Weaving Double Weave in Blocks:  Learn the principles using two blocks. You’ll need 8 shafts and a special threading

*** Note! Photo number 7 was incorrect when I published this post last week. It is replaced in this corrected post. Thanks to subscriber Bruce for making it more clear. I love getting comments, questions, and suggestions from my readers.

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Introduction:

In the case of double weave, 2 layers of cloth are woven simultaneously. The basics of double weaving are discussed in detail in my book Weaving for Beginners and on this website. In this case,  the two layers of cloth go all across the cloth—from selvedge to selvedge and only 4 shafts are used. To review the basics see Weaving for Beginners or  my website posts: Double Weave for Dummies, Parts 1, 2, and 3. Go to my website and on the home page click on the Search box and type in double weave to find these posts.

This post is based on that previous knowledge.

When weaving with double weave blocks you can weave one layer part way across the cloth and a different layer across other part of the cloth.

In other words, you can weave two things at once. In other, other words, when the shuttle goes across the warp it can weave two different things at once. In other, other, other words the two areas can weave independently and weave what ever each area wants to.

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With double weave to accomplish 2 things at once we need to thread the 2 areas in the illustration above differently. For example section A is threaded on shafts 1,2,3 and 4. While section B is threaded on 5,6,7,8.

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What are blocks?
We need to have words to distinguish the areas in the illustration above. Let’s call the area on the left Block A and the section on the right Block B.

 Areas that weave differently across the warp are called blocks. Another way to think about it is that there are two different “looms” or  two different groups of threads within the width of the warp. All the threads in a group can act alike because they are threaded to work as a unit. Read on and I think it will become clearer. See in the previous illustration the threading for 2 groups. And that the threads in A can do whatever you want them to, and you can have threads in Block B do something else if you like.

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We need to make a convention to make it easier to be consistent. Let’s say all the odd shafts have light threads and give the even shafts dark threads.

For example, in the threading in illustration 2 above, the light threads would be threaded only on shafts 1 & 3 in block A and 5 & 7 in block B. Dark warps would be  threaded only on shafts 2,4,6 and 8.

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How to weave the two blocks differently: Make a Key

Key #1: Block A light on top (dark on bottom)
                Block B dark on top (light on bottom)

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Weaving the top layer is just like weaving a single cloth; lift one of the shafts, throw the shuttle; and change to the other shaft and throw the shuttle.

To weave the bottom layer, lift the top layer’s shafts up out of the way and also lift one of the shafts for the bottom layer. Then for the next weft, lift the top layer’s shafts up again plus the other shaft for the bottom layer.

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These tie-up drafts explain how to weave the left half of our sample (Block A) light on the top layer and dark on the bottom.

With your light wefts lift shaft 1for a shot and shaft 3  for the next weft shot.

And to weave the bottom layer with both dark wefts : lift 1 & 3 up out of the way plus lift shaft 2 and for the next shot lift again 1&3 plus 4.

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These tie-up drafts show how to weave the right half of our sample, block B: dark on top and light on the bottom.
With your first weft (light), lift 6&8 out of the way plus lift shaft 5. Then 6&8 plus 7. Then with your two dark weft shots lift 6 then 8.

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Make the complete tie-up. This is the final result for the tie up for Key #1.

Now combine these two tie-ups so both Block A and Block B will weave at once—That is, Block A and Block B will weave side-by-side. In other words, they will weave simultaneously with 4 weft shots (weft rows): 2 light wefts then 2 dark wefts. Note that I made a correction in the tie up. It’s easy to make mistakes with these cfomplicated tie ups/ It was discovered by my “student”, Bruce, who I was trying to explain things to.

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Now for more practice use this key:
Key #2: Block A dark on top (light on bottom)
                Block B light on top (dark on bottom)

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Key #3: Block A light on top (dark on bottom)
                 Block B light on top (dark on bottom)

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Key #4 Block A dark on top (light on bottom)
              Block B dark on top (light on bottom)

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