This post may be a bit premature because I haven't yet woven off my Farey Fraction designs on this towel warp. Who knows if the designs will meet my expectations or not.
The journey started with needing to do a paper for the Computer Aided Design Exchange for Complex Weavers. I did the paper, had some errors that needed fixing and then got into a nervous nelly fit about whether or not my designs would actually weave into anything that looked like the vision I had in my head. I don't know about you, but once I start doubting myself, it can be hard to go forward. I kept the paper on a back burner and decided to weave some of my ideas on a towel warp which would either prove the design value or let me know that it was just a gimmick.
The paper is based on Farey Fraction denominator sequences used in weaving design. That's a mouthful, isn't it, but not nearly as intimidating in practice as it sounds. Ralph Griswold wrote a paper about designing with the sequences and you can find his work here. I learned about the sequence and its design possibilities from a FaceBook post by Marg Coe, so I'm not working with brand new ideas, just trying to expand them with my own touch.
I found an online calculator to make the math part easy for me. From there, I just used the denominators as a threading sequence and experimented with various tie ups and treadling sequences. My idea was to have a complicated threading that could be woven with a simple treadling sequence on my Baby Wolf. When I got right down to warping the loom, however, I decided that I would put in on the AVL, add a basketweave selvedge and treadling my threading to avoid threading errors. To top off the complications, I saw a natural color sequence in my draft and it was awkward because I used a sett of 20 epi and my color sequence was 12 red and 11 navy, which made every bout I wound had to be calculated for color.
Let's get down to a sample draft. Start with a denominator sequence based on the number 8. Here is the threading.
I then advanced the threading one step seven times. (This creates a threading that comes back to the original threading after the seven advances. What you see below is only a portion of the threading sequence and is still in the 8 shaft form before selvedges were added. I have done 12 different tie ups and a variety of treadling sequences for my 12 yard towel warp. Once they are off the loom, tell me if you think they they were worth the fuss!
What I like about this design is how the pattern changes in each red warp section - sort of like looking through a fence. Some of the drafts are better with a light colored weft which shows off the design in the wine colored warp.
And, no, I don't mind if you use this draft or expand on it for your own use. I really think it would make a good draft for a weaving demonstration - change your tie up and you get an entirely new design peeking at you through the fence.
