Definitely Not Rocket Science

This is dead simple. 

I am actually a bit ashamed of myself for not thinking it through before now. 

As a matter of personal preference, I do not move heddles between or among shafts or looms. There is nothing wrong with moving heddles, I just choose not to. 

I like to know exactly how many heddles I have on each harness or each loom at all times. Plus, every 25th heddle has a bit of nail polish on it, so I never have to count more than 24 heddles at a time. 

I find this makes my life easier and more efficient.

Like a lot of weavers, I started with a four-shaft loom before upgrading to eight. 

I have a set of favorite four-shaft drafts I rarely use because they require more heddles on harnesses 1 through 4 than I typically keep on my looms. 

When I weave 24” wide tea towels on the 56” wide Beast, there are plenty of heddles on those first four shafts for this. 

However, the last run of hand-dyed sarong fabric on the Beast was 40” wide. To use my favorite 4-shaft draft, I was short 80 heddles on two harnesses. 

When I realized this, I simply shrugged, pivoted, and chose an 8-shaft draft. 

But it annoyed me. 

A few days ago, I decided I wanted to weave a nice 30-plus yard run of waffle weave bath towels in Bockens 22/2 natural Cottolin.

The Bockens Cottolin appears to be a luxury over the Brassards I have used in the past. At 3,000 yards a pound, it is slightly thicker than the 8/2 with 3,360 yards per pound. It is smoother, too. I hope it is worth the premium price. 

As I have woven waffle weave on 4 shafts and 8 shafts, I knew I prefer the shorter floats of the 4-shaft design. 

Here is a well-loved and used washcloth featuring the 4-shaft pattern:

I pulled up my project notes and see I used Cottolin for weft, as well as something else, probably 6/2 cotton. 

The plan is to weave them about 40” wide, but neither the 40” Evangeline nor the 56” Beast have enough heddles on harnesses 1 through 4. 

Again, as a rule, I do not move heddles. I am firm on this. 

As I pondered my approach, I could not shake the nagging feeling there should be a simple way to convert my 4-shaft pattern into an 8-shaft one. 

Two minutes at the computer playing with the Weave-It program confirmed my suspicions. 

Here is the basic 4-shaft draft (ignore the plain weave edge set up using 6 shafts): 

This is what I did on WeaveIt:

I need 10-harnesses to get the plain weave edge along both selvages, though. That may happen at some point in the future. 

Additionally, I took one of the other 4-shaft patterns I adore and adapted it to 8-shafts, but I did not add in the tie-ups for plain weave. 

I am sure I am quite late to the party on this, but allow me to express how happy I am to be here.

I simply stacked the same 4-shaft pattern onto harnesses 5 through 8 and replicated the tie-ups. 

Duh. 

Yes, I am kicking myself for not thinking of this ages ago. 

The joke is always on me. Ha!