I'm mulling over Peter Collingwood's directions for weaving 3/1 twill using the two-pack method. It's in his book The Techniques of Tablet Weaving, starting on about p.216.
For warping, he talks about position I and II as well as Pack A and Pack B. Later he starts mentioning position III and IV, so apparently positions refer to which colors are in which hole positions. Then we go on to tablet slant, turning directions, what to change to get various effects, and so on. We're on our way!
In general, changes are done through tablet twisting rather than changing the turning direction. I think the tablet-twisting or flipping is done around the vertical axis pretty much exclusively.
I don't know if any of the tablet-weaving programs out there account for tablet-twisting. But I can do some playing around. (My memory says that there is a program that does do tablet-twisting but I can't remember which one off the top of my head, sigh.)
And cool -- I found that by flipping every other tablet (when one is at the start of the 4-row turning sequence), one can automatically switch from S twill to Z twill or vice versa. I suspect it can also be done before the 3rd turn, too. It's kind of fun to play with the initial tablet orientation and see how it carries over into the weaving. I could make Vs or Ws if I wanted to. Or diamonds and Xs if I change in the middle of the weaving.
Actually..... Collingwoods says that when you're in the middle of the band, you change the direction of the pack that is in position II or IV. In other words, twist the pack where the same color is along the AD or BC line, as opposed to the AB or CD line, so that you don't mess up the colors.
I looked at Claudia Wollny's twill charts to play around with changing colors on a horizontal line (zig-zag, of course). So... I can turn two more turns and then resume the twill turning sequence. Or, I can use Collingwood's method of tablet-twisting one pack, doing a turn, then tablet-twisting the next pack. He also mentions the same method Wollny uses -- turning the packs two more times (i.e. doing either row 1 or row 3 three times) to put all the cards in the opposite color orientation.
I wonder if I can do something like tablet-twist one pack around the vertical axis and the other around the horizontal axis to get it done in one move, or if that will look wrong in some way? I guess that's something to test.
If I don't see a program that does tablet-twisting, I'll have to experiment with Collingwood's other methods as I weave. I'm sure more of it will make sense when I do it.
My vague plan is to warp up something and keep it mostly monochrome on each side. I might switch Z and S. I might switch half of the cards so that the twill lines meet in the middle, as chevrons. Or I can play with Collingwood's method of making diagonal color changes (i.e. in a diagonal line across the band, parallel to the direction of the twill) and make a two-toned band. Or maybe these will all be different bands.
Collingwood's two-pack method looks like it'll be faster than the one-pack method. It alternates two cards in S orientation with two cards in Z orientation (or vice-versa -- I don't think it matters). One half of the cards (the odds) is threaded with the the first color in AB and the other color in CD. The other half of the cards (the evens) is threaded with the first color in AD and the other color in BC.
Then one turns the odd cards in FFBB sequence, with the even cards turned in FBBF sequence. This leads to a monochrome band with the first color on top and the second on the bottom.
If the first two cards are the same orientation (either // or \\) you get an S-twill, going diagonally up to the left. If they are in a different orientation (so that the 2nd and 3rd are in the same orientation), you get a Z-twill, going diagonally up to the right.
After that, one flips/twists cards at various spots to get changes in direction and/or color, making motifs and what-not. That's more advanced than I currently wish to play with, but no doubt I'll get curious enough about it to try doing that later.
I am not fond of tablet-twisting. Hopefully the results will be worth it and/or will help me to like it better. It'll be interesting to see under what conditions a two-pack method makes more sense and where a one-pack method will make more sense.
Dunno yet whether this will be a sampler or if it'll be a useful and reasonably aesthetically pleasing band.
I've ordered Claudia Wollny's new book on 3/1 twill. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in it. The patterned band I did used her charting and methods -- I wonder if she'll continue with that charting style and motif modularity, or if she'll change it up a bit? I wonder if all of her methods can be done using the two-pack method or if some are best done with a one-pack method?
No doubt I'll roll my eyes at myself after I gain a bit more experience. I fully acknowledge my noobiehood.
