes” waters, then how could you resist the idea of taking that interlacement and both using it as the cloth and the “design” of the cloth . Metaweave is the interlacement story writ large.
I am not sure, but I think I coined the term “metaweave”. I have seen it used by a young artist who re-weaves cut up photographic portraits, but I haven’t seen it used in the way I use it, i.e. to mean an interlacement that creates an image of a different or larger scale interlacement . . . let me know if you have seen it elsewhere.
That said, the idea of making Metaweave cloth has been around forever in woven, printed and knitted textiles – it is a natural thing for people who are working in-depth with cloth to think about magnifying the beauty of the structures they love into larger scale motifs, etc. Think of all the textiles you have seen that make use of this notion. Plaited twills, cabled patterns that look like basket weaving or braiding, printed textiles that look like large-scale plain weave or printed textiles that look like magnified knit stitches.
I have just posted another deflected doubleweave metaweave towel pattern on Etsy, and I wanted to expand the playground a little with some other structures/motifs. I particularly enjoy drafting it in as many structures as I can think of . . . and digging through my weaving library to see what fab creations I can find. I haven’t even looked at Handweaving.net, but I can imagine that is some Meta mania to be found there.
Block DW Twill on 24
New pattern – DefDW Meta towels on 8 shafts
Quigley on 9 shafts
DefDW blanket – body on 8 – border on 16
Bergman on 8
Double Dimity draft from Warp & Weft by Eriksson Gustavsson & Lovallius
Double Dimity – tencel warp/wool weft
Turned Atwater Bronson – #613 from Strickler
DefDW Meta towel I did for Gist yarn
Meta Shadow on 9
DefDW Mega Meta 2/2 Twill
Meta Rep on 9
4-shaft satin on 20
As you can see most of these examples are depictions of plain weave in a variety of other structures from Atwater Bronson to Quigley, etc. I am interested in exploring other combinations . . . various twill are a good possibility, but I wonder if satin would be a recognizable motif for most people . . .
Satin in Summer & Winter on 20
What do you think? I would love to hear about your adventures in the world of “meta”.
Mary
Thank you for another educational and informative post. I just finished the I Never Met a Meta I didn’t like. That was a fun weave! That was my first Meta, as far as I know.
Elisabeth Hill
Great Mary👍
Send pix, and I’ll do a follow-up post with metas irl . . . can’t wait to see.
Kathleen Lopes
I love this blog! Fascinating designs that I will try. Thanks for metaweave!
Elisabeth Hill
Thanks Kathleen – send pix of any metas that roll off your loom and I’ll post. This could be fun🤩🤩
Shirley Bergert
Just got my Pfizer second shot a few hours ago and am awaiting the 24 hour flu I expect to experience (all the while saying ‘thank you’ to the miracles of modern science and medicine. Instead, however, I got a great boost of inspiration from your blog. Nice…
Elisabeth Hill
Happy days re vaccine (not the flu-y feelings obviously)! Thanks for the comment and fingers crossed that we will get to see our big (and little in your case) babies sometime soon!
Martha Town
In the 90’s I was inspired by a Nova program that showed the macroscopic structure of crystals are actually a reflection of their microscopic structure. Based on this, I designed a 16 shaft block twill with four blocks. Each block was a 4 shaft broken twill (microscopic) and I wove the four blocks in a broken twill order (macroscopic).
Elisabeth Hill
Wow!! Can you email me a pic? Or post a link in comments so we can see this creation? Sounds very interesting!
Erika Lewis
Dear Lisa, I was on a zoom with CW16’sgroup yesterday, and somebody mentioned “meta weaves”. I had never heard of it, and I’m very interested to learn more about it.Where do I find articles or even a book about it?
????to you,
Erika
Elisabeth Hill
Hi Erika,
I spoke to Claudia Spaulding (my guild mate and your study group mate I believe), and she has asked for a presentation on “Metaweave”. I’m looking at my calendar and my WiFi capabilities (I’m currently in far west Texas), and trying to pick a date. In the meantime – the term “Metaweave” is my coinage I believe, and it is not a structure. That’s probably why you’re having trouble finding anything about it. I use it to describe a graphic that depicts a weave structure or interlacement woven in a different structure or scale. I have a blog post from a few years back going into it in a little more depth. The term may be mine, and I first thought of wanting to weave a depiction of a woven interlacement while joining Becky Ashenden in a draw-loom class, but even though it may have been new to me at the time, it is certainly not a new idea. There are historic drafts in lace and tied weaves and dimity that are “meta”, and we are all familiar with knitwear and printed textiles that look like plain weave or basket weave at a bigger scale. Anyway, I may be seeing you on zoom if you all decide to pursue the notion as a study group topic, and I may join your study group! It’s a rabbit hole that keeps calling me back:))
Deb
Hi Lisa,
I bought your meta weave draft, and was wondering if 8/2 cotton in the warp, 16/2 cotton in the weft would work? But am stuck on what size the tabby should be? I have a lot of 8/2 cotton and didn’t want to invest in the linen yarns you cite in the draft. Will these size yarns work? and please recommend a tabby size. Thank you
Elisabeth Hill
Hi Deb, thanks so much for your purchase. Are you talking about the Metaweave Towels or the I Never Met a Meta towels (or the Heavy Meta towels?????). Since you mention linen, I am assuming you’re talking about Heavy Meta. I think that 8/2 and 16/2 cotton could work very well. You will need to adjust sett to get a square beat. I would start at 30, but open to 25 (3,2,3,2, etc in a 10-dent reed)if it’s too hard to beat square. I hope that helps and happy weaving!!
Deb
Thank you Lisa! What about tabby size? I love your drafts and have bought the medallion towels also!
Elisabeth Hill
Hi Deb,
16/2 for warp and tabby weft, with 8/2 as pattern would be lovely I think. So happy you like the patterns – I like to think of them as “conversations” with other weavers????