Leigh's Fiber Journal: Twill Gamp Weaving 6

Friday, September 15, 2023

Twill Gamp Weaving 6

This is the last of it! The third of my three dishtowels is woven, so the next step is getting it off the loom. Then I'll wash it and dry it, and we'll see how they turned out.

I only had one thing to figure out this time. I wove through many of the short treadle draft patterns first and then took a look at some with longer sequences. I'm using The Weaving Book, remember, and many of the patterns have sections that repeat the treadling anywhere from 2 to 6 times. This is characteristic of overshot and creates large pattern shapes, but I avoided these at first because I wasn't sure how to keep track of the treadle order.

This one, for example. In my case, it's a liftplan, so it indicates the pairs of shafts that I'm lifting:

1. 2 - 3 (x 4)

2. 3 - 4 (x 2)

3. 1 - 4 (x 2)

4. 1 - 2 (x 2)

5. 1 - 4 (x 2)

6. 3 - 4 (x 2)

That's a total of 28 pattern weft shots. Did I really want to work with 28 beads? My numbered bead method for keeping track was working well for ten or less treadle changes, so I had to decide what to do about the repeats. I finally decided to work with just six beads and slide the bead to the middle of the stick until I completed all the repeats.

I'm on #4 in the pattern, lifting shafts 1 and 2 twice.

When I complete the repeats, I slide the bead all the way to the right and I'm ready for the next one. I found this works quite well, because it's easy to see the repeats in the fabric and make sure I've got them all.

For future reference, here are the last five sections.