Double Weave, is it double the trouble or double the fun?

Please note that the below post in orange was written by Ms. Valerie Streck, I am so grateful to this fabulous woman for letting me quote her quick comment to a post on an ArtFire forum about a possible Double Weave study group. I have found someone who I am bound and determined to get back into weaving (in some form or another.) So here is Vall, and she has some shops on Ebay and ArtFire that you may be familiar with and I feel that her description of Double Weave deserves its very own blog post. As with others before, you bet your ass, I will give Vall a gratuitous Wefty Woman plug, so y'all be sure to visit her sites, and dammit buy something!

Thank you,
Wefty Woman
One Warped Bitch

**This post is sort of a Part 2 to this one: Primitive Looms and Complex Weave Structures

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Hello guys. I’m an ex weaver. I still own a tapestry loom and a small 4 harness table loom, but used to have a beautiful 8 shaft massive colonial Leclerc loom. Had to give it up due to my back not liking it as much as I do. Double weave is actually very easy. It is weaving a folded piece of cloth. It allows for simple, or complex designs (depends on how may harnesses you use) that can be made in widths 2x as wide as your loom.

There is a great book out there called Double Weave Plain and Patterned by Harriet Tidball and I got my copy at www.camilliavalleyfarm.com

To try and explain it (ok, I am not the best at this) in a plain over and under simple weave you use a repeat of 2 warp threads. (Warp is the threads on the loom under tension; weft is the thread that you weave in and out) Simple weave: over 1 under 2 over 1 under 2 repeat... I hope your following me here. A double weave uses 4 warp threads for a simple over and under. Threads 1&3 are the top layer and 2&4 are the bottom. Basically, you’re dividing your warp threads into 2 single layers. This is much more easily done on a harness loom (you need 4 harnesses) but with a bit of skill, a bit of swearing, head scratching and possible the help of string headles you can pull on, it can be accomplished in a rigid heddle and other simple looms.

I’m not sure if that helped at all.. I wonder if there a you tube video.. off to go see..

Just forgot to add.. Double weave is also used to make tapestries that show up on both sides of the cloth. In that instance you use two different colors for your warp threads 1&3 are one color and 2&4 are another. By picking up the design with sticks (I used to use knitting needles), you can bring the bottom layer up and the upper layer down. In this method, you can use any charted pattern. There’s three main types of tapestry double thread pick up. Single thread, double thread (Mexican) or Finnweave. Finnweave isn’t reversible.

I really miss weaving now.

Basically, most double weave pick up methods form an x. I would have to see a diagram or something. There are lots of forms of DWPU (double weave pick up). Some also use more than 2 layers.

In Toronto, there’s a textile museum that has some historical examples of different dwpu's and I believe the V&A in London does too. I believe the Cooper Union Museum NY has some pieces too.

In the book Double Weave Plain and Patterned, she has pictures of primitive Peruvian looms using the dwpu method. From the picture, it looks like they have simply used 4 sticks as harnesses and have used string headles. By simply pulling up on the harness sticks, you make the shed. Primitive genius.

There’s a good 7 pages of the history and methods of DWPU in the book.

If you have a loom, you really should try it... at least once. It is a lot of fun! I still have a few rugs, table runners and purses I made in DWPU.

-Vall Steck

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Is this not a fabulous explanation, and to think the woman wrote this on the fly in a damn forum post...imagine that!!!! I love this woman!

And now for the gratuitous plugging....

Vall's shop is called Chivalry Beads and she sells on ArtFire.

(Dang if it does not have "val" in the shop name, very clever!)

She also has a blog, so be sure to do your best and follow what she has to say!

The following are links to her blog and sites, and thank you again...you warped bitch ya!

http://www.chivalrybeads.blogspot.com/

http://chivalrybeads.artfire.com

http://stores.ebay.ca/ChivalryBeads