Next weave

Hopefully the new loom will arrive soon - it's currently stuck in Lyons going through customs checks. 

The next project will be curtains for the two living room windows. I designed a couple of different fabrics, one a variation of "Summer and Winter" weave called  "Dukagang" inspired by Janet Philips fabric "Icicles"

The other a Bateman weave called "Bateman Blend" inspired by the fabric on the cover of the book "Weaving Bateman blend" by Margaret Franklin. To design the latter I had only a picture of the fabric to work from plus a little knowledge of Bateman blend threadings, which was an interesting exercise.

Next I decided to see if it was possible to weave either of the fabrics as a double cloth on my loom. This is a method by which two layers of fabric are woven at the same time, joined on one side so that the resulting fabric is double the width. The answer was yes! However after working out the new drafts, I realised I would need more treadles (pedals) than I had available. 

After more work to see if I could create a skeleton tie-up - one where more than one treadle is depressed at the same time to limit the total number of treadles (not an easy task to do on a countermarch loom!), I concluded that it wasn't possible to reduce the number of treadles to 14.

So 'double cloth' is out and I'll need a sewn join down the middle of each curtain, so I've opted for the Bateman blend design. I'll change the draft to allow for a pattern match at the seam...and I'll have to weave a colossal 12m of fabric! It's a complicated warp to wind with many colour changes and 2 different weights of cotton....Something my weaves inevitably have! I think sectional warping is going to be something to explore next - a method by which the warp can be wound straight onto a modified loom back beam in sections, rather than having to chain 700 threads each 12m long in the correct order and then attempt to wind them onto beam without tangles!