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Color-and-Weave is a Plain Weave structure that uses alternating colors (generally two, but sometimes more) in warp and weft (usually the same two colors, but not always) so the viewer sees an overall pattern as opposed to the structure of the cloth.
For example, Plain Weave woven with white in the warp and black in the weft clearly shows the structure of the cloth as the interlacement of the threads is prominent. But when woven in the same two colors alternating in both the warp and weft, the pattern created by the color sequences becomes most prominent.
In the images below, Plain Weave is on the left, and the Color-and-Weave pattern called Log Cabin is shown on the right. Both pictures show the same woven threading and treadling, only the colors of the threads have changed.
For example:
Below the herringbone draft is converted into a Shadow Weave draft using the Mary Atwater method:
Shadow Weave can create large and complex motifs, often giving the illusion of three-dimensional shapes floating above and below the surface of the cloth. The visual effect is magical. People want to touch Shadow Weave fabrics even more than most textiles, expecting to feel the shapes with their fingers.
The image below is a simple 4-shaft Shadow Weave draft with a 22-thread and pick repeat:
You might see white-edged circles and black-edged squares floating above a ground of horizontal lines. Or you might see vertical strips weaving through horizontal strips with the white circles floating above. Or your eyes and mind may interpret it in a different way altogether. In any case you almost certainly see shapes layered over shapes giving a strong illusion of depth. This is the mystery and wonder of the Shadow Weave illusion.
Baroque Shadow Weave Shawl designed by Jennifer Leigh, photo by Ian Justice
To create this illusion of depth, Shadow Weave uses tricks familiar to anyone who has ever drawn a shaded cube in an art class, like the one pictured below. Parallel lines running in different directions trick the eye into seeing 3D edges and planes like the shading on the top and side faces of the cube, and the light and dark borders around those regions make the faces recede or emerge like the dark and light edges.
A hexagon, and the same hexagon shaded to appear as a 3D cube.
Below on the left is a detail from the 3D illusion draft above. The warp-wise and weft-wise parallel lines are obvious. They create visual regions in the draft that appear as the central circle and the corner squares.
What is less obvious are the two-thread floats that surround each of these regions, which are outlined in pink and blue on the image above to the right. In the finished cloth this has an even stronger effect than in the draft because floats always move in finishing. In Shadow Weave, the two-thread floats stand off the surface of the cloth a little bit, merging into continuous lines. These float lines outline the warp-wise and weft-wise striped regions, adding subtle texture lines to the cloth, and making them even more visually prominent. Just as in the sketched cube above, the light lines appear to come forward, and the dark lines tend to recede, further enhancing the 3D illusion.
Below is a section of finished Shadow Weave cloth, showing the raised lines the floats create:
When the same cloth was on the loom, shown below, it looked completely different!
As an added bonus, Shadow Weave creates a sturdy cloth similar to Plain Weave or 2/2 Twill. It is almost completely smooth to the hand, and excellent for blankets, shawls, and scarves because the lack of floats translates into fewer pulled threads and good resistance to wear.
Mary M. Atwater: “Introduction to Shadow Weave,” The Shuttle-Craft Guild Bulletin, January 1942. (Now in the public domain, and can be downloaded here: http://www.mmawg.org/Bulletin/1942Bulletin.pdf )
Marian Powell:1000+ Shadow Weave Patterns, Robin and Russ Handweavers, 1976. Sadly long out of print and difficult to find.
Rebecca Winter: The Enigma of Shadow Weave Illuminated, Schiffer Publishing, Limited, 2023
All draft examples, illustrations, and photos are courtesy of Jennifer Leigh unless otherwise noted.
Jennifer learned to knit, sew, and embroider before starting kindergarten, and over the years has dabbled in more or less anything that can be done with string and/or fabric. She began weaving in 2014, and now considers it her primary art form. Jennifer recently retired from a 30 year career in tech and lives in Raleigh, NC, where she is a member of the Triangle Weavers Guild. She can be found online at her blog, reddit,
and Warpsters, which she started as a passion project to build an online community for weavers to share knowledge, ideas, and creativity.
