Interlacements/Angle

Someone asked about interlacements and how one would go about changing that ratio.

I managed to get one towel woven yesterday with the finer green linen.  The camera has washed out the colours a bit, it actually looks more interesting than this, but the point of the photo is the twill angle.

If the linen had been a single 16s, 32 epi would have been good for it in the following tie-up:  (with the first number being lifted, the next number the number of shafts left down, etc.)

1:3:1:3:2:2:3:1 or some variation of that.  The lift would have been unequal, putting more warp on the surface of one side of the cloth, more weft on the other.  Only by one shaft, but surprisingly, it does make a difference.

However, the green is much finer, probably closer to a single 20s and the sample I wove was packing in more than 32 ppi.

I changed the tie up to something like:

1:3:2:2:3:1:1:1:1:1

This creates an equal shed with 8 shafts lifted for each pick.

In the end I rearranged the tie up one more time to change where in the treadling sequence the plain weave appeared but what I've given above is where I started.

It took a few inches to gain a feel for how much to 'beat' the weft in (not much, more of a 'place')  but by the end of the towel I had a pretty good angle.  The photo above was taken with the tension off the warp, but the cotton is going to shrink more than the linen, so there is a good chance the cloth after wet finishing is going to change the ratio and be slightly lower than 45 degrees.

They won't hit 'perfect' but they will work just fine as the tea towels they are intended to be.

If only four shafts are available, it is possible to change the density of the cloth and the interlacements by weaving plain weave alternately with twill using the same weft yarn.  It will change the appearance of the cloth so a sample would have to be woven to make sure it would be suitable.

So it might be something like this:  (indicating which shafts are being lifted)

1, 2
1, 3
2, 3
2, 4
3, 4
1, 3
1, 4
2, 4

The twill angle will be steeper, except if the weft is much finer than the warp it will beat in more closely and might then become more 'balanced'.

Again, only a sample will show for sure.