Bumberet!

I’d been curious about this weave structure since I saw an interesting tea towel in a weaving forum. It is a 4 shaft structure so perfect for my little loom. I put it in my list of things to look at someday, then the most recent issue of Heddlecraft (January 2021 – Ribs) dropped into my in-box and there it was! Here’s a peek at my sampler:

Bumberet Sampler

Robyn Spady used blue, red, green and purple for her samples, woven with a black weft. I used alternating warm and cool colours, too, but six of them. I wove with blue, orange, turquoise, lime green, emerald green and a rich golden yellow. The blue, turquoise and emerald alternate with much warmer yellow, lime and orange. Classic Bumberet has floats of alternating stripes on each side, so you get a nice warm side and a cool side. Other methods of treadling it (more later) mix the colours more. Some of the results are similar on both sides; some are very, very different.

Here’s my drawdown:

It’s just a simple point twill, but the trick is in the colours and in the treadling. The stripes are three threads wide threaded as 212 or 343. The treadling alternates tabby shots with a shot that goes over three and under three. That makes alternating stripes show on the surface while the other stripes are below the weft (so show on the other side). It’s so simple, but so very effective.

I wove up most of the samples from that issue of Heddlecraft (delivered as a PDF plus WIF files and easy to purchase online – recommended!). I like almost all of them! After some agonizing, I selected four to weave into tea towels, as that’s all the warp I put on the loom.

Classic Bumberet has the most dramatic differences between the sides. One side is very blue and green; the other very gold and orange. I love the effect and it would look fantastic as a garment using both sides in different places to get a dramatic effect. Here’s classic Bumberet woven up:

I wove three inches of each side, then folded it back so you’re seeing both sides both ways. I love the little flower-like patterns and the recessed dots of the other colours peeking through.

Many of the other treadlings are quite similar on both sides. Here are four of the samples:

The two on the outside are similar on both sides; the two in the middle are quite different.

I love this weave! It is fun and easy with short treadling patterns. I want to try some other treadlings on it – twills or crackle treadlings – to see what happens. And I want to try other colours and other colour orders. I’d like to use some of my different reds and pinks with some greens – a reminder of the roses that are blooming like mad in my garden. I’d like to try some colour orders that are symmetrical. The dark blue in my colours jumps out – it would be nice to see a symmetric set of colours between, so maybe blue, gold, green, lime, turquoise, lime, green, gold and back to blue. I also want to see what happens if I put some of the colours of shafts 1-4 of an 8 shaft loom, then the others on shafts 5-8. I could then try different tie-ups or changing the face on the tie-up to get more effects.

What a treat to find a structure that is such a simple concept but has so many possibilities!