Threading is what makes crackle weave crackle. The number of shuttles and treadling patterns can vary, but all are threaded with the same basic elements. That threading is a 3-shaft point twill.
A point twill is when the shafts are threaded 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 3 - 2 (repeat). On a graph, (starting from the bottom right) it looks like this for a four shaft loom:
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| basic unit of a 4-shaft point twill |
When repeated (right to left), the draft looks like a series of points. Point twill is one of the threadings I used for my twill gamp dishtowels.
On a four shaft loom, a 3-shaft point twill can be threaded four different ways.
Any one of them can be repeated as desired. The tricky part comes when transitioning from one block to the next. For example, from A to B. As you can see in the above image, Block A ends on shaft 2, and Block B begins on shaft 2. Because crackle is a twill variation, the succession of threads must alternate odd and even shafts. The solution is to place transition threads between the blocks.
These transition threads are called "incidentals." You may recall from Crackle Weave: Somewhat of a History, that Harriet Tidball is credited as the first to standardize crackle draft writing. Her system repeats the first thread of the block as the incidental. In this example, Block A starts on shaft 1, so the incidental is threaded on shaft 1.
This follows standard point twill threading and works well when transitioning from A to B, B to C, C to D, and D to A. Berta Frey (Designing and Drafting for Handweavers, 1958) went on to address incidentals when blocks are skipped, for example C to A or B to D. In these cases, two incidentals are added to maintain the twill structure.
Mind you, this is all still head knowledge for me at this point. I don't plan to do any designing at present, but for now, understanding all of this helps me make sense of crackle drafts that I look it.
Other threading notes
- Crackle uses a tabby sett.
- Berta Frey recommends threading the selvedges in a straight 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 twill, repeating as desired.
2 comments:
It seems like so much to keep track of, Leigh. Do you do it in your head or print out a copy of the sheet and track along with it?
It is a lot to keep track of. I suppose I could call it "mentally engaging." I don't have a printer, so I enlarge the pattern draft on my computer screen so I can follow it on my loom. It's easy to remember the section threading as I do it, I just have to know how many threads before changing to the next section. Usually, these have different colors of thread, so that makes it easy to keep track.
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