Posted by Shelby on Wednesday, 21 July 2004, at 6:27 p.m.:
In Reply to: Tabby and Double Layer Fabric posted by Bonnie on Tuesday, 20 July 2004, at 10:35 a.m.:
To the best of my knowledge, 'Use Tabby' means to weave a shot of tabby (ie the pedals hooked up to 1&3 or 2&4) in between each pattern shot. Alternate which pedal you use each time. This is to kind of spread out or space the pattern. Usually it's a good idea to use a tabby yarn about half the size of your normal weft yarn and in the same color, so that it doesn't really affect the pattern itself. Tabby is also important if you've got a pattern with a lot of repeats (like: treadle pedal 3 seven times in a row). Tabby keeps it all in order. Personally, I tend to ignore instructions to use tabby, but I guess it could make a difference if your pattern was too squished. Try using and not using tabby in your samples.
Ok, now about the double weave. This is kind of hard to describe, so bear with me here. Double weave is weaving two layers of fabric at once. What you do to set it up is to put double the number of threads in each dent, and then hook up the pedals so that two of the pedals control the bottom layer (lifting up the top out of the way at the same time), and two control the top (ignoring the bottom layer). You then weave in a kind of 'C' pattern: top, bottom, bottom, top, joining the two layers at the edge. Since you are using only 2 harnesses per layer, you're limited to plain weave. If you have an 8 shaft loom, you can do a 4 shaft pattern (I shudder to think of setting it up). One thing you will want to consider if you try this is that the harnesses will all be 1 against 3, and some counterbalance looms don't do this very well. My counterbalance loom does an uneven tie up fairly well, but i don't get a very good shed, so I account for a little extra loom waste. You're welcome to email me if you have more questions. :)