No Rules!

 

A weaving draft for a twill - or in this case a 1:3 twill

The other day I saw an ad for a weaving class.  NO Rules!  Ok.  You're going to ignore millennia of history regarding the things that make weaving rational and just...wing it?

Which would be fine if people bothered to learn what those rules actually say.  Instead they are 'doing their own (ahem) research' and leaning heavily into their creativity.  Because rules limit one's creativity.  Or something something gazpacho.

If going 'no rules' makes their hearts sing, then ok.  But don't assume that I am crippling *my* creativity because I know the nuts and bolts of how threads work together, understand the mechanics of the craft, understand how colours blend or contrast in a woven textile.

Or assume that any 'answer' you get from AI or LLM (Chat GPT) are going to give any kind of meaningful information.

So I'm going to discuss - briefly - what some of those 'rules' mean, specifically when I talk about a 2:2 twill.  Pop quiz...does the draft above depict a 2:2 twill?  No.  No, it does not.  How do you know?  Because I've labelled it a 1:3 twill.  See?  I know one of the rules and can distinguish the difference.

The ratio refers to how many warp threads are up at any point, and how many are down.  So that 1:3 twill has one warp thread up and 3 are down.  The weft crosses them in a 1:3 ratio.

If that was a 2:2 twill, there would be two warps up and 2 down and the resulting twill would be considered 'balanced' - if the epi/ppi is equal.

You could also weave this as a 3:1 twill, in which case 3 warps would be up and one down.  In that case, the warp is more visible.

If the warp and weft are different colours. a 1:3 twill would place the majority of the weft colour on top; a 2;2 twill would show the warp and weft colours equally; 3:1 would show the warp colours more than the weft.  Again, these aspects depend on the warp and weft being more or less equal.  The three cloths are then labelled 1:3 = weft emphasis, 2:2 = 'balanced' (for certain kind of 'balance) and 3:1 would be warp emphasis.  Weft faced means the weft entirely covers the warp; warp faced means the warp entirely covers the weft.  (There may be some instances where coverage is not complete, but you get the gist, I hope.)

There isn't any particular necessity to *know* that unless you want to design something that looks a particular way.  Or if you want to manipulate the threads to create a particular effect.  All of which are possible.  But it makes it a lot easier to do that if you just understand some of the 'rules' of the craft.

Or if you are following a 'recipe' and there is an error in it.  Or maybe you just don't know the 'rules' and interpreting the instructions is difficult to understand.

Just saying...