Weaving Puzzle

I was at a weaving study group last week when talk turned to double weave. I had seen some lovely scarves at the CNCH Boutique that was woven as 2 separate layers with occasional blocks where the 2 layers interacted to lock together. I think I’ve figured out what I need to do to make this work.

But Gudrun posed another double weave scenario and challenged me to create a draft for it for next month’s meeting. So what’s the puzzle? It is double cloth but the weft intersects at the center. So while weaving, you will have 2 open layers of cloth on each side, but the center is enclosed. And it’s woven with a single shuttle — a continuous weft weaves through all the layers.  If you were to take a cross section of the woven piece, it will look like an “X”.

Left: Top View; Right: Bottom View

And here’s what the cross section looks like.

Not great pictures, I know, but I only wound a 1 yard warp to test out my draft. These are really really tiny samples. And yes, I screwed up with sett. I didn’t double my thread count for the double cloth, so this is a weft faced weave and obscured the warp colors. But the point is made.

In case you are curious, here’s the draft. It requires 8 shafts and 4 treadles. Sorry, no WIF file since I only have the demo version of PixeLoom. And second apology for not using the same color order as I did in my sample.

So, how does this work?

Treadle 1: You are weaving the first part of the tabby for the bottom right layer (blue) and the top left layer (green)

Treadle 2: You are now returning on the second part of the tabby of the top left layer (green) and starting the first part of the tabby for the top right layer (red)

Treadle 3: 2nd part of the top right layer (red) and 1st part of the bottom left layer (yellow)

Treadle 4: 2nd part of the bottom left layer (yellow) and 2nd part of the bottom right layer (blue) that you started on Treadle 1.

Still confused? Perhaps this diagram of the shuttle path might help.

Shuttle Path

Of course, after I finished testing out my sample, I found a Double Weave Workshop (pdf) by Winifred Tonkin over at Glenna Harris Guild website. See exercise J. She provides instructions on how to weave this on 4 shafts. it’s a bit fiddly since you weave all 4 sections separately (top right, bottom right, top left, bottom left).

Note: Pardon me if I don’t have all the terminology correct. Please let me know how do describe this more correctly. I really do want to know.