​Dabbling with Turned Twill: Finding my Cat’s Pajamas

It all started with a beautiful skein of variegated yarn - a gift from my friend Sue - and a memory of seeing a scarf that had  weft-wise stripes on one side of the scarf that magically disappeared on the other.

The yarn I wanted to use was a 10/2 mercerized cotton called "Boot Camp", handpainted by Claudia Yarns.

The magically striped scarf remained a complete mystery until recently when Jane Stafford dropped a hint on one of her early videos that unlocked the key for me: the scarf can be woven in a turned twill and the trick to the disappearing stripes lies in the tie-up.

"Boot Camp" by Claudia Yarns

​My favorite weave structure happens to be turned twill (also known as block twill).  I love this structure because there are an endless number of ways to vary the threading, tie-up and treadling, and the structure lends itself very easily to color changes in both threading and treadling.  A veritable weaver’s wonderland! 
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Here is the draft for a 2 block twill that I use frequently for scarves (click on the draft to zoom in):

The Tie-up for a traditional 2 block turned twill

Block A in the above draft is threaded on harnesses 1-4 and Block B is threaded on harnesses 5-8.  
With this tie-up, when treadles 1-4 are weaving the following happens:

• 1/3 weft-faced twill (blue) is created in the Block A sections on harnesses 1-4 while
• 3/1 warp-faced twill (green) is created in the Block B sections on harnesses 5-8

When treadles 5-8 are weaving the following happens:

• 3/1 warp-faced twill (gray) is created in the Block A sections on harnesses 1-4 while
• 1/3 weft-faced twill (blue) is created in the Block B sections on harnesses 5-8

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This is a tencel scarf that uses a very similar draft with several colors in the warp, including one variegated yarn.

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​Now, for my magical scarf.
​I wanted my scarf to have just 2 warp-wise stripes, so I changed the threading so I had only one Block A and one Block B, like this:​

Nice, but there are two things here I wanted to change:

1. The twill lines are going in opposite directions on the two sides of the cloth
2. The stripes appear on both sides of the scarf

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Next I changed the tie-up so I had the continuous twill line that I wanted across the whole scarf:

Angle of the twill line changed in both warp-faced tie-up quadrants

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Finally I changed the tie-up to make the horizontal stripe disappear on the right side.  In the above draft,

• Treadles 1-4 are creating exactly the kind of cloth I wanted (warp-faced in Block B and weft-faced in Block A) so I did not change the tie-up for those treadles (left upper and lower quadrants)
• Treadles 5-8 are creating the stripe I want in Block B on the left side of the scarf, so I did not change the tie-up for that section (upper right quadrant)
• The only area of the tie-up that I needed to change was the lower right quadrant which was creating the stripe on the right side of the scarf

Changed the face of the lower right quadrant (Block A) tie-up

By changing the face of the right lower quadrant of the tie-up from warp-faced to weft-faced, Block A (harnesses 1-4) will weave the same way whether it is being woven with treadles 1-4 or with treadles 5-8.  The stripe in Block A has disappeared!

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The Cats' Pajamas Scarf
This scarf is the result of these experiments.  The warp is 10/2 cotton - One side is the "Boot Camp" handpainted  yarn by Claudia Yarns, the other is a solid green.  The weft was a turquoise 30/2 silk.  I wove regularly placed stripes on one side of the scarf for the first half of the scarf and then wove the most of the remainder of the scarf with just a few scattered stripes

Available in my SHOP

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Now I wanted to weave a second scarf with stripes on the other side.
Further modifications to the tie-up allowed me to weaves stripes on the variegated side of my warp (in Block A on harnesses 1-4) while keeping the solid green side of the warp consistently weft-faced.

The first half of the scarf was woven with treadles 1-8.  Then treadles 5-8 were RETIED and the second half of the scarf was woven with only  treadles 5-8.​

Remember Block A = Harnesses 1-4 = Right side of this scarf
                        Block B = Harnesses 5-8 = Left side of this scarf

For the first half of the scarf

• Treadles 1-4 weave weft faced cloth  on the left side of the scarf and warp-faced cloth on the right side 
• Treadles 5-8 weave weft-faced cloth on the left  side of the scarf and weft-faced cloth on the right side 
• This results in continuous weft-faced cloth on the left and stripes of alternating weft and warp faced cloth on the right.  Note in the tie-up that only the lower right quadrant is tied up for warp-faced cloth.  That quadrant control treadles 1-4 and harnesses 1-4.

For the second half of the scarf the ONLY tie-up that is needed is the new tie-up for harnesses 5-8, shown in blue above;

• This tie-up now produces warp-faced cloth on the left side of the scarf and weft-faced cloth on the right side
• Note that the angle of the twill line has remained the same throughout the cloth

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Mossy Stones Scarf
This scarf was woven on the same warp as "The Cat's Pajamas".  The warp is 10/2 cotton - one side is the "Boot Camp" handpainted  yarn by Claudia Yarns, the other is a solid green.  The weft was slightly variegated gray 30/2 silk.  I wove regularly placed stripes on the variegated side of the scarf for the first half of the scarf and then wove no stripes for the remainder of the scarf.

Available in my SHOP

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These experiments with the tie-ups for turned twill have taught me a lot and opened up a world of possibilities for more experiments with shapes and colors.  I have another color block experiment going on to the loom now.  I will shared the results in the near future!

-- Pattie Lamb

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