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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Stitched Double Weave

At long last I have started work on my Stitched Double Weave sampler. The draft is Strickler #691 with the treadles moved around a bit I could understand it better. The draft below is as it was just before I converted it to lift-plan. It shows the "theoretical" tie up as opposed to the practical.

Treadles 1 and 3 weave brown in the top layer on shafts 7 & 8. Treadles 2 and 4 weave ecru in the bottom layer on shafts 1 to 6 (7 & 8 are also lifted every time to lift the top layer out of the way when weaving the bottom layer). The stitched design is produced by lifting any combination of treadles 6 to 11 when weaving the top layer. This pulls individual stitches of the bottom layer into the top layer to form the pattern; in the example below, a heart and a box shape.  The practical tie up is as shown below. I got the idea of deconstructing a tie up into its theoretical components from Weaver's Issue 2 Summer 1988 and some of my class notes.
I have put on a warp of bright cotton in blue and yellow so that I can see exactly what is happening. Rather than having a print out of the lift plan I have positioned my net book computer next to the loom so that I can use a magnified view of the treadling and the cursor keys to check where I am.  I am finding it much easier that marking off on a bit of paper. I change the colour of a weft on the screen to mark where I am whenever I take a break.










Getting the warp onto the loom took much longer than it should have done because of some silly errors that I made because I didn't properly think through how to thread two warps when using a double back beam.The photo below shows the moment when I  was halfway through sorting out my problems.


I also became distracted on a nice sunny day by a side project that I have on the go which is weaving a wall hanging. The idea comes from this book ( I felt that I should put on a pair of flared trousers just to read it). 
There are only three different techniques used and I am particularly taken with warp wrapping which has possibilities. I am not sure what I shall do with it when it is finished as my wife has issued a pre-emptive banning order!


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