MTW With Heavier Weft

Dr. Bateman's book, Multiple Tabby Weaves, has about 18 drafts with anywhere between three and six variations for each one. Rather than try to work my way through all of them, I thought that I would rather simply apply some of his ideas for exploring multiple tabby weaves.

For this next experiment, I tied on the new warp, so I could use the same threading and tie-up as I did for my first samples....

... but I used different treadling and a heavier weft.

This sample uses mercerized cottons for both warp and weft. The warp is 8/2 in two shades of brown. The weft is a light, cool green sportweight knitting yarn.

From a distance, it almost has textured looking horizontal stripes, which don't actually exist, as you can see in the close-up below (courtesy of my new Canon PowerShot SD 1000 digital camera which I absolutely love!)

The treadling sequence is confusing to explain (for me). The different tabby blocks are created with different pairs of treadles, 1 & 2, 3 & 4, and 5 & 6. I'm changing treadling in a sequence of 6 shots, 8 shots, 16 shots, and reverse. You can probably see it in the overall pattern better than I can explain it!

Interestingly, the selvedges are behaving themselves much more nicely with the heavier weft. I'm also using floating selvedges this time, so that might be a factor also. Anyway, it's still a one shuttle weave and so going quickly. Dr. Bateman also wove many MTW samples using an overshot technique with both pattern and tabby wefts. So that is on my list to try too.

© 2008 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:
Multiple Tabby Weaves
Off The Loom - How these samples turned out