Multi-shaft weaves

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

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*** 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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

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

Walk Your Treadles: Weave Without Mistakes

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Introduction:
Once I saw on Instagram a loom where the treadles had numbers pasted on them. Starting from an edge the numbers were: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. I like to keep my treadles free of numbers so they can be tied up for any structure I might want to weave. I think of setting up the treadles is like arranging furniture!

Multi-shaft weaves often need a lot of treadles. One way to keep track of your treadles is to organize them so that when you are weaving, you alternate your feet, called “walking the treadles.” I think beginning from the outside treadle and working in is a good idea, because your feet can always “feel” the outermost treadle without your having to look down at the treadles. So, the treadles for weaving all the blocks alike might be the far left one, then the far right one, then the next-to-left, and the next-to-the-right one. If you have another set of treadles, say for borders or another block, put them on the outside and put the ones for the body of the design nearer the center of the loom, so your feet don’t have to reach so far for them. If possible, I like to leave treadles down between my sets of treadles, so my feet can feel their way easier. Always try to set up the treadles so you don’t have to look at them and can feel them with your feet. Walking your treadles makes keeping track of them easier. While one foot is pressing a treadle, the other foot will be resting on the next one!

Selvedges on Separate Shafts when you Can’t a Use Float Selvedge

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Introduction:

Recently I got a comment about what to do about selvedges when using a fly shuttle and you can’t use a floating selvedge. I hadn’t thought of that circumstance before so decided a post was a good idea. I went down another rabbit hole very happily. This post discusses putting the selvedge threads on separate shafts. First is the 2-shaft version. Then follows a 4 -shaft version called a tape selvedge. I learned both from my mentor, Jim Ahrens and they are in my book, Weaving & Drafting Your Own Cloth

During Covid, I posted every other day! I don’t know how I did it. And in September 2020 I did several about selvedges. Two posts discussed weighting selvedge threads separately . You can see them HERE.

Part One

Part Two

When I searched for selvedges, there were lots of posts. Use the Search button and you can find quite a lot about selvedges. From winding the shuttles and throwing the shuttle and lots more.

Selvedges on 2 shafts:

Selvedge threads carried on their own two shafts, will always weave plain weave at the selvedge. They will be caught when the shed changes for the pattern or main weave structure. They should be weighted separately of course, because they will take up differently from the ends in the main cloth. Plain weave takes up the most of all weaves, which might make it weave too far ahead of the main weave. If that happens, and you have two more shafts, switch to a tape selvedge on 4 shafts. I think I would try finer selvedge threads before going to 4 shafts. With 4 shafts, the selvedges would weave in basket weave which doesn’t build up so fast—but it takes 4 shafts.

Which shafts?

I usually put the selvedges on the back wo shafts. However, if the warps are sticky, putting them on the front two shafts will force them to open better when making the sheds. For very long warps, and for the best balance, put the selvedges on the middle shafts: they won’t get lifted as high as on the back ones, so they won’t get so much wear and tear.

Thread the body of the warp according to your plan, but on each edge put four or so threads onto two shafts. If the body uses 4 shafts, then alternate the threads of each selvedge on shafts 5 and 6. The threading for each selvedge is: 5,6,5,6 or 6,5,6,5, depending on which edge you are threading, and which shafts the threads in the main part start and end on. If your main warp is to be a weave on 5 shafts, then the selvedges would be on 6 and 7. If the main warp uses 8 shafts, then the selvedges go on shafts 9 and 10, etc.

Remember, since they will be weaving plain weave, they will take up differently from the main warp so, of course they must be weighted separately.

The Tie-up

Tie up the treadles so every other shed lifts shaft 5 and the alternate sheds lift shaft 6.

It’s the tie-up that makes he selvedge and the main weave integrated, so be sure that the selvedge shafts alternate with each treadle in your sequence. See the illustration.

It’s desirable to have the main structure of the cloth weave with an even number of treadles. Then, both the main body and the selvedges will take an even number of sheds. An odd number of shafts in the body, such as a 5-shaft weave, would need 10 treadles to tie up to achieve the 5 sheds for the body and the 2 sheds for the selvedges. In other words, you would have to go through the weave sequence twice to complete a cycle, because the plain weave structure requires two sheds.

Or you can use two feet at once: one for the selvedge treadles and the other for the cloth structure.

Selvedges on 4 shafts: Tape selvedges

A tape selvedge is also called basket weave or 2/2 hopsak weave. One reason to use it is when the weave structure doesn’t make a neat selvedge. The warps and wefts will intersect less (or more) often than they do in the body’s weave structure, so you can get clean sheds at the selvedges. It makes a very neat selvedge, which can look as if it were commercially made. It is nice for rugs as well as for fabric.

This technique requires four shafts—two on each edge of the cloth. Four or six ends per selvedge work just fine.

The selvedge ends that are raised change only on one edge with each weft. At the other edge, the selvedge ends are raised or lowered as they were in the previous shed. See the illustration where the two sheds on the right are 1 and 2, and the two on the left are 3 and 4.

Note that the side that changes is the side where the shuttle enters the shed. (The X’s indicate the warp ends lifted over the weft.)

This illustration shows 4 selvedge threads at each edge. It shows how the tape is a true 2/2 weave with two warps threaded on one shaft, alternated with 2 threaded on the other shaft. The principle remains the same: to catch the weft, enter the shuttle on the side that has just changed.

You may have to adjust the density in the reed and the weight on the selvedge threads to get them to match the tension of the main warp. Of course, they will be weighted separately from the main warp. The take-up of the selvedge threads is usually less with a tape selvedge because it has fewer intersections of warps and wefts. The wefts should weave straight across the body, and at the selvedges, neither lag nor weave ahead. By the way, don’t make the tape super dense or use sticky, hairy, or loopy yarn.

This edge works perfectly with 8-shaft satins. The tape selvedge threads will intersect more often than the satin weave itself. The warps are usually very densely sleyed for satin and there aren’t enough intersections in the weave to interlace at the edge to make a good-looking selvedge. A tape selvedge with half the intersections of a plain weave selvedge works better than a two-shaft selvedge because the plain weave has too many intersections which causes it to build up faster than the satin. The tape’s sequence used twice equals one sequence of the satin. (Remember to add four shafts to the eight needed for the satin.)

A tape selvedge can prevent the edges of warp and weft faced weaves from curling when they are taken off the loom.

It would not be easy to use a tape selvedge for overshot patterns. Just think of the nightmare of keeping track of the four sheds of the selvedge along with the treadling for four overshot blocks. Of course, a computer driven loom could do it easily.