double weave and quadruple cloth

With doubleweave one weaves two cloths one above the other, normally on four shafts.These cloths can be joined at the selvedges as you weave to create either a tube or a double folded cloth (joined at one selvedge only). With eight shafts one can weave four cloths and this opens up many possibilities.

Whereas a cloth in 8/2 cotton might have 25 warp threads per inch width (10 threads per cm), weaving four cloths one on top of the other means there are now 100 threads per inch (40 threads per cm) - which makes dressing the loom a little more cramped to say the least!

these first explorations are just to try the different techniques and structures so I've been easy on myself colour coding the warps for each of the four cloths and starting with a 5.5" (12.5cm) wide warp a couple of meters long.

The first section is weaving a tube within a tube - effectively a bag with a lining. Next I brought the lining to the outside and the outside to the inside. Still a single bag but with a "waffled" wall. 

With two layers to the walls of the bag, I tried a bit of leno lace. Hand manipulation of the outer cloth warp threads to create an open structure which allows you to see the cloth below peaking through.

Next I wove four separate layers (4 rather than 2 shuttles required) to form a pair of open ended tubes around the top of the bag to accept a pair of drawstrings.

Finally, a pair of tubes side by side that when turned inside out into the bag already woven will create double lining divided into two sections.
 

 

Off the loom and finished

curtains 2

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!