Comments

Tue, 07/17/2012 - 17:24

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

This draft is not the usual 4-shaft waffle weave; that draft uses 5 treadles and a very different tie-up.

The draft you picked from the website must have come from a book or perhaps an individual because the drafts there are not edited, just uploaded. There is another draft using this same threading in Marguerite Davison's book on page 118. She uses a different tie-up and treadling from your draft. If you have extra warp, you could weave some using the Davison draft for comparison.

Bonnie

Tue, 07/17/2012 - 22:07

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

Please post a photo of the washed fabric using this draft.

Thanks!

Thu, 07/19/2012 - 18:36

r1mein54 (not verified)

Here`s more photos Bonnie.  This cotton did shrink after washing and drying. I had to stretch it and iron flat.

Thu, 07/19/2012 - 22:36

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

Thanks for posting photos. It does have plenty of texture but not the clearly defined "waffle" indentations of a normal waffle weave draft. I wondered about those long floats on one face from the 1/3 tie-up. Your sett was appropriate for plain weave, so I would expect lots of shrinkage with so many floats and an open sett.

Looks like these will be nice dishcloths, absorbant and functional and colorful. I am curious about the source of the draft but will wait until my connection is working better.

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 00:18

r1mein54 (not verified)

Bonnie, this is what I started from 

Handweaving.net   Four Shaft Waffle:   Date 1990-2005  Draft #8776

I took this an first modified it for 3 colors

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 17:04

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

The dates tell us that this was contributed by an individual, not from a book (which would have an author and probably an editor). The person called it "waffle" and we assume they wove it and decided that it made a texture like that we know from regular waffle weave drafts. But there are quite a few drafts on that website that are mislabeled. This is why I responded with a suggestion for a published draft in the Davison book that uses the same threading with a different tie-up and treadling. It is possible that the person who contributed this draft just copied Davison's threading and looked at it woven as drawn in, with the simplest tie-up, and said "well, it looks like a waffle draft to me"! It is different from a standard waffle weave draft in several ways. I haven't woven many waffle drafts and wondered if this one would make the little depressions and raised grid that we associate with waffle weave. Davison lists a long string of treadlings and tie-ups for this threading and she only calls one of them a waffle weave- not the one you used.

Maybe I don't believe everything I read on the Internet! But I know that there are a bunch of drafts on that website that need correcting and they need labels. For a while I was helping Kris with this but I think his real job is taking more time now and I am busy, too. Handweaving.net is done by volunteers and run by Kris who is a very nice man with job and small children and a wife. He accepts contributions and posts them without questions. Also there are errors in those old books, but that would take lots of time to correct and also a lot of knowledge.

If you want to learn about a new structure, it helps to start with an explanation of how it works and a draft that shows exactly what happens. After you understand it, you can make change some part of the draft and see the results. On the other hand, probably you have woven some of the classic waffle weave drafts already and know that they look nice with colors like yours, so you wanted to see how this new draft looked in the finished cloth.

It looks like it has some texture, not the same grid-based texture and not as much depth as a classic waffle weave using 6 or 8 shafts but perhaps more depth than the classic 4-shaft, 5-treadle waffle. This is just a guess- the long floats provide more shrinkage and that might create more texture.
Bonnie

Finished Length Unit
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Finished Width Unit
yards
Length Off Loom Unit
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Length on Loom Unit
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Notes

Another "project" for self education and expanding weave technique. This is my 3 color representation of the 4 shaft waffle draft on Handweaving.net. Thanks Michael for a very fast expedited order.  Truth being that my wife has been constantly throwing away dishcloths that seem to be staining fast and no amount of laundering with bleach gets them clean, so these will become dishcloths.

Since it seemed to want to rain all morning the best activity was to finish weaving, hem and wet finish the dishcloths.  Besides changing color combinations, number of weft repeats and color patterns I did add some of the hand dyed rayon [ yellow and dark green] just to see a different effect. I did start a regular weave tabby stop / start border which after running a zigzag stitch on each part made cutting and hemming the warp ends easier. 

Number of Shafts
4
Number of Treadles
4
Project Status
Finished
Sett Unit
epi
Width off Loom Unit
inches
Width on Loom Unit
inches