Weaving History - What's in a Name
Twills are one of my favorite structures to weave. Granted, twill is a foundation for many other weaves including overshot. Today, I'm going to focus a little bit on twill names and patterns while exploring some of the historical weaves used during the Colonial and Early American Republic time period.
Twills are a weave structure that passes the weft over two warp threads and under two warp threads creating a diagonal pattern on the fabric as seen below. In the photograph above, taken from my current project on the loom, you can see what is called a Bird's Eye pattern which is a type of returning twill.
All right, for those of you who understand weaving set-ups you can skip a little bit, but for others who don't, continue reading.
Weavers follow the pattern guides called drafts (draughts in Colonial times). The draft above is set-up for 2/2 Twill. To read the draft, you begin at the intersection of the grid. Therefore, in Quadrant 2, you read from left to right, but in Quadrant 1 you read from right to left.
In Quadrant 2 you can see circles in certain boxes. These circles indicate which shafts need to be moved to create the pattern. This area is called the tie-up pattern. For some weavers it is easier to tie up particular shafts to particular treadles to make weaving easier. I utilize a direct tie-up on my looms so shaft one corresponds to treadle one. An indirect tie-up would have shafts 1 and 2 corresponding to treadle 1.
In Quadrant 1 there are a series of numbers. Each number indicates which shaft is threaded therefore number 1 means shaft 1 while number 4 means shaft 4, it doesn't mean how many threads go into a particular heddle.
In Quadrant 3 are a series of X that indicate the treadling order. Therefore when the first X is pressed, shafts one and two are moved. On my loom, they sink.
Lastly, in Quadrant 4, the pattern is drawn indicated in blue squares on the image. It is in the draw-down where a weaver can double-check the pattern especially old patterns or ones they create. There are a couple weaver programs available that make this task easier.
The pattern above is for a straight 2/2 Twill and will create a series of diagonal lines on the fabric. If you change either the shafts or the treadling, you can have a chevron pattern, seen below.
When both the heddles and the treadles utilize the return a diamond is formed as seen in the photograph of my current project. Depending on how tightly I pack my weft the diamond shape can be a true diamond shape or a flat diamond shape.
The other difference tends to be names. For example, the Bird's Eye pattern has two different drafts. One is seen above, and the second draft is seen below.
The major difference between the two patterns involves a secondary design in Black's draft which is not present in Meigs-Atwater's draft. Both drafts do have a point in the center of a diamond forming the pupil of an eye.
Overshot patterns have a similar trouble in that draft names can have multiple tie-ups. We find this same situation with quilting patterns, and much of it is a result of the folk art nature of weaving and quilting. The patterns were created by women who passed their patterns onto friends and family who did the same.
Sometimes, we can limit patterns to around a certain time period. In Meigs-Atwater's book, she has a draft called Lee's Surrender (page 180). Theoretically, this pattern could be limited to the American Civil War with Robert E. Lee's surrender to Grant, but the draft might pop up elsewhere under another name.
While it might seem as there are only so many patterns to be made on a four-shaft loom, the actual answer is there are many patterns to be made on a simple four-shaft loom. Like the rigid heddle loom, four shafts limit many things, but to a creative individual, it limits very little.
Therefore, as I work through the process of research of weaves, I have to remember that a pattern might be called another name in a different book or even a different area.
Notes:
The drafts for the two bird's eye patterns were taken from:
1. Black, Mary E. New Key to Weaving: A Textbook of Hand Weaving for the Beginning Weaver. New York: The Bruce Publishing Comapny, 1957.
2. Atwater, Mary Meigs. The Shuttle-craft Book of American Hand-weaving. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966.
 |
| Return Twill, Bird's Eye pattern |
 |
| 2/2 Twill Pattern |
Weaving Set-ups
To create patterns in a fabric, you have two elements to focus upon beyond color: heddle set-up as well as treadling the shafts to which the heddles are attached. The basic weaving pattern follows the element below: |
| Weaver's Draft |
In Quadrant 2 you can see circles in certain boxes. These circles indicate which shafts need to be moved to create the pattern. This area is called the tie-up pattern. For some weavers it is easier to tie up particular shafts to particular treadles to make weaving easier. I utilize a direct tie-up on my looms so shaft one corresponds to treadle one. An indirect tie-up would have shafts 1 and 2 corresponding to treadle 1.
In Quadrant 1 there are a series of numbers. Each number indicates which shaft is threaded therefore number 1 means shaft 1 while number 4 means shaft 4, it doesn't mean how many threads go into a particular heddle.
In Quadrant 3 are a series of X that indicate the treadling order. Therefore when the first X is pressed, shafts one and two are moved. On my loom, they sink.
Lastly, in Quadrant 4, the pattern is drawn indicated in blue squares on the image. It is in the draw-down where a weaver can double-check the pattern especially old patterns or ones they create. There are a couple weaver programs available that make this task easier.
The pattern above is for a straight 2/2 Twill and will create a series of diagonal lines on the fabric. If you change either the shafts or the treadling, you can have a chevron pattern, seen below.
 |
| Return Twill Draft (Bird's Eye, Black) |
Historically Speaking
Because weaving is such an ancient craft, and weaving with multiple shaft looms almost equally as old, many weaves we use today are historically accurate. The biggest difference isn't in the choice of structure, but in color.The other difference tends to be names. For example, the Bird's Eye pattern has two different drafts. One is seen above, and the second draft is seen below.
 |
| Bird's Eye, Meigs-Atwater |
Overshot patterns have a similar trouble in that draft names can have multiple tie-ups. We find this same situation with quilting patterns, and much of it is a result of the folk art nature of weaving and quilting. The patterns were created by women who passed their patterns onto friends and family who did the same.
Sometimes, we can limit patterns to around a certain time period. In Meigs-Atwater's book, she has a draft called Lee's Surrender (page 180). Theoretically, this pattern could be limited to the American Civil War with Robert E. Lee's surrender to Grant, but the draft might pop up elsewhere under another name.
While it might seem as there are only so many patterns to be made on a four-shaft loom, the actual answer is there are many patterns to be made on a simple four-shaft loom. Like the rigid heddle loom, four shafts limit many things, but to a creative individual, it limits very little.
Therefore, as I work through the process of research of weaves, I have to remember that a pattern might be called another name in a different book or even a different area.
Notes:
The drafts for the two bird's eye patterns were taken from:
1. Black, Mary E. New Key to Weaving: A Textbook of Hand Weaving for the Beginning Weaver. New York: The Bruce Publishing Comapny, 1957.
2. Atwater, Mary Meigs. The Shuttle-craft Book of American Hand-weaving. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966.
Comments
Post a Comment