Before undertaking more difficult problems in weaving it will be
necessary to explain in general two important processes. The first
one is the process of pattern weaving; the second, dyeing. Among the
heirlooms treasured by many families are the beautiful blue and white
coverlets or bedspreads and the hand-woven table-cloths and towels. No
one with strong domestic tastes who has been fortunate enough to see
these products of home industry can have failed to be charmed with the
wonderfully wrought designs and with the quaint names by which they
were once well known; for our grandmothers designated these designs by
such names as Spring Flowers, Governor's Garden, the Path of the Roses,
Flowers of Lebanon, Ladies' Delight, Fairies Ring, and doubtless by
many more names which have been lost. This work in pattern design is
wrought by the use not of two pedals and harnesses, right and left, as
used in the first three problems, but by the use of several additional
harnesses.
_To Be Learned by Experimenting._--If the beginner in weaving has
mastered the use of the simple loom with two harnesses it is possible
to extend her knowledge and skill to the successful operation of a
pattern weaving loom. But the procedure is too technical and too varied
to be described in detail as directions for a practical problem for
amateurs. It is far better to experiment with a loom of this kind
under the guidance of some person competent to point out the way step
by step. Nor will it be possible, in a brief description of this
somewhat intricate subject, to suggest ideas for original weaving
designs to ambitious beginners who wish to take up pattern weaving.
Copies of the traditional designs may be obtained as material for study
and practice. After a little it will be possible to make variations and
so lead to the delight of originating simple and perhaps more elaborate
new patterns.
[Illustration: Hand Woven Window Draperies, Couch Cover, Slumber Robe
and Pillow Covers. Plate X]
[Illustration: A written pattern with a variety of figures woven from
it]
_How Patterns Are Written._--Complete working directions for pattern
weaving will therefore not be attempted in this chapter; but it may be
possible to point out a few leading facts and principles which will be
of assistance to the experimenter who ventures to take up by herself
this interesting application of the art of weaving. Patterns for this
work are plainly written out from right to left on cross section
paper, as shown in the upper part of the accompanying illustration,
each horizontal section of which corresponds to one of the harnesses
of the loom and the pedal attached to it. If we have a four-harness
loom, as would be required for working the pattern and weaving the
figures illustrated, the right-hand pedal and the harness connected
with it, which is the one farthest from the operator, are designated
by the number 1, and correspond to that harness number in the pattern.
Following in order, the next three pedals and connected harnesses
are numbered 2, 3, and 4 to correspond with the same numbers in the
pattern. Turning now to the vertical sections of the pattern, we shall
find that each one corresponds to a certain warp thread, so that when
the pattern is "drawn in"--_i. e._, when the warp for weaving the
pattern is attached to the loom--we shall find the thread of the warp
which is to be drawn through the first loop or wire indicated by a mark
on the section of the pattern corresponding to that warp thread and to
the number of the harness through which it is drawn. Thus, according to
the pattern shown in the illustration, the first thread is to be drawn
into the 3d harness, the 2d thread into the 4th harness, and 3d thread
into the 3d harness, and so on alternately until we reach the 8th
thread, which is drawn into the 2d harness; the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th,
and 12th threads are drawn alternately into the 2d and 3d harnesses,
and the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th are drawn alternately into the
1st and 2d harnesses. This process is now continued, as will be clearly
understood by reference to the pattern, up to and including the 42d
thread, when one drawing in of the pattern will have been completed.
A further study of the pattern shows that the marks on lines 3 and 4
form a continuously alternating series; and similarly that those on
2 and 3, 1 and 2, and 1 and 4 form also a continuously alternating
series. But these numbers, however paired, correspond to the harnesses
into which the warp threads, indicated by the numbers 1 to 42, are
drawn. It thus appears that after we have drawn in as many warp threads
as the pattern calls for once around in the order indicated in the
pattern, we have prepared the loom for weaving one of these patterns.
We must therefore draw in the rest of the warp threads in the same
order as those already drawn in, thus repeating the drawing in of the
pattern as many times as required for the width of the piece to be
woven. The illustration shows two "repeats" of the pattern.
_Operation of the Harnesses._--Having explained the method of drawing
in the pattern, we may now study the movement of the harnesses
necessary to guide the warp properly for the weaving of the pattern. It
has been noted that, with the pattern under consideration, harnesses
1 and 3 hold a continuous line of alternating warp threads, leaving
harnesses 2 and 4 to take up all the intervening warp threads. If
then the operator should throw down pedals 1 and 3 together, and
alternately 2 and 4 also together, the warp threads would be crossed
exactly as in plain weaving. Bringing out a pattern in weaving must,
of course, require a variation of the pedal movement from that used
in plain weaving. Now, upon reference to the illustration it will
also be noted that in writing the pattern, or in drawing it in, no
two threads have ever come together on the same harness. If the 1st
thread has been drawn into the 3d harness, and the 2d thread into the
4th harness, as shown in the pattern illustrated, the operator begins
the weaving of the pattern by throwing down the 3d and 4th pedals
together and throwing the shuttle which carries the pattern thread.
This operation is what weavers call a "pick." Each pick of the pattern
thread is represented in the diagram (page 268) by a broken black line
running across the pattern. Thus the diagram of the first design shown
indicates that there are 6 throws of the shuttle alternately over and
back, or 6 picks of the pattern thread, for each corresponding section
of this design. But between every two picks of the pattern thread there
must be a pick of the plain weave, requiring, as has already been
explained, the pressing down of either the 1st and 3d pair of pedals
together when the shuttle is thrown from the right side, or of the 2d
and 4th if thrown from the left side. It is evident, then, that there
must be two shuttles prepared for carrying the woof threads. One of
these is to be used for the plain weave and the other for the pattern
weave. The shuttle used for the plain weave is usually threaded with a
fine thread of linen, though this, of course, is subject to variation
according to the design of the weaver. The pattern weaving shuttle
should carry a coarser thread, which may be of silk, linen, wool, or
mercerized cotton.
_Variations in Pattern._--From the fact that a carefully written
pattern is necessary in preparing a four-harness loom for pattern
weaving, one would naturally infer that the pattern must be closely
followed in the weaving process. And so it must if the pattern be woven
as written; but, after the drawing in, it is by no means necessary to
follow the written pattern. As the weaving progresses it is easy to
see many variations in pattern which may be woven upon one drawing
in--patterns so varied as to seem to hold very little relation to each
other. In fact, one of the delights of weaving with a pattern loom is
to devise ways of modifying simple patterns, elaborating them into
new weaving designs, producing unique and sometimes very interesting
original figures. We have only to remember that patterns are made by
the order and number of the overshots--_i. e._, the throws of the
shuttle carrying the pattern threads--and that the overshots in the
same horizontal and vertical lines are produced by the same pair. In
the pattern illustrated the overshots are made by 2 and 3, by 1 and
2, by 1 and 4, or by 3 and 4, not counting 1 and 3 and 2 and 4, which
are the pairs for plain weaves. We should also remember that the last
end in one overshot is usually the first one in the next. Examples of
two variations in design that may be woven from the original written
pattern, to which we have already referred, are illustrated in the
diagram and probably at least a dozen more variations are possible.