A year of Sprang - January 2025

Happy New Year! While I am not making any resolutions, I am committed to continuing my study of Sprang, under the tutelage of an official teacher in the SCA. 

For Christmas, I asked for one of the "Year Long Sprang-a-Long" programs found at spranglady.com. I previously did a more introductory course that described various stitches, and slowly worked itself into a variety of projects and reading charts. The program I selected for 2025 was the "S and Z" course, which features patterns from the sprang artist Sharon Wichman. You can read a little about Sharon at this link: https://www.sprangart.com/musings/a-passion-for-s-z 

Switching from Z leaning stitches to S leaning stitches creates a row of crossed, as opposed to interlinked, threads. It also means that the direction of the stitch leans in the other direction. Creating rows of Z and then S stitches creates, in my mind, an interesting look to the fabric. This is what my failed Maminka scarf was supposed to be, had I not failed it. My first project is to play with two different Motifs to get a sense of how the fabric looks and how the threads move. The results are below. 

For both: I have settled into a kind of warp that I'm happy with. It incorporates both the first cross and still has symmetry top and bottom of the cloth. I also threaded strings along the warp bars so that when the swatch is pulled off, there is a prethreaded drawstring. Both ideas come straight from Collingwood's språng "bible".

i "over/undered" a stick in the center of the warp that meant both sides had an initial cross row.

There's the "drawstring" thread.

Motif A: switching from Z to S

Yarn used: worsted weight white wool

This went pretty well. I have a much better understanding of what the threads are actually doing as opposed to simply recreating the stitches. 

i like this pattern. It gives a bit of interest to the texture. I find it's much less twisty when it comes off the loom.

 Motif B: switching from Z to interweaving

 Yarn used: worsted wool, white with a couple red stripes

This was fun. By switching back and forth between z and s the fabric resembles a woven fabric. The stripes move through the cloth and create interesting designs. 

This has a couple mistakes in it, I made some ropes in one pass for example. Ha! That always delights me. 

Doing row after row leaves time to think, and I have made a connection regarding why the threads move a certain way at the beginning and end of the row, when the two "front" or two "back" threads wind around each other. I begin to feel the threads more intuitively. I think this will help as I move into the more complicated structures coming up in future months.

In Twisted Service,

AW