I’ve been working away at this project for four months now. My idea was to weave all the twills in the first chapter of Strickler’s A Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, which are all threaded with a straight draw. So far I’ve woven only ones using a light warp. I’d thought I would get them all done on the six metre warp, but I came up short by about 6 drafts.

I found two mistakes early on. One draft was missing a tie-up, another just didn’t look like the photo. Otherwise they were all fine.

What have I learned so far?

That some twills are easy to memorise and a pleasure to weave. And some are a PITA. It partly has to do with the treadling. If it’s a simple line rather than moving all over the place obviously it’s going to be easier to follow. But some treadling sequences flow nicely while others feel awkward.

That some of the twills would probably look better with a wool yarn, but others were fine using cotton.

There seems to be an endless variety of twills, but a lot of patterns look similar. That means I could now choose the ones that are easier to memorise. (Though if I was using a loom with treadles this wouldn’t be relevant.)

I have added tags with notes about each draft. I should do this as I go, as four months back is a long time to remember details, even if I did use post-it notes in the book.

To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve added a great deal more to my knowledge. I’ve already woven quite a few twills, and I think I understand the structure fairly well. I was able to spot mistakes in the drafts. I guess there were no big surprises. Still, there might be something in the dark warp twills, so I won’t judge until I get them done.

I still want to do the last six drafts, so I tied a new warp onto the old one and pulled it through, then cut off the old and tied the new one on. I’ll do the same when I come to weave the drafts using a dark warp.