Crackle Jacket Fabric: A Change of Plan

Last night I finished winding the warp. I had made 6 bouts with a total of 1058 ends. As I was winding the last bout I began to realize that I really wanted to have the threads spread out on 8 shafts. The reason for this is that I wanted to be able to use any warp left over at the end for some 8-shaft tie-ups and try some things on them.

I thought this would be simple enough to do. I went to my original 4-block structure and asked my software to convert it to 8-shaft crackle. The resulting threading turned out to be a bit of a mess. Even after I made the necessary corrections manually, I discovered that there no threads called for on shafts 5 and 6. So I decided to start over. But first it was time to go to bed.

I didn't sleep very well for a couple of reasons. One of them was the warp. I had figured out what I needed to do, but it was the middle of the night and I was not going to get up and do it. So I was just quite restless through the night. Morning came. I took my morning walk, had breakfast, went to the computer and opened the software.

This time I redid the original 4 blocks as 8 blocks, keeping the same basic design. Here it is:

Then I asked my software to convert the block design to 8-shaft crackle. The software made a few errors, but not many, and they were easily corrected. When I filled in the tie-up and the treadling, things seemed to be what I wanted.

There was only one minor hitch. The new block design was wider and so called for more warp ends. Consequently I created 3 instead of 4 repeats. That was fine, especially as I am in general a fan of odd numbers. But 10 more warp ends were needed in addition to the warp ends I had already finished making. So, I went to my color diagram, and using the next colors that came up, I simply made 10 more ends. I will simply call that last bout #6a. And when I wind on, I will wind on bouts 6 and 6a together.

There is one more change I plan on making as well, and that is the treadling. The original plan was just to treadle straight across, left to right, left to right, left to right, and so on. I would change the color order when I decided to start a new block. But then I tried notating a point twill kind of treadling. I had the treadling go left to right 2 times, and then return 10 times. Fortunately I will have plenty of room on the warp to try this out. Of course, something could go terribly wrong with the beaming on and I lose a yard or two of warp. No, not going to happen.....

Here is the drawdown, including a possible treadling:


It's a little hard to see what is going on; I zoomed out a great deal in order to give a better image of what the fabric might actually look like. What I like here is the illusion of direction change. What I do not like what happens at the point of change. Perhaps I can figure a way around that. However, the warp here is all black, which it is not in reality. And I will have to weave it to see what is really happening.