So, last night I was noodling around in Harriet Tidball's monograph on Contemporary Satins. After reading through the entire monograph, the final paragraph on the last page made me sit up and think.
Harriet stated that satin is not one of the basic weave structures. That it's been mouthed about so much that we take it for gospel, but satin is actually just a twill derivative. She points out that there are no structural variations on satin.
Well. But. Um. So if satin isn't the third in the set of basic weave structures....um...then there aren't 3 basic weave structures. There are only 2. And it's evidently been taken as gospel for a long, long time because our Guild Ratings Program written requirements that were created in the 1950s have a question about naming and describing the 3 basic classes of weaves.
So, I'm on the fence here. Satin looks very different than twill in structure, but hey, honeycomb looks radically different too. And for the last 20 years, I've accepted that satin is a basic weave. But satin basically could be categorized as a skip twill, couldn't it?
Yes I think you can categorize satin as a skip twill. The UK Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Association uses these weave structure categories: Balanced Cloth, Weft-Faced Cloth, and Warp Faced Cloth.
I hope this information helps you think about your delima!
Happy Weaving,
Erica
It does sound rather as though it depends how you want to divide things up. If the guild's three types are "plain weave, satin weave, or twill", what class is gauze weave or tablet weave?
Personally I think gauze and tablet weaving are far more different in structure than plain, twill and satin, which are all ultimately just variations on simple over and under. Obviously if you want you can subdivide them by all sorts of things, such as how many threads a crossing thread passes over or under, or how many shots in a shed, warp faced, weft faced, etc.
Tablet "weaving" is actually a method for a cloth known as "twined warp". Strictly speaking, a woven cloth has threads passing over and under in straight lines. Tablets, also known as cards, are moved to create a twist in the warp threads. The weft secures the twist. Twining is a way to make a cloth or a basket using twist with fibers, either weft twined or warp twined.
Gauze is a word that describes a cloth with openings. There are various methods used.
So yes, it depends on whether you are talking about kinds of cloth, which would include many classifications, or only kinds of weaving. There are books and lectures about the classification of woven cloth but then it is only truly woven cloth included. When we say "weave" in a common name for something, that does not really indicate that it is a separate kind of interlacement.
Once you start looking carefully, you can see wonderful variety.
Bonnie
You might enjoy reading Irene Emery's book on classifying cloth structures: The Primary Structure of Fabrics, reissued in 1995.
Laurie Autio
Bonnie,
Thank you for yoru great explanation of tablet weaving. I've never thought of it that way, but reading through this thread I started having more questions about table weaving. Your comment really solidified my understanding of tablet weaving.
Cheers,
Erica
Madelyn van der Hoogt in her drafting book uses Plain Weave, Twills and Block weaves as her three. Sounds like there are as many classifications as people writing them.
If satin is a twill variation, then what is plain weave ;-)?
According to my books, satin has restraints enough to merit it's own "definition": no binding points to be in contact AND only ONE up (or down) for each end in the repeat. (Which probably is why the books call it one of the three basic structures...)
found at http://handweaving.net/DAItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=2716 (publ 1844) gives satin as a variant of twill (tweel, actually). This is an excerpt from page 108:
The only other satin (I have found) is called 16-leaf full satin tweel, looks like this:
This shows Tidball is not the first American to regard satin as a twill-variant...
