While mixing and matching four colors in doubleweave is great fun, increasing the number of colors to six in a systematic rotation creates an astounding array of optical mixtures and color-and-weave effects.
This project uses the three primary colors—blue, yellow and red—and the three secondary colors—green, orange and purple—and places them in the order in which they’d appear on a color wheel that has been rearranged as a straight line (FIGURE 11).
FIGURE 11: Color wrapping, with the secondary colors between the primary colors that produce them
Using just these six colors in two layers on four shafts, you can create all of the tertiary colors, with a number of variations, for a total of 90 different color combination.
You’ll need about 300 yd (275 m) for each of the six colors: blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and purple. Choose any tones of these colors that you like. I find that it’s most dramatic if you work with strong, saturated colors.
288 (144 per layer)
31⁄2–4 yd (3.2 to 3.6 m) allows you to weave all of the color rotations, plus have plenty of warp for experimentation.
32 epi (16 per layer)
4/dent in an 8-dent reed
Width in reed: 9 inches (23 cm)
Wind a warp 31⁄2 to 4 yd (3.2 to 3.6 m) long following the color sequence in FIGURE 12.
FIGURE 12: Warp color order
Refer to Chapter Two, Planning and Setting Up, for general warping directions and to the sidebar, Winding a Four-Color Warp, on page 82, for detailed instructions on this process.
Note:If you have eight shafts available, you can weave everything on the four-shaft sampler, plus a number of two-block techniques. See pages 158–159 for instructions for the eight-shaft sampler.
Be sure that you have 72 heddles on each of your four shafts. Thread your heddles in the sequence shown in FIGURE 13. This is the order in which you should see your warp colors from the front of your loom, regardless of whether you thread from the left or from the right.
FIGURE 13: Threading chart
Sley your reed with 4 threads per dent in an 8-dent reed (this is ideal because it gives you a complete threading unit in each dent and creates even spacing in both layers).
Tie on to your front apron rod. If you’re using a four-shaft floor loom, you’ll use a direct tie-up—that is, one treadle tied up to each of your four shafts. Weave a header by alternately lifting shafts 1 and 2 together versus 3 and 4 together.
Use the same six-layer combinations from the section on Four Shafts, Four Colors, page 80. With the six color sequences that you threaded for this warp, each of the six colors has an opportunity to be combined with each of the others in the warp. There will be no solid colors—each color block will be made up of two or three different colors and will have more complexity and depth than if it were made up of a single color.
Additionally, you can weave a rotation of each of the six colors on both layers in the weft. There are many different approaches that can be used for this. One of my favorites is to arrange six colors in a circle and start your two weft colors from opposite sides of the circle, which means that wefts for the top and bottom layers are always complementary colors (FIGURE 14).
FIGURE 14: Weft color rotation for Double Rainbow
Label your two shuttles as “1” and “2” to help you remember the order in which to use them, since the colors are changing from treadling block to treadling block.
A fun thing to do on this warp is to weave an inch or so of one layer combination, stuff the tube that you’ve created, and then switch layer combinations as well as weft color combinations, as in these hot pads.
For my sampler, I started with blue weft for the top layer and orange weft for the bottom layer and wove each of the six combinations. I then changed to green weft for the top layer and red weft for the bottom layer and wove each of the six combinations. I continued in this way until I had worked my way around the circle and woven each of the six combinations with each of the six colors. You can weave each combination sequence multiple times to increase the height of the blocks.
Another approach could be to weave one of the layer combinations for an inch or so with each weft color, and then repeat that process for each of the layer combinations.
FIGURE 15 shows the warp color combinations in both layers in each of the color blocks for each of the six layer combinations.
FIGURE 15: Warp colors in each of the Double Rainbow color blocks, for each of the six layer combinations
In addition to all of the ways you can explore color with this warp on two layers, you can also use it for a single warp-faced cloth. If you have extra warp left over, try weaving rep weave, warp-faced twills, or any other four-shaft structure that you might like to try. I find that I nearly always run out of warp before I run out of ideas, and I often end up tying on more warp so that I can play some more. I think I can say that in my 40 years of weaving, this is the most fun that I’ve ever had sitting at a loom!
FOUR-SHAFT DOUBLE RAINBOW IN PASTELS
Overshot-patterned doubleweave, introduced by Clotilde Barrett in the 1980s, greatly expands the patterning possibilities for doubleweave on a four-shaft loom. Any draft threaded in an odd-even order can be used, making doubleweave ideal for overshot patterns, as well as many twill and twill-derivative threadings. The resulting fabric looks very much like the original design from which it’s derived, but it’s an integrated two-layered plain-weave structure that avoids the problems that long floats can cause in the original structures.
Begin by finding an overshot pattern you’d like to work with, or design your own original overshot draft. You’ll be working with two contrasting warps, generally a light and a dark color. The two colors will be wound together as one warp and each will be sett for a balanced plain weave. The easiest way to understand how this works is to think of one of your warps—let’s say the dark one—as being the main color, and your other warp—the light one—as being the complementary color that follows along after the main color.
The dark warp threads will be threaded according to your original overshot draft, alternating odd and even shafts just as if you were weaving a single layer. After each dark warp thread, a light warp thread will follow and be threaded on the opposite odd or even shaft.
If a dark warp is threaded on shaft 1,
it will be followed by a light warp on shaft 3.
If a dark warp is threaded on shaft 2,
it will be followed by a light warp on shaft 4.
If a dark warp is threaded on shaft 3,
it will be followed by a light warp on shaft 1.
If a dark warp is threaded on shaft 4,
it will be followed by a light warp on shaft 2.
Rather than write out the entire threading sequence for both layers interspersed, you can simply work with your original draft, knowing that the dark warp threads will be threaded according to this draft and that the light warp threads will follow on the opposite odd or even shaft.
Each four-thread sequence will use one heddle from each of the four shafts, regardless of the specific threading draft. Therefore, you can pull out a set of four heddles for every two threads in the overshot draft, and you’ll always use an equal number of heddles from each of your four shafts. Since your threading draft is likely to be long, it’s helpful to have it written out and positioned in front of you as you thread; check off sections and tie them with slipknots as you finish threading them.
Because of the odd-even threading nature of overshot, we’re going to work with a different tie-up than for the other four-shaft drafts with which we’ve been working. Two different tie-up and treadling sequences are given here—one for six treadles and one for eight treadles. You can choose whichever best suits you and your loom.
Looking at the six-treadle tie-up (FIGURE 16), the center treadles will now lift either both odd shafts or both even shafts. To the left of these are the individual odd shafts, and to the right are the individual even shafts. The left foot lifts the odd plain-weave shed and the individual odd shafts. The right foot lifts the even plain-weave shed and the individual even shafts. In the eight-treadle tie-up, the left foot operates each of the individual shafts for the top layer, and the right foot operates each of the bottom-layer shed combinations.
FIGURE 16: Tie-up and treadling for overshot-patterned doubleweave (six-treadle on left, eight-treadle on right)
You will be working with an entirely different system of treadling than the one used in regular overshot weaving. You will not be using the treadling sequence from your original overshot draft, but instead will work from the original threading sequence in a tromp-as-writ fashion. For each thread in the threading draft, treadle the module in FIGURE 16 that corresponds to that warp thread’s number.
For the top layer, a single shaft is lifted that matches the threading sequence. If using the six-treadle tie-up, a bottom-layer shed follows by keeping your foot on the same treadle and simultaneously adding in the center, or tabby, treadle with the opposite foot. If using the eight-treadle tie-up, a bottom-layer shed follows by stepping on the treadle with your right foot that corresponds to the treadle that you stepped on with your left foot for the top layer.
OVERSHOT RUNNER WOVEN BY CHRIS ROBINSON